Flyers sign Garrett Wilson to one-year contract
The Philadelphia Flyers have agreed to terms on a one-year, two-way contract with forward Garrett Wilson, the club announced Sunday afternoon. According to the Flyers, the deal carries an $850,000 NHL cap hit.
Wilson, 35, split the 2025-26 season between the Flyers and the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Playing in his third season as Lehigh Valley’s captain, he collected four goals, 16 points, and 101 penalty minutes in 54 games; he also appeared in three NHL games with the Flyers near the end of the season, recording no points, three shots, and five penalty minutes.
The Philadelphia chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers Association collectively named Wilson its 2026 nominee for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy, which recognizes a player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey. The gritty winger spent nearly six full seasons with Lehigh Valley on AHL contracts before being signed and recalled by the Flyers in March, marking his return to NHL action for the first time since the 2018-19 season.
A fourth-round pick (No. 107 overall) of the Florida Panthers in the 2009 NHL Draft, Wilson spent his junior career with the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires and Owen Sound Attack, winning a league championship in 2011, before turning pro in the Panthers organization.
After emerging as a capable middle-six forward with the AHL’s San Antonio Rampage in the early to mid 2010s, Wilson earned brief NHL call-ups with the Panthers in 2013-14 and 2014-15. He subsequently appeared in 29 games with the Panthers in the 2015-16 regular season and six more in the playoffs, earning his first NHL point in Game 4 of the team’s quarterfinal series against the New York Islanders.
The Panthers opted not to retain Wilson after the season, instead allowing him to sign with the Pittsburgh Penguins as a free agent. After spending the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons with the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, Wilson managed to crack Pittsburgh’s NHL lineup on a consistent basis in 2018-19, scoring two goals and eight points in 50 games during the regular season and adding another goal in four playoff games. After that, he didn’t appear in another NHL game until Mar. 19, 2026, with the Flyers.
In 87 career NHL games over parts of five seasons with the Panthers, Penguins, and Flyers, Wilson has collected two goals, eight points, and 47 penalty minutes; he’s added one goal, one assist, and four penalty minutes in 10 playoff games. In the AHL, Wilson has amassed 156 goals, 353 points, and 1,375 penalty minutes across 16 seasons, mostly in the Florida, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia organizations.
