The Flyers’ injury list got a little longer Friday night, and this time it reached one of their top prospects.
The OHL London Knights announced that Maksim Sokolovskii, the 18-year-old defenseman taken by Philadelphia in the 2026 first round, is week-to-week with a lower-body injury. For a Flyers organization already dealing with Denver Barkey, Nikita Grebenkin, and Helge Grans on the shelf, it’s another rough early-season note.
Sokolovskii has appeared in just one game for London so far this season, a 7-4 win over the Owen Sound Attack on Sept. 25. That outing was memorable for more than the score: Sokolovskii landed a heavy hit on Owen Sound forward Lucian Bernat and sent Bernat’s stick flying in a scene that looked straight out of a highlight package.
The moment did not end there. Sokolovskii later had to fight Julian Brown, the 6-foot-4 defenseman who had been his teammate in London last year before Brown moved to Owen Sound.
The injury means Sokolovskii’s season will start slowly after he logged only 44 regular-season games for the Knights last year, along with five playoff games. Still, there’s reason for Philadelphia to stay patient. The 6-foot-8 Russian blue liner made a strong impression in his lone OHL game this season, and his development over the course of last season pushed him into the first-round conversation heading into the 2026 NHL Draft.
He also stood out in rookie camp and the early part of development camp, which is why this setback is more of a delay than a reason to panic, provided it stays short term.
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For a club trying to find some footing, the concern is less the standings point than how the game unfolded once the lead was in hand. The Flyers could not hold off a Devils team that kept coming from behind, and the margin for error was small enough that an extra shift, a cleaner exit or a better finish might have changed the result. [Read more 🡒]