On Friday afternoon with the deadline looming Flyers general manager Danny Briere acquired some backend help with Erik Johnson from the Buffalo Sabres in exchange for a fourth-round pick in this coming draft. Johnson, 35, was the first overall pick by the St. Louis Blues back in 2006 and part of Colorado’s 2022 Stanley Cup win. He is an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season with an AAV of $3.25 million this year.
The Flyers, with injuries to Jamie Drysdale, Nick Seeler and Rasmus Ristolainen, were depleted on the back end heading down the stretch run. That dearth of experience was tested further when Sean Walker was dealt to the Avalanche for a first-round pick. On Thursday night the Flyers dressed their 12th and 13th different defencemen of the year when Adam Ginning and Ronnie Attard held their own on the third pairing in an impressive, gutsy 2-1 win over Florida in Florida.
“I’m not asking Johnson to replace Walker,” Briere (who played with Johnson in Briere’s final season, see below) said after the deadline Friday. “What we’re looking for from Erik is to bring his experience, the fact that he’s played for a long time and that he’s played a lot of playoff games. Hopefully he can share a little of that with our group. And on defence, with all the injuries we have right now. It’s a pretty young group, so we’re hoping he can share a little bit of his experience.”
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