If the Flyers want another right-shot defenseman in their ranks, Helge Grans has been proving his worth in the AHL all season long. (Photo: Eric Hartline, Imagn Images) [https://deweb-519a7.b-cdn.net/post-images/bf0e1cc8-3e79-45e7-98c0-ccd3e32d5d83.jpeg] If the Flyers want another right-shot defenseman in their ranks, Helge Grans has been proving his worth in the AHL all season long. (Photo: Eric Hartline, Imagn Images) As a pending restricted free agent, Helge Grans has done about as much as he possibly can to force his name onto the Philadelphia Flyers [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/philadelphia-flyers] roster for the upcoming 2025-26 season. Grans, 22, made his NHL debut for the Flyers in a 3-2 loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Nov. 18, filling in for the then-injured Jamie Drysdale for six games. Next season, Grans will have an opportunity to reprise his role as the injury understudy with Rasmus Ristolainen set to miss roughly six months [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/philadelphia-flyers/latest-news/flyers-provide-injury-update-on-rasmus-ristolainen] following his surgery to repair a ruptured triceps tendon in his right arm. The first step for Grans, of course, is earning a new contract with the Flyers, who concluded the season with just six healthy defensemen on their roster. Cam York and Travis Sanheim, two left-shots, played most of the season together on the Flyers' top defense pair. Youngsters Emil Andrae and Egor Zamula ended the season on a pair together. As a result of Ristolainen's latest injury, the Flyers have had a difficult time striking some balance on the back end. The same was true last season, too. Ristolainen was limited to just 31 games and Sean Walker was traded to Colorado, leaving Philadelphia with Erik Johnson and Drysdale as their only two right-shot options. At the time, Grans was not even being considered for a role in the NHL and was even benched by Lehigh Valley Phantoms head coach Ian Laperriere in the second round of the Calder Cup playoffs a few weeks later. The 22-year-old Swede managed just one goal, seven assists, and eight points in 56 games with the Phantoms last year, but the difference a year makes is front and center. On top of making his NHL debut and scoring his first NHL point for the Flyers, Grans exploded for eight goals, 15 assists, and 23 points in 66 games. He's showing the potential he flashed in the 2021-22 season, when he scored seven goals, 17 assists, and 24 points in 56 games with the Ontario Reign in his first full season in North America. It's been a long road for the 6-foot-3 blueliner, who needed to become meaner, more assertive, and more reliable in his own end of the ice. Grans is finally doing that, and he proved to himself that he didn't have to sacrifice his offensive gifts [https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/395302/helge-grans] to do it. Grans scored his first career Calder Cup playoffs goal on Friday, just under a year after watching the Phantoms' last two games of the year from the press box. Grans used his elite skating to enter the zone, dropping the puck off to Jett Luchanko [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/philadelphia-flyers/players/flyers-jett-luchanko-thriving-in-first-true-playoff-experience] at the blueline before stick-checking a defender and rotating to set a screen in front of the net. While Luchanko's pass to Anthony Richard was rebuffed by the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins' goaltender, Grans was in the right place at the right time to swat the rebound into the goal from the ground, scoring the game-winning goal and powering the Phantoms to a 3-2 Game 2 win to sweep the Penguins in the first round of the Calder Cup playoffs. "He’s a young guy still, but he’s played a number of years because L.A. put him in the American League as a young player. Over the years, from L.A.’s program to now, he’s steadily getting better,” Flyers assistant GM Brent Flahr said of Grans in September. “Now he has to find a niche for himself. He’s a tall, rangy guy. He can skate. He can move the puck. He just has to find a way to beat out another player.” With Ristolainen set to miss all of training camp, Grans might not have to beat out another player [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/philadelphia-flyers/players/5-flyers-prospects-worth-watching-in-2025-calder-cup-playoffs] to make the Flyers. Keeping his spot from there will be up to him and his play, especially if the Flyers continue to evaluate trade packages for Ristolainen as they have in the past. Grans's sustained elevated level of performance indicates a motivated player who knows he doesn't have a contract next year and wants to take his talents to the NHL. The ball is now in the Flyers' court.
