As you may have heard, the Philadelphia Flyers traded Ivan Provorov in a 3-team deal involving the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Los Angeles Kings.
There were a lot of moving parts in this trade but at the end of the day, outside of Provorov going to Columbus, departing the Flyers for L.A. were Hayden Hodgson and Kevin Connauton, while the Flyers received goaltender Cal Petersen, defensive prospect Helge Grans, and defenseman Sean Walker from the Kings.
Let’s take a quick look at Walker, as he may be the most unknown out of the the three.
At 28 years old out of Keswick, Ontario, Sean Walker is a 5’11” depth defenseman with a righty shot. He signed with the Kings’ AHL affiliate, the Ontario Reign, in 2017 after he finished his collegiate career at Bowling Green, where he served as team captain in his last 2 seasons.
In the 2022-23 season, Walker played in 70 games for the Kings, tallying 13 points with an average time on ice total per game of 14:49, and is a -37 for his career so far.
The Kings traded Walker and Petersen in order to free up money to sign defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov, which they ultimately did on Wednesday as Gavrikov cashed in on a 2-year, $11.75M extension.
Even though Sean Walker isn’t a sexy name, it was a good addition for the Flyers. As mentioned, Walker is a depth defensemen with an expiring contract heading into next season.
As of this moment, it is unclear what his role on the Flyers will be and Daniel Brière did not shed any light on it during his presser. However, if Walker finds himself on the roster and performs well this coming season, it’s another deadline piece that the Flyers can ultimately move for more assets. If not, then it doesn’t hurt the Flyers’ cap situation and he goes on his way.
It’s the type of move a rebuilding team should be making – taking on salary dumps in exchange for draft capital.
Here’s to hoping Sean Walker surprises us all this season.
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