David Jiricek To Make Flyers’ Opening Night Roster

Defense prospect David Jiricek has made the Flyers’ opening night roster. General manager Daniel Briere passed the news along to reporters, including Kevin Kurz of The Athletic. The Flyers still have two cuts to make before Monday’s submission deadline, but with Briere adding that forward Denver Barkey could miss a few games with the lower-body injury that kept him out of last Tuesday’s preseason contest against the Bruins, they’re in no crunch. Third-string netminder Aleksei Kolosov is still rostered and is waiver-exempt, so he can head down to AHL Lehigh Valley at any moment as well. Rookie defender Helge Grans, who got a six-game audition with Philly back in 2024-25, could also hit the non-roster list after leaving Thursday’s preseason game with Boston with a lower-body injury.

The Jiricek news is certainly notable, but not a shock. While already on his third team despite being the sixth overall pick just four years ago, he lost his waiver-exempt status this offseason and was unlikely to pass through unclaimed if the Flyers cut him. They lost depth on defense this summer by letting Noah Juulsen walk to free agency and trading Emil Andrae to the Maple Leafs, although they did net veteran depth option Simon Benoit back in that deal. Part of the decision to make the promising Andrae, who had 13 points and a +15 rating in 61 games last season, expendable was because Philly knew they had to clear an NHL path for Jiricek, who they brought in from the Wild for Bobby Brink at last season’s trade deadline.

Obviously, Jiricek’s development hasn’t been the smoothest. The Blue Jackets made him the second defenseman taken in the 2022 draft and immediately brought him over to North America, where he got a brief NHL look and was an AHL All-Star as a 19-year-old. That’s about where the good news stops. He did make 43 NHL appearances the following season but was heavily sheltered, averaging under 15 minutes per night, and was demoted to the AHL again early in 2024-25 after a string of healthy scratches.

That final demotion preceded a trade to the Wild, who gave up four draft picks and Daemon Hunt to bring him in. Over the parts of two seasons he played in Minnesota, though, Jiricek was woeful – posting just two points in 31 games while averaging a pitiful 11:58 of ice time per game. The shot-oriented defender struggled to build confidence in an offensively beleaguered minor-league system in the Wild organization, too.

It was only at the tail end of last season that Jiricek was able to flash some tantalizing potential again. He did get one NHL appearance for Philly after the move but was otherwise munching minutes in Lehigh Valley, where he looked like his formerly offensively dominant self with a 2-11–13 scoring line in 15 games. It’s that production ceiling – far higher than Andrae’s – that prompted the Flyers to pencil him into the lineup.

Recent camp lines indicate he’ll likely start on the third pairing at even strength but should open as the second-unit power-play quarterback. That’s ideal deployment for the 6’4″ righty, who’s shown plenty of defensive flaws but needs that time on the man advantage to get comfortable offensively at the NHL level.