Trade grade: Flyers take a step forward by upgrading the backup goalie spot with acquisition of Joseph Woll

Minutes before general manager Danny Brière and assistant general manager Brent Flahr were set to meet with the media, news broke of a Flyers trade.

The team acquired goalie Joseph Woll and defenseman Simon Benoît from the Toronto Maple Leafs for goalie Sam Ersson, defenseman Emil Andrae, and the Flyers’ third-round pick in next week’s draft.

In his annual one-on-one with The Inquirer at the NHL scouting combine, Brière said the goal this offseason was to improve his team by adding smartly and not mortgaging the future.

This trade checked all the boxes and gave the Flyers an upgrade at the same time.

It always felt like Ersson and Andrae’s days in Philly were numbered.

Ersson will be a restricted free agent on July 1, and the GM never verbally committed to giving him a qualifying offer — even as late as the first week of June in Buffalo, N.Y. — and the Maple Leafs GM, John Chayk, wouldn’t commit either in his press conference on Tuesday.

After an up-and-down 2024-25 season where, according to MoneyPuck, he had the worst goals saved above expected (-19.9), this season Ersson again struggled with consistency. He did play great after the Olympic break, posting the third-best goals against average (1.99) and the ninth-best save percentage (.912) among goalies who played at least eight games in the NHL, but it was too late.

It was that uncertainty that finally broke the camel’s back, with Brière stating: “We hope that we’re not coming down the stretch with a tired goalie [again].” Dan Vladař started 19 of the final 26 regular-season games and battled injuries along the way.

» READ MORE: Meet the new Flyers, from Joseph Woll’s musical talent to Simon Benoît’s intense love of milk and coffee

Andrae (also set to be an RFA) is a small, puck-moving defenseman with some pop and an edge, who was never truly given a chance by former coach John Tortorella and was then in and out of the lineup under Rick Tocchet, who preferred a penalty-killing blueliner in his spot on the third pairing.

“Never easy,” Brière said when asked about moving Andrae. “There are relationships there with the players; you get to know them. Same thing with Sam. These guys, they were drafted by this organization, they went through the development process, the minors. Both of those guys were really well-liked and loved in the locker room — and not just the locker room, but from the staff and the whole organization — so, yeah, it’s always tough."

Now, losing the third-round pick in the 2026 draft isn’t ideal for the Flyers, who entered the day with only five — “Danny keeps trading our picks away,” Flahr joked at their press conference — but the Flyers never looked at this draft as one to set the bar. And moving the pick shows that they believe in the guys in the system to take that next step.

Benoît, who will turn 28 right around the start of training camp, brings some snarl the Flyers lost in trading newly crowned Stanley Cup champion Nic Deslauriers — he has 12 fights in his career — and some bite, as his 194 hits would have slotted in at No. 2 on the Flyers in what was considered a down season for Benoît.

But don’t expect the undrafted Quebec native to help the power play, as he has 36 points across his 352 NHL games. Instead, he’ll eat minutes, averaging just above 17 per game in his career, and play on the penalty kill; he skated on average 38% of the time when Toronto was on the PK. As mentioned, it’s a key aspect for anyone on the third pair for Tocchet.

So is he the new seventh defenseman for the Flyers? A league source told The Inquirer that Noah Juulsen, who will be an unrestricted free agent, will not be re-signed.

“He might be; maybe he’s even higher up the lineup, too. Why not?” Brière countered when asked if that would be the role for the 6-foot-4, 210-pounder. “We like the physicality that he brings, and we like the size and the skating aspect, too; he’s a really good skater.

» READ MORE: Flyers assistant GM Brent Flahr talks Jett Luchenko’s big summer, the value of NCAA hockey, and the team’s intriguing college prospects

“Emil, we loved his competitive edge inside, but it did make our defense a little small at times; we have Jamie [Drysdale] and [Cam York] there, so [having] the three of them wasn’t ideal. So I think it’s going to probably be a little easier for the coaches having a guy like Simon Benoît back there to use.”

But while Benoît — a former teammate of Trevor Zegras and Drysdale in Anaheim — brings some depth to the blue line, the focus of this trade for the Flyers is the addition of Woll, with Toronto needing to make a move to clear a crowded crease.

Across 117 games with the Leafs, Woll has a 63-43-9 record with a 2.94 GAA and .906 save percentage; by comparison, Ersson has a 3.01 GAA and .884 career save percentage. This past year wasn’t ideal, with him putting up a career-worst 3.34 GAA and .899 save percentage — but, a reminder: There is a reason why the Leafs are picking at No. 1 in the draft.

A native of Missouri, Woll has dealt with injuries in the past and missed time early this past season due to personal issues. But the Boston College goalie has proved he can stop pucks, including in the playoffs. He should help to solidify the crease while Aleksei Kolosov and Carson Bjarnason work on their games in the American Hockey League, and comes with a nice, tidy cap hit of $3.67 million this season and next

As Brière said: “We thought it was a chance to improve the team, help them take another step. … We felt that Woll is a step forward for us, and we’ll be able to help Vladdy in a tandem role.”