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On Monday, the Philadelphia Flyers and Ottawa Senators organizations made a trade of defensemen.
Philadelphia sent defenseman Dennis Gilbert to Ottawa in exchange for restricted free agent Maxence Guenette. They agreed to terms on a one year two-way contract with Guennette, following the trade.
The 24 year old defenseman is expected to join the Flyers AHL affiliate, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
As a result, Gilbert will return to a team he played for last season. A free agent signing this offseason, Gilbert entered training camp in audition for a spot on the Flyers blueline. However, Noah Juulsen and Adam Ginning outperformed him and he ended up on the Phantoms once Cam York was activated from IR.
Consequently, Gilbert did not play a regular season game with the Flyers since his assignment to Allentown. He had an assist and a plus-1 rating in six games for the Phantoms.
Following the recent recall of Emil Andrae, Gilbert’s pathway to an NHL opportunity with the Flyers seemed to be closing. With the Senators in need of defensive depth at the NHL level, Gilbert became an attractive plug-and-play option.
What The Flyers (and Phantoms) Are Getting
From the Flyers’ perspective, the acquisition of Guennette is all about bolstering the Phantoms’ blue line depth on their right side. This trade comes after they acquired Christian Kyrou in late October from the Dallas Stars, another right shot defenseman. He served as the Belleville Senators alternate captain last season.
As a 2019 seventh round pick, Guennette has some offensive upside. In 58 games last season, the 6’2, 210lb defenseman scored nine goals, 14 assists and had a plus-13 rating. Previously, his best offensive output came during the 2022-23 season when he scored five goals and 35 assists over 72 games.
He has played at the NHL level as well, with eight games logged with Ottawa during his time with the organization.
In conclusion, this was a classic need-for-need trade.
