In the offseason, Matt Niskanen retired from professional hockey. The Philadelphia Flyers are nearly twenty games into the regular season, and they have yet to address his departure. After his retirement, the importance of his role has grown more evident each game. Defensively, the Flyers are crumbling against formidable opponents. Some could say Philadelphia has fallen from a contender to a pretender.
Chuck Fletcher extended Justin Braun and signed Erik Gustafsson almost immediately after Niskanen retired. Braun performed well on the third-pair in 2019-2020, so his extension wasn’t too crazy.