Flyers bring back familiar face on defense

Flyers

Flyers bring back familiar face on defense

Justin Braun is back with the Flyers.

The club signed the veteran defenseman Wednesday to a one-year contract, a source confirmed to NBC Sports Philadelphia. The money on the deal is not yet confirmed.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman first reported the news of Braun returning to the Flyers.

The 35-year-old defenseman was dealt by the Flyers to the Rangers at last season’s March 21 trade deadline. The Flyers were in sell mode and Braun was an attractive trade chip because of his expiring contract at only a $1.8 million cap hit.

Braun was a third-pair guy for New York, which made a run to the Eastern Conference Final.

With the Flyers, Braun was forced to play up in the lineup over the last two years because of the club’s troubling instability on the back end.

“It’s nice to be back playing those kind of minutes, but when you’re not winning, it’s not really ideal either,” Braun said in February. “You kind of hope to be doing those top minutes on a winning team, but unfortunately we haven’t been there yet.

“The first year, obviously we had a really good group and really enjoyed the experience here. With the COVID stuff and everything, it’s kind of been hampered a little bit, but I have really enjoyed my experience here.”

This will be Braun’s fourth season with the Flyers. The club needed to figure out its third defensive pair this offseason and it clearly likes Braun in that role. The Flyers will hope he actually stays in that spot.

The health of Ryan Ellis and the effectiveness of Tony DeAngelo will be key to doing so.

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