Flyers Should Turn to NHL Waiver Wire to Address Defense Depth

Ahead of the start of the 2026 regular season, the Philadelphia Flyers still have major question marks on defense, particularly on the third defense pair.

On Saturday, not long after Flyers general manager Danny Briere announced that former No. 6 overall pick David Jiricek would make the roster, Jiricek made a series of errors that led to goals against the Flyers despite facing against a greatly undermanned Washington Capitals team in the preseason finale.

A faulty anticipation of transition, a backhanded pass directly to a Capitals player, and a silly penalty contributed to three goals for Washington, and the Capitals' fifth goal in the 5-1 beatdown came after Noah Cates failed to handle a pass from Jiricek in the neutral zone,

Once Washington won that puck, Jiricek was too far out of position, and Rasmus Ristolainen was left back to defend by himself, and Aleksei Kolosov was nowhere near good enough to erase any of those mistakes on Saturday night.

This is precisely what the Flyers signed up for when they added the 22-year-old Jiricek via trade, but the problem for them is that they have aspirations of making the playoffs, and Jiricek still needs to develop despite needing to pass through waivers to make it back to the AHL.

Those two things don't mix, and while another NHL team may not necessarily be motivated to become Jiricek's fourth team in as many years since he was drafted in 2022, it is a possibility.

More concerningly, Oliver Bonk and Helge Grans have not done enough to steal a job from Jiricek, and Simon Benoit, a veteran newcomer, is not a right-shot.

If the Flyers want to take their time with Bonk and Jiricek and let the youngsters develop, they will need to turn elsewhere to maintain the integrity of their ultimate goals for the season.

NHL waiver wire flush with options

The good news for the Flyers is that they have at least two options available to them, entirely for free, on the NHL waiver wire.

On Saturday, the Boston Bruins placed defenseman Henri Jokiharku, a 27-year-old former first-round pick and veteran of 448 regular season games, on waivers.

The Finn was an NHL regular with Buffalo, but since coming to Boston, he's placed in just 59 games, scoring two goals, 17 assists, and 19 points with a +9 rating while filling in on the power play and penalty kill when needed.

The 6-foot Jokiharju has two years remaining on his contract at a $3 million cap hit, and he's undeniably an upgrade on Benoit, Jiricek, Grans, Bonk, and even Noah Juulsen, who the Flyers made the playoffs with as their third-choice right-shot defender last year.

Further south, the Nashville Predators placed former Tampa Bay Lightning standout Nick Perbix on waivers, and the 6-foot-4 Canadian might better align with what the Flyers are trying to do on defense.

Perbix, 28, was an analytics darling in Tampa Bay playing a lesser role, but after just one year in Nashville, he's on waivers.

Perbix scored three goals, 10 assists, and 13 points in 79 games for the Predators last season while averaging a career-high 2:41 a game on the penalty kill, adding some important special teams value for a prospective taker of his $2.75 million cap hit for a season, like the Flyers.

Both Jokiharju and Perbix, with their short-term, affordable contracts, make sense as adds for the Flyers as they prioritize the proper development of Jiricek and Bonk.

The Flyers will need to spend a bit of cash to add either player via waivers, but that's no problem for them with their $13.9 million in cap space.

Now, it's more a question of how they want to develop Jiricek and how important he is to their future, compared to making the playoffs and remaining as competitive as possible.