Phillips was a third round selection by the Flames, 80th overall, back in June at the 2025 NHL Draft. A product of Wayzata, Minnesota, he’s a left shot blueliner listed at 6’6″ and 235 pounds. He’s committed to the University of Minnesota for the 2026-27 season, so the upcoming campaign will be his gap year.

Phillips has spent each of the last two seasons with the United States National Development Program. He had six points with the Under-17 Team in 2023-24 and six points with the Under-18 Team in 2024-25. More of a defensive defender with a physical slant to his game, Phillips loves crushing opponents along the boards but his offensive game is under-developed. If the hope within the Flames front office is that he could develop into a stay-at-home favourite along the lines of Robyn Regehr, he’ll need to improve his offensive production to make the jump to the higher levels of hockey.

He’s landing in a pretty interesting USHL outpost in Green Bay. Led by first-year head coach Patrick McCadden this past season, Green Bay had a few interesting NHL prospects on their roster, most notable among them being Boston Bruins prospect Will Zellers, Buffalo Sabres prospect Vasily Zelenov and Dallas Stars prospect William Samuelsson. Zellers finished third in points in the entire USHL and was named the league’s Player of the Year.

Among the other players slated to join Green Bay for 2025-26 include Oliver McKinney, younger brother of San Jose prospect Cole McKinney, and David Rozsival, a New Jersey prospect and nephew of longtime NHLer Michal Rozsival. Given his size, international experience with USA Hockey, and draft pedigree, it’s not unreasonable to expect Phillips to be leaned on heavily by Green Bay’s coaching staff this coming season. We’ll see how he takes advantage of the opportunity.

If you’re already subscribed to FloHockey to watch Calgary Wranglers games, you can also watch USHL games on that streaming service. The Gamblers begin their regular season on Sept. 18.