Flyers make 2 deals on deadline day
Photo edited by PhillySportsReports.com
Looking at the deadline date back in October, we all expected it to be a flash sale for a rebuilding team.
Instead, the Flyers made some moves to help set them up for the rest of the season.
They made two moves on deadline day, along with trading Sean Walker and a 2026 fifth-round draft pick to the Colorado Avalanche for Ryan Johansen and a conditional 2025 first-round pick on Wednesday.
Johansen cleared waivers on Thursday.
The Flyers also gave Nick Seeler a four-year, $2.7 million average annual value contract extension.
The first move made on Friday was a depth move. The Flyers acquired forward Denis Gurianov from the Nashville Predators in exchange for forward Wade Allison.
Gurianov, 26, is a former first-round pick of the Dallas Stars who has had his moments but has fallen off in the past couple of years with Dallas, the Montreal Canadiens, and then the Predators. The bulk of his season has been with Nashville’s AHL affiliate in Milwaukee, where he has scored 12 goals and 30 points in 27 games.
Gurianov will probably start as a depth forward with the Flyers.
Allison, 26, was a former second-round pick for the Flyers who had high potential but has always been set back by injuries. He played 60 games last season and put up nine goals and 15 points, but there was only so much the Flyers could do with him when he is always hurt.
Allison fell out of the Flyers’ long-term plans and is moving on.
Finally, the Flyers added some much-needed veteran depth and some Stanley Cup-winning experience.
They traded for defenseman Erik Johnson from the Buffalo Sabres for a 2024 fourth-round pick.
Johnson, 35, is in his 16th season in the NHL, most of them with the Colorado Avalanche where he won a cup in 2022. In that run, he put eight goals and 25 points while averaging 17:17 of ice time.
Johnson signed with the Sabres on a one-year, $3.25 million deal in free agency this past summer and played 50 games with an average of 13:48 ice time, but has recorded a struggling line of three goals, no assists, and a minus-5 rating.
With the trade of Walker, Seeler being out for a little bit, and Jamie Drysdale and Rasmus Ristolinen being out indefinitely, getting a defensive depth piece was needed. General manager Daniel Brière was able to do so.
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