The Philadelphia Flyers signed Garrett Wilson to a one-year, two-way deal Sunday night, three days before their regular season opens.
The split is simple. He earns $850,000 in the NHL and $425,000 in the minors.
For a 35-year-old left winger, that second number tells you where the Flyers expect him to spend most of the winter.
It's still a bump from the $775,000 cap hit he carried through 2025-26. Not bad for a guy who was sitting in free agency.
Lehigh Valley has been home since 2020-21. Six straight seasons with the Phantoms, and the penalty box always knew his name.
The peak came in 2023-24. He piled up 216 PIM in 59 AHL games, which is a lot of time spent watching from the other side of the glass.
Rick Tocchet's bottom six just got a 6-foot-3 insurance policy
Rick Tocchet now has a big, physical body he can call up without much thought if injuries start eating into the forward group.
Daniel Briere isn't paying for offense here. Wilson has 87 NHL games career-wise, with 2 goals and 6 assists to show for them.
His longest look came in 2018-19 in Pittsburgh. He dressed 50 times for the Penguins that season and scored once in 4 playoff games.
Last season he got a brief taste in Philadelphia. Three games, held scoreless, 5 penalty minutes.
The production in the minors is sliding too. He managed 16 points in 54 Phantoms games, down from 28 the year before.
Think of him as the spare tire in the trunk. Nobody wants to use it. You still don't leave the driveway without one.
And the Flyers could use a little bite right now. They dropped a 5-1 decision to the Capitals on Saturday and went 1-3-0 across their last four.
The opener is Wednesday at home against the Penguins, the same club that handed him that 50-game run.
Born in Barrie, Ontario, he went in the fourth round to the Panthers back in 2009. Seventeen years later, he's still scrapping for a job.
Here's the problem. A veteran voice in the Phantoms room makes sense. A 35-year-old dressing regularly on Broad Street by December would mean something has gone badly wrong.
The deal expires in 2027, when he'll hit unrestricted free agency again at 36.
So how many more call-ups does he have left in the tank? Philadelphia might find out sooner than it wants to.
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Should Garrett Wilson dress for the Flyers at any point this season?
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