The Philadelphia Flyers have made the first substantial trade of the NHL offseason and they have got their perfect tandem partner for Dan Vladar, and physical defenseman.
Announced by the team on Tuesday morning, the Flyers have acquired goaltender Joseph Woll and defenseman Simon Benoit from the Toronto Maple Leafs. In exchange, the Flyers sent goalie Sam Ersson, defenseman Emil Andrae, and a 2026 third-round pick up to Toronto.
BREAKING: We have acquired goaltender Joseph Woll and defenseman Simon Benoit from Toronto in exchange for goaltender Samuel Ersson, defenseman Emil Andrae and a third-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft.
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) June 16, 2026
Both Ersson and Andrae were set to be restricted free agents this summer.
Woll is the big fish here. The 27-year-old netminder has been an example of consistency ever since he stepped foot into the NHL. Over the past three seasons he has appeared in a total of 106 games while earning a .904 save percentage and a 3.00 goals against average. He doesn’t hit massive highs but he also does not crash down to lows where he has to eventually be pulled and questioned. A perfect netminder for a very solid defensive team like the Flyers.
This past season, Woll did have his worst total season, earning an .898 save percentage in 39 appearances, but he was still just slightly above league average and that is good enough for the Flyers right now.
Woll has two years on his contract and comes in at a perfectly reasonable $3.66-million AAV. He will be an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2028.
Simon Benoit is the other interesting addition. He is a physical, mean, 6-foot-4, left-handed blueliner that will not bring any offense at all — earned just six points in 73 games for the Leafs last season — but he will absolutely bring a whole lot of physicality to the Flyers’ bottom pair. And at just 27 years old as well, there is a longer leash on him continuing to be that for a couple more years.
Benoit has just one year left on his contract with a $1.35-million AAV and will be an unrestricted free agent next summer.
Flyers get a perfect tandem partner for Dan Vladar in Joseph Woll
The Flyers had one desperate need this summer: To get a goaltender that was even just somewhere close to an NHL-average backup for Dan Vladar to have some support. Sam Ersson was a disaster in the crease and even though the Flyers had some belief in him, he was nowhere close to being good enough as a backup for a team that had its eyes on the playoffs.
With his career-worst .870 save percentage in 33 games last season, the Flyers just had a big black hole behind Vladar in the depth chart and most likely lost some points that were available to them in the regular season.
And now that has completely changed. Even if Woll brings just the same sort of season he did last year — being just a hair above a league average performance — then it will be a massive leap in between the pipes for the Flyers.
Last season, Ersson earned a minus-18.95 Goals Saved Above Expected with the Flyers, per Evolving-Hockey. Woll, on the other hand, had a plus-4.52 GSAx. Even by doing some very rough math, that feasibly means a difference of around 23 goals and that can directly translate to a whole lot of wins.
This immediately lowers the need for Vladar to put up another Flyers MVP season and gives this team a whole lot more certainty in the crease going forward. Even if the Flyers sign Vladar to his long-term contract extension and Woll walks in free agency in a couple years — it will be a couple years of the Flyers having a very solid goaltending tandem.
We just saw the Stanley Cup be awarded to a team that had a strong tandem instead of a guaranteed No. 1 starter. Now, the Flyers have exactly that.
Flyers get more size in Simon Benoit
Maybe the most obvious thing is that the Flyers want to get bigger on the back end and they did exactly that with the trade.
Emil Andrae and his 5-foot-9 frame is the last thing that head coach Rick Tocchet and the front office want on their bottom pair — especially considering that they have Cam York and Jamie Drysdale in the top four already as undersized blueliners. So he was shipped out with some sort of value left and in return, the Flyers get some beef.
Benoit is not very good at the whole “hockey” thing and impacting the game offensively or breaking out the puck or really shutting down some opposing players. But, he can absolutely hit some guys and punch dudes in the face.
Standing at 6-foot-4 and 210 pounds, Benoit averaged over 17 minutes per game in the 352 games he has in his career so far, between his stops in Anaheim and Toronto. During that time, he has earned only 240 penalty minutes and during his time with the Leafs, never exceeded 60 penalty minutes in a season. For how many hits he throws around — averaged 214.7 per season in Toronto — he does not take many egregious penalties. And considering he drops the gloves multiple times a season, that’s a lot of his PIMs right there.
It would be questionable if Benoit was playing over someone like Nick Seeler on the blue line, since the veteran defenseman still has a solid impact on the game, but if he’s basically replacing Noah Juulsen as the Flyers’ No. 7, you could do a lot worse.
This trade is at the very least an interesting one that hopefully brings some more wins and goaltending stability to Philadelphia.
