The Philadelphia Flyers are banged up on defense to open the 2025-26 season and it is cause for a move. The San Jose Sharks have an abundance of defensemen that they have drafted or picked up this past offseason and should be open for business if a team comes calling.
Elliotte Friedman made note of the Flyers’ situation in the latest 32 Thoughts, saying, “Not sure we’re going to see much trade action too early, but Philadelphia is definitely checking what’s out there on defence.”
Rasmus Ristolainen had right triceps surgery and is expected to be out until at least November, missing 1-2 months of the season. On top of that, Cam York is dealing with a lower-body injury, which the team currently sees as day-to-day, but may become an IR stint, which keeps Dennis Gilbert, the seventh defenseman on the roster, in the NHL for the time being.
Holes in the Flyers’ Defense
The Philadelphia Flyers’ defense was already questionable before Ristolainen and York were taken out of the lineup. Now, the team has Nick Seeler playing a top pairing role, Adam Ginning on the second pair, as well as Yegor Zamula and Noah Juulsen in the everyday lineup.
Seeler is a physical, third pairing defenseman who is 32 and has only been a full-time NHLer for the past three seasons. Ginning is on the younger side at 25 years old, but only just played his 12th NHL game in the first game of this new season. Zamula is alright in his role, but he has only been a 3/4 of the season d-man for the past two years after breaking into the NHL. As for Juulsen, he played 35 games last season and has never proven to be an everyday defenseman in the NHL.
Ristolainen isn’t coming back anytime soon to provide help to the Flyers’ lineup, and the team is still waiting to see about York. Philadelphia is at the tail end of its rebuild, but no organization wants to lose. Most of the pieces are there and in a fresh season, records are reset and everyone has a fair shot. They don’t necessarily want to get behind the pack so early and adding a defenseman to stabilize the defense would help matters.
Sharks Have Abundance of Defensemen to Utilize
The Sharks suffered a rough defeat in their first game of the season, but the loss definitely does not hang on the shoulders of the six defensemen who played. In the lineup for opening night were Nick leddy, John Klingberg, Mario Ferraro, Timothy Liljegren, Shakir Mukhamadullin, and Dmitry Orlov.
The first four of those players are all in the last year of their deals and will become UFAs next summer. Orlov has one more year left on his deal and is then in the same boat. But in the press box is Vincent Desharnais, who is also a UFA after the season, as well as Jack Thompson, who, like Mukhamadullin, is still under team contract. Sam Dickinson is currently with the squad, and Luca Cagnoni should appear in some games this season with the Sharks after playing his first six games in the NHL last season. Lastly, fringe NHLer and likely full-time AHLer this season is Lucas Carlsson, a UFA in 2026, but he is at the bottom of the depth chart among players mentioned.
If we’re counting those defensemen up, that’s 11 who can be in the lineup. There’s no doubt that a future seller like the Sharks is going to move multiple of their d-men at some point this season before the trade deadline, but at least one should come early in talks with the Flyers.
Depending on how serious the Flyers are or what role they expect a potential trade acquisition to play, any number of the Sharks’ d-men could be of interest to them.
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