The Philadelphia Flyers have acquired restricted free-agent defenseman Maxence Guenette from the Ottawa Senators in exchange for defenseman Dennis Gilbert. The Flyers signed Guenette to a one-year, two-way contract. Gilbert returns to Ottawa after a previous stint with the team.
The trade, announced on November 17, 2025, sees the Flyers bolstering their defensive depth with 24-year-old Maxence Guenette, a seventh-round pick by the Senators in the 2019 NHL Draft. Guenette has appeared in eight NHL games with Ottawa and played 236 American Hockey League games with the Belleville Senators, where he recorded 27 goals and 89 assists for 116 points. He served as an alternate captain for Belleville in the 2024-25 season and was unsigned as a restricted free agent until the Flyers inked him to a one-year deal just before the deadline.
In return, the Senators receive Dennis Gilbert, an eighth-year professional who was previously acquired by Ottawa in the Josh Norris-Dylan Cozens trade with the Buffalo Sabres last season. Gilbert played four regular-season games with the Senators, collecting one point, and is described as a big-bodied, tough defender suitable for the bottom pairing. This season, he has one assist in six games with the Flyers' AHL affiliate, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Over his AHL career, Gilbert has 15 goals and 43 assists in 194 games, while in 111 NHL appearances, he has three goals and 17 assists, including six assists in 29 games split between Buffalo and Ottawa in 2024-25. He was a third-round pick by Chicago in the 2015 NHL Draft.
The move comes as Ottawa faces defensive challenges, with Thomas Chabot sidelined for an uncertain period and Donovan Sebrango claimed by the Florida Panthers, leaving the left side thin behind Jake Sanderson and Tyler Kleven. Guenette is expected to join the Phantoms for his fifth minor-league season, having been close to breaking into the Senators' NHL roster before recent additions like Jordan Spence and the re-signing of Lassi Thomson.