With the amount of Flyers prospects more or less already locked into spots with the Phantoms this coming season, there hasn’t been the need for them to do a ton of additional tinkering with their roster, but a few moves have still been made to crystallize their roster, with one of the more significant moves made in this area announced today — Zayde Wisdom will be back for next season after all. That is, after a bit of a surprise in seeing the Flyers elect to not tender him a qualifying offer to extend his NHL contract at the end of last month, he did agree to stick around in the organization, accepting a one-year AHL contract with the Phantoms.
This past season was little short of a revelation for Wisdom. After two previous decidedly challenging seasons, which saw him put up 10 points then three points across the whole of them and struggling to find a role for himself at the AHL level, Wisdom came in for this past season and worked through a slow start to have a hugely productive second half. Over 68 games in the 2024-25 season, he put up 13 goals and 32 points, passing his career high and carving out a role for himself as a driver at the top of the team’s lineup.
And while this move certainly brings a bit more experience to the team, as Wisdom is entering his fifth season in the league, it doesn’t do much to move the needle on the team’s very low average age. Some further experience added through keeping around a just-turned 23 year old player still leaves the average age of the forward group looking like it will be somewhere just under 24 years old (an average that will further drop if things break in a way that has Rodrigo Abols earning a spot up with the Flyers to start the season, or Alex Bump failing to do so). All the same, the Phantoms have been able to keep around a player who had built his game back up to a “straw that stirs the drink” type of role, and especially as they lost their biggest role player in that department in Olle Lycksell this offseason, if Wisdom can keep delivering in that area, still young or not, it will be hugely valuable to the team over the course of the season.
The work that Wisdom put in last season may not have been enough to secure him a new NHL deal, but it’s clear that he still carved out a role for himself as a sort of hear and soul player for the Phantoms, and being able to keep him around should serve as a big boost as they head into a big season.
