March 06, 2026
UPDATE [3:01 p.m. ET] – The clock struck 3, and the NHL trade deadline has passed.
Rasmus Ristolainen is still a Philadelphia Flyer after taking another round on the rumor mill.
Bobby Brink and Nic Deslauriers have been shipped out, with Brink going to the Wild for former sixth overall pick David Jiříček, and Deslauriers going to the Hurricanes for a conditional seventh-rounder in 2027.
The team on the ice will try to close out the year as strong as they can with what they have – maybe with Porter Martone for a game or two by the end – and general manager Danny Brière will start preparing for a summer that's only looking more and more crucial to the organization's trajectory.
Here's a rundown of the Flyers' activity on trade deadline day, as it happened...
EARLIER...
It's trade deadline day in the NHL, and it seems to be a seller's market now, which the Flyers slid back into being.
There are names on the block, rumors swirling, and decisions for general manager Danny Brière to make for the organization's future.
Here's a rundown of everything on the radar so far, leading up to the last call at 3 p.m. ET...
• Flyers claim C Luke Glendening off waivers from Devils (Friday): Glendening will come in as a waiver claim, per Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman. He's a 36-year-old forward who's been with Detroit, Dallas, and Tampa before signing on with the Devils. He has a career 55.6 faceoff percentage, and a 51.7 win percentage through 52 games this season.
So if he's thrown into the lineup, it's likely that the Flyers want him taking draws at the bottom of the lineup.
• LW Nic Deslauriers to Hurricanes for conditional draft pick (Friday): Deslauriers took the ice for practice on Friday, and as soon as he stepped off, word broke that he'd be on the move to Carolina, per Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman.
The Flyers will be getting a conditional seventh-round draft pick in 2027, per AllPHLY's Charlie O'Connor.
Deslauriers, 35, is in the last of a four-year deal at a $1.75 million cap hit that he signed back in 2022. He's a fourth-line bruiser who increasingly went in and out of the lineup under former coach John Tortorella and then under current coach Rick Tocchet. Now he'll get a playoff run in Carolina, while the Flyers get a dice roll on an end-of-draft pick.
• RW Bobby Brink to Wild for D David Jiříček (Friday): Brink's two-way skating and motor are off to Minnesota after the Flyers made a one-for-one deal early Friday for Jiříček, a 22-year-old right-handed defenseman.
Brink established himself as a hard-checking 200-foot winger on easily the Flyers' most productive line in the past two years between himself, center Noah Cates, and fellow winger Tyson Foerster. Foerster, though, went down for the season with injury, and Brink, as a young, cost-effective, and productive forward, has had rumored interest for the past year or so. Steam seemed to have picked up on Brink in the past few days with the Flyers still a long shot for the playoffs, and the Wild came through with an offer they liked.
Jiříček, who went sixth overall to the Columbus Blue Jackets in the 2022 draft (one pick after the Flyers took Cutter Gauthier), has bounced around between the NHL and AHL in the past few years, still looking for his footing as a pro. His appeal is that he's a big and powerful right-handed shot on the blueline at 6'4", and one now who the Flyers hope they'll be able to get on track after making considerable strides in development with Jamie Drysdale and Rasmus Ristolainen – the latter of whom Jiříček could be the replacement for.
For now, though, the Flyers are saying that Jiříček will report to the Phantoms in the AHL to start.
• Fs Alexis Gendron, Massimo Rizzo to Bruins for F Brett Harrison, D Jackson Edward (Friday): An AHL-level swap of prospects in their early 20s, and the second that the Flyers have made this week.
• Signed F Garrett Wilson to two-way NHL contract for remainder of season (Thursday): A move to take care of the veteran Phantoms captain down in the AHL. He's been helping to guide the minor-league prospects over in Allentown.
• D Roman Schmidt to Wild for F Boris Katchouk (Sunday): A minor AHL-level swap and the first of the Flyers' transactions heading into the week of the deadline. Hardly a lit match, though.
• D Rasmus Ristolainen: A big, physical right-handed defenseman, which is always coveted across the NHL, especially for contending playoff teams. Ristolainen caught everyone's attention with his excellent play for Finland at the Winter Olympics, and because of the rising salary cap, he has a much easier to swallow cap hit of $5.1 million for this year and next. The Flyers can always retain a bit of that money if they do move him, too.
Brière does have his price set, though, which is rumored to be at least a first-round pick. And so far, he doesn't seem willing to budge from that. Ristolainen also took the ice Friday in Voorhees for practice.
Teams still trying on Rasmus Ristolainen at this hour but Flyers are fine keeping him unless their price is met (has another year on his deal)
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) March 6, 2026
Tippett will carry a cap hit of $6.2 million through 2032, which again, is going to get more manageable with the rising cap.
The Flyers also have a logjam at right they'll have to address with needing to get Matvei Michkov back to the right side and top prospect Porter Martone on his way, but the dealing of Brink to Minnesota earlier Friday may have cleared that up a bit for the time being.
Tippett was on the ice Friday at practice in Voorhees.
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