{"id":640036,"date":"2026-08-09T23:19:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T23:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/640036\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T23:19:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T23:19:10","slug":"james-its-time-for-the-flyers-to-do-the-right-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/640036\/","title":{"rendered":"James: It’s Time for the Flyers to Do the Right Thing"},"content":{"rendered":"

2026 NHL Free Agency opens on Wednesday, July 1st, at 12:00 PM ET. It\u2019s time for the Philadelphia Flyers to do the right thing and bring Claude Giroux<\/a> home. <\/p>\n

There is plenty of reason to believe this is true. This is not some sappy opinion about bringing a legend home to finish his career with his former club in a season where he plays 20-30 games a year in a minimal role. I still beleive that Giroux has a lot to give. <\/p>\n

The Flyers traded Giroux back on March 19th, 2022, following his 1,000th game in the NHL. Since the trade to Florida, the long-time Flyer joined the Ottawa Senators, where he has been ever since. The 38-year-old is set to play in his 20th NHL season in 2026-27, if he decides to keep it going.<\/p>\n

Pierre LeBrun reported that Giroux is being patient<\/a>, weighing all of his options, but will likely head to the open market. If he does get to the open market, I beleive he is a perfect candidate for the Flyers. <\/p>\n

While yes, he played a top-9 role in Ottawa, I believe that the best spot for Giroux would be to replace Garnet Hathaway on the 4th line. While I do not think his 15 goals and 49 points in his 37\/38 season scream 4th-liner, he could be a versatile winger who could be moved up and down the lineup for the Flyers. Not to mention, if the Flyers want to improve from last season, they need to find scoring from the 4th line. Plus, it would be incredible to see him reunite on a line with Sean Couturier. <\/p>\n

I do not think Giroux is the same hitter that he once was. That would have made it a perfect fit. But alas, that happens with age. However, he can still make the Flyers\u2019 4th line a legitimate scoring group, and that\u2019s important. If they can get Nikita Grebenkin to become the enforcer he showed flashes of last season, it could be a perfect fit.<\/p>\n

So yes, I truly do beleive that Claude Giroux has more to give the Flyers organization. But what he can do on the ice does not match what he could be to the organization off of it. <\/p>\n

Growing up in the Philadelphia sports market during the 2010\u2019s, nobody was more of a Flyer than Giroux. He was nearly every young Flyers fan\u2019s idol, sold the most jerseys, and played with heart night in and night out. He knows what it means to be a Flyer. That doesn\u2019t even count the 9+ seasons he wore the \u201cC\u201d for the team. <\/p>\n

We\u2019re entering an important stage in this Flyers rebuild. The youth movement is here: Porter Martone, Matvei Michkov, Tyson Foerster, Denver Barkey, Alex Bump, and even Jett Luchanko. On defense, Oliver Bonk is right around the corner and much more. Adding Giroux to the already incredible group of long-time Flyers in the locker room, like Sean Couturier, Travis Konecny, and Travis Sanheim, to help mold the future of the organization cannot hurt a thing. <\/p>\n

So no, I am not suggesting the Flyers bring Giroux back just so he can ride into the sunset in the right colors. There is still so much more that the former captain can do for his old organization. It\u2019s time for the Flyers to do the right thing and sign Claude Giroux. <\/p>\n

Read More: Flyers Free Agency Primer: Vladar & Other Extensions, Plus Targets on the Open Market<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2026 NHL Free Agency opens on Wednesday, July 1st, at 12:00 PM ET. It\u2019s time for the Philadelphia…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640037,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5112],"tags":[16355,1325,1468,5,4,177,1467,56,5205],"class_list":["post-640036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia-flyers","tag-2026-nhl-free-agency","tag-claude-giroux","tag-flyers","tag-hockey","tag-nhl","tag-opinion","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-flyers","tag-philadelphiaflyers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/117068114391266169","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}