The Flyers still have one obvious lane left if they want to give their power play a real jolt, and it comes with very little downside. More than two weeks into free agency, John Klingberg is still sitting there, the top remaining defenseman on the market and the best available bet for a team that badly needs help on the man advantage.
Philadelphia has already watched several possible fixes disappear this offseason. If a true No. 1 center isn’t a realistic answer right now, the next-best move is finding a power play quarterback who can actually move the needle. Klingberg fits that description better than anyone else still unsigned.
The 33-year-old is not the player who piled up a career-high 67 points in 82 games for the Dallas Stars in 2017-18. But even with the miles on him, he still showed he can matter offensively.
Last season with the San Jose Sharks, Klingberg put up 27 points in 55 games, including five goals and nine power play points. That power play production made up a third of his total scoring.
Health has been the biggest obstacle. A hip injury wrecked his 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons, leaving him with just 25 regular season games combined between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Edmonton Oilers. He did get back mostly healthy in 2025-26, though San Jose coach Ryan Warsofsky still didn’t use him every night.
When Klingberg was on the ice, he averaged 20:28 per game. That’s a heavy workload, and it also showed the Sharks trusted him enough to keep him in meaningful minutes when available.
The defensive side of the ledger has never been his calling card. He’s been average to bad there for most of his career, but that’s not why the Flyers would be interested. They’d be looking at him as a veteran who can help the power play, steady the group, and keep younger defensemen from being thrown straight into the fire.
That matters if Philadelphia wants to bring along someone like David Jiricek or Oliver Bonk without forcing the issue. Jiricek is the long-term power play quarterback the Flyers would like to have, but there’s no guarantee he’s ready to take that job right away. Klingberg would give them insurance and a buffer, allowing the team to avoid rushing Jiricek into an every-night role before it feels right.
There’s also a small wrinkle of familiarity. Klingberg and newcomer Simon Benoit were defensive partners in Anaheim in 2022-23. The numbers were ugly, as expected, but the Flyers could at least point to a shared history and hope a better structure and better personnel help insulate him.
The money side is manageable, too. Klingberg played last season on a one-year, $4 million deal, and the Flyers have just under $14 million in cap space after re-signing Jamie Drysdale and Trevor Zegras.
For a team still searching for answers on its power play, that makes Klingberg a low-risk swing. And if he plays well early, he could even work his way into trade value for a contender later in the season.
In Other News...
Oilers Fans Are Rolling Their Eyes At This Latest Superstar Rumor
The Flyers have already shown they are willing to swing big for elite talent, making a significant offer sheet for Leo Carlsson before the Anaheim Ducks matched it, and that kind of ambition naturally keeps Philadelphia in the conversation whenever a superstar becomes available. It is the sort of backdrop that can make even the wildest rumor sound plausible, especially when a franchise has been trying to push itself back into the top tier.
Connor McDavid is the name doing the rounds now, but the timing makes the chatter feel more like noise than news. He recently signed a two-year extension with Edmonton, and the Oilers have spent the offseason behaving like a team intent on contending right away, adding goaltending, forward depth and making coaching changes to tighten the roster for another run. [Read more 🡒]
Flyers Still Need A Real Answer After Their Biggest Miss
The Flyers still have work to do after an offseason swing fell short, and the search now shifts to the trade market for a real answer on the blue line and down the middle. Boston has naturally entered the conversation, with Mason Lohrei standing out as a young defenseman who could fit a Flyers group that is still trying to sort out its long-term pairings, while Pavel Zacha offers a different kind of help at center for a team that wants more stability in the middle of the ice.
Lohrei is the more intriguing name because of the way he could be slotted into Philadelphias defense mix, and some around the league would view a package built around Alex Bump and a draft pick as the kind of price that at least gets talks started. Zacha brings a more established profile and would address a different need, but the bigger point for the Flyers is unchanged: after missing on their bigger target, they still need to find a move that actually changes the shape of the roster rather than just adding another placeholder. [Read more 🡒]
Canadiens Trade Talk Suddenly Fits The Plan Fans Have Debated All Summer
The summer chatter around Montreal has centered on a simple question: where does Kent Hughes find another forward who can bring some size, some edge and enough skill to matter in the top six? Shane Wright and Connor Zary are part of that conversation, but the broader point is the same. The Canadiens are still looking for the kind of player who can fit into a lineup that needs more punch, and any trade discussion around that profile is going to get attention.
For Philadelphia fans, the interesting part is how this kind of speculation circles back to a player who has already shown he can be part of a bigger picture. The Flyers are in a spot where roster decisions are tied to long-term development, and any talk of moving established pieces depends on how the next wave comes along. If the organization keeps seeing young wings emerge, the conversation around who stays and who becomes available gets a lot more complicated, which is exactly why this rumor has legs without offering a clean answer yet. [Read more 🡒]