Flyers put Helge Grans on waivers, recall Jack Studnicka

The first sign something was moving came early Monday afternoon, and it was a single line.

Elliotte Friedman

@FriedgeHNIC

Helge Grans (PHI) on waivers

Grans is a 24-year-old Swede, a 6-foot-4 shutdown type the Los Angeles Kings took in the 2nd round of the 2020 draft. He never played a game in LA. In Philly he has 7 career NHL games across 2 seasons with 1 assist, and this season he's played exactly once: 12:26 in a loss to Boston, 1 block, minus-1. That's not much of a sample to get waived over, but he also wasn't getting into the lineup.

The contract part is where it gets interesting. The Flyers re-signed Grans in May 2025 to a 2-year deal that was 2-way last season and turns 1-way this season, so he gets paid NHL money whether he's in Philly or Allentown. Waiving him is the only way to get him to the Phantoms, and it's also a standing invitation for 31 other teams to take a big, cheap, 24-year-old defenseman for nothing.

Hours later, the rest of the plan came into focus.

Jackie Spiegel

@jackiespiegel93

#Flyers have recalled Jack Studnicka, sent Carl Grundström down and placed Helge Grans on waivers.

Grundström cleared waivers in training camp, so the Flyers could send him down without risking a claim. He's played all 5 of his games this season without a point, putting up 5 shots in about 11:20 a night. Philly got him from San Jose for Ryan Ellis's contract and a conditional pick, and he had 13 points in 47 games last year. Not nothing, but nothing is what the bottom of the lineup has given this team so far.

Studnicka is the guy coming in, and let's be honest about what that is. He has 16 points in 126 career NHL games spread across several organizations, and he hasn't recorded a point in his last 40 NHL games. He did put up 3 points in 3 games with Lehigh Valley to start the year, so the Flyers are betting a hot AHL week carries over. Broad Street Hockey read the Grans move as clearing room for an extra forward against Seattle.

So is any of this going to save the season? No. It's 0-5-2 and the answer is shuffling the 12th forward and the 7th or 8th defenseman. But that's usually how a coaching staff says it's run out of patience with the guys on the margins. The big moves come later, if they come at all.

What to watch: Grans clears or gets claimed by Tuesday afternoon. If he clears, he's in Lehigh Valley as a call-up option the next time a defenseman goes down. If somebody grabs him, Philly loses a 24-year-old on a cheap deal for a roster spot that's currently going to a forward who hasn't scored in 40 games. Then there's Seattle, and a 7-game hole the Flyers still have to climb out of.