The Flyers add some depth.
Dealing with a rash of preseason injuries, the Philadelphia Flyers have made a move to give themselves some forward depth as the regular season quickly approaches.
On Sunday afternoon, the Flyers announced that they had signed veteran enforcer Garrett Wilson, who featured on the fourth line alongside captain Sean Couturier and Noel Acciari in Saturday's preseason finale against Washington, to a one-year, two-way contract worth $850k.
Wilson, 35, was previously on an AHL contract with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, but by signing an NHL contract, Wilson can now appear in NHL games for the Flyers if and when needed.
Currently, forwards Denver Barkey (lower-body) and Nikita Grebenkin (undisclosed) are banged up, leaving the Flyers with Wilson and Carl Grundstrom as the spare healthy forwards on the roster.
Grundstrom, who played in 47 regular season games and three playoff games for the Flyers last season, is likely the first man up to fill an every-night role for the Flyers, but the veteran Wilson will stand in behind him for depth.
Top forward prospects like Jett Luchanko and Cole Knuble will only be called up for the Flyers if they are required to play regular, nightly roles in the top-nine.
Until an injury necessitates their presence, the Flyers will prefer to have Luchanko and Knuble playing large quantities of minutes as top-line players in the AHL.
Barkey and Grebenkin are questionable for the Flyers' season opener against the Pittsburgh Penguins at 7:30 p.m. at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Wednesday night.
