NHL trade deadline: Getting to know new Flyers Nate Thompson and Derek Grant
The two players acquired Monday are expected to be in the lineup Tuesday against San Jose.
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Odds and ends about the players the Flyers acquired Monday at the trade deadline.
Nate Thompson, C
Size: 6-1, 207 pounds. Shoots: Left. Age: 35.
* Acquired from Montreal for a 2021 fifth-round draft pick.
* He will initially will be used as the fourth-line center, replacing Connor Bunnaman in a role that has been revolving all season. He is also an experienced penalty killer.
* On Twitter @NateThompson44. On Instagram @nthompson33.
* The Flyers will be the eighth team in his 13-year career. He is 35 and has missed just one game this season (4-10-14).
* The biggest win of his career was getting sober three years ago. He and his wife, Sydney, sat with SportsNet last month for a gripping interview. "I didn’t really want to die, but I didn’t really want to live,” Thompson said, recalling the nightmare. “I don’t think I ever thought about taking my own life. I consumed so much that, you know, if I died, I died.”
“I truly believe I’m living on borrowed time and I’m getting a second opportunity and a second chance at life, my career, being a husband, being a father. I’m thankful every day.”
* He has played in 62 playoff games and was part of three clubs that reached the conference finals (2011 Tampa Bay, 2015 Anaheim, 2017 Anaheim).
* One of four Alaskan-born players to appear in at least 500 NHL games, he is on a list that includes good friend and former Flyer Matt Carle.
* He started the company Forty4 Concierge, which tends to the needs of professional athletes away from the ice, court, or field. “Nate had one simple goal,” the company website explains, “which is to help players in all major sports more fully use and enjoy their precious free time.”
Derek Grant, C/W
Size: 6-3, 215 pounds. Shoots: Left. Age: 29.
* Acquired from Anaheim for Phantoms forward Kyle Criscuolo and a 2020 fourth-round pick.
* It’s unclear where he fits, but Flyers coach Alain Vigneault expects Grant (and Thompson) to play Tuesday against San Jose.
* He has a career-best 14 goals, including three shorthanded, for the Ducks, who are the second-worst team in the NHL.
* Grant goes from a team that has 56 points to one that has 77. His only playoff experience was in 2018, when Anaheim was swept by San Jose in the first round.
* On Twitter @DGrant57. On Instagram @dgrant.38.
* The Flyers are the seventh team for Grant in his seven seasons.