While the Flyers are taking an off day after their tough loss to the Penguins in their return from their road trip last night, this, as it turns out, hasn’t meant that we’re completely without news to get us through the day. This morning, it was announced that Oliver Bonk has been medically cleared at last, and he’s been activated from Injured Reserve and assigned to the Phantoms, where he’ll begin his first season of professional hockey.

Oliver Bonk activated from Flyers injured reserve and has been assigned to Phantoms.
Eligible to potentially make pro debut this weekend.

Other transactions:
Ginning clears waivers, stays with LV
Boulton recalled from Reading.
Berger loaned to Reading. https://t.co/UIhE8kZMkn

— Bob Rotruck (@BobRotruck) December 2, 2025

It’s been a long time coming, as Bonk has been dealing with a couple of injury situations since the summer — there was, officially, a “bumps and bruises” situation one can only assume was leftover from his long run to the Memorial Cup with London which had him held out of Development Camp as a precaution, and then just as it looked like he was going to be able to get back rolling in Rookie Camp, he sustained an upper-body injury which has kept him out for the next close to three months. Over the last couple of weeks, though, Bonk has been more significantly ramping up and getting more and more time in with the Flyers in their practices, and it’s finally come time that he’s ready enough to take the next step towards getting in for game action.

It will be a continued working up process, as Bonk will need to get some good practice time in with the Phantoms in order to get more comfortable with his new teammates and the system that they’re running, and more time still to work himself all the way up to full game speed, but it’s good to see him getting close to full wellness and readiness. This season was primed to be a big one for him, and the time lost is significant, but he still has plenty of runway ahead of him to keep his development on track.

Entering a crowded mix

There’s a lot left to unpack — and will be unpacked — as it relates to the mix of players the Phantoms will have at their disposal to fill out their lineup on the back end, but the main takeaway is that it is a crowded one. With Ethan Samson returning from injury a couple weeks ago, the Phantoms were brought back up to five of their six regulars back and healthy, and the addition of Adam Ginning on his conditioning stint filled out the six for the regular lineup. But now with Ginning sticking around after that conditioning stint expired, and Maxence Guenette (acquired in exchange for Dennis Gilbert last month) likely getting closer to being ready to get into the lineup himself, Bonk will soon find himself as one of eight defensemen (and five right shooters) vying for valuable minutes with this team.

This isn’t a new challenge facing the Phantoms’ coaching staff, as they’ve had a persistent logjam of forwards that they’ve had to work with this season, but it will be a challenge all the same, as they balance this critical playing time among this group of both key prospects who need the minutes for developmental reasons and more senior players who have put in the work to establish themselves as deserving of consistent usage at this level.

Additional transactions

Accompanying this move, the Flyers have also assigned Adam Ginning to the Phantoms now that he’s cleared waivers — a move that was made official yesterday — and the Phantoms have loaned defenseman Carter Berger to Reading, and recalled from them forward Sawyer Boulton.

And for the most part, these moves make some sense. Ginning didn’t really have a place in the Flyers’ lineup with Emil Andrae solidifying a role for himself and the team already having to work out a rotation to get Egor Zamula and Noah Juulsen enough games to stay relatively fresh, and it didn’t make sense to beleaguer the point and have him stick around any longer, so he’ll head to the Phantoms where he should get some more playing time. Berger moving down creates a bit more space in the Phantoms’ lineup, but it’s still a full group that they’re working with down there.

The move to recall Boulton is a more under the radar interesting one. On the one hand, it feels all but a sure thing that the Phantoms, with two games on the road this weekend in their three-in-three on deck, would want a few extra bodies around in case of injuries, or else to keep the lineup a little fresher. But the Phantoms already had, so far as we can tell, 14 healthy forwards on the roster before Boulton was called up. Now, maybe three extras is the number they’re most comfortable with heading into this weekend, but one does wonder if there’s anyone who’s a little banged up, or if there’s an expectation that a further move will be coming soon, a forward recalled from their group to fill in for the injured Tyson Foerster on the NHL roster.

With the Flyers set to play again tomorrow night at home against the Sabres, we’ll know soon either way where this whole situation stands, but it’s certainly one to keep an eye on.