Shayne Gostisbehere is returning to the Metropolitan Division
Photo by Len Redkoles/NHLI via Getty Images
Flyers fans are going to see Ghost a couple more times this season. An old friend is returning to the East Coast.
Wednesday evening, Shayne Gostisbehere was traded from the Arizona Coyotes to the Carolina Hurricanes for a 2026 third-round pick.
Gostisbehere, who has registered 31 points in 52 games this season, joins a juggernaut of a Hurricanes team built to make a deep playoff run. To this point, Gostisbehere has never made it past the second round of the postseason.
The #Canes have acquired Shayne Gostisbehere from Arizona in exchange for a third-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft.Full Details » https://t.co/cpXTVdG6si pic.twitter.com/iIQIrBtOrj— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) March 1, 2023
Of course, Gostisbehere is known mainly for his tenure with the Philadelphia Flyers. The Flyers selected Gostisbehere in the third round of the 2012 NHL Entry Draft, and it didn’t take long for Ghost to make a name for himself with the Orange & Black.
During the 2015-16 season, Gostisbehere put together a breakout season for the ages, logging 17 goals and 46 points in 64 games — objectively superb numbers, especially for a rookie defenseman. He was nominated for the Calder Memorial Trophy that season, but was edged out by Artemi Panarin for the award.
Gostisbehere ended up having a roller coaster tenure with the Flyers. After his electrifying rookie campaign, he took a bit of a step back. He was listed as a healthy scratch in November of his sophomore season and struggled to produce at the rate he had as a rookie. Then, in 2017-18, Gostisbehere had the best season of his career, logging 13 goals and 65 points on the year.
The highs were high and the lows were low for Gostisbehere, and during his time with the Flyers, he never seemed to earn the trust of his coaches — namely Dave Hakstol and Alain Vigneault.
In total, Ghost played 381 games through seven seasons with the Flyers, posting 60 goals and 219 points over that span. In July of 2021, he was “traded” to the Coyotes with a second and seventh-round pick attached. The Flyers got nothing in return from Arizona other than cap relief, which allowed them to acquire Rasmus Ristolainen from the Buffalo Sabres two days later.
The Flyers will face off against Gostisbehere’s new team two more times this season — first on March 9, and again on March 18....
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