Flyers Sign Cole Knuble to Two-Year Entry-Level Deal, Assign Him to Phantoms

The Philadelphia Flyers locked up one of their long-developing college prospects Tuesday, signing forward Cole Knuble to a two-year entry-level contract beginning with the 2026-27 season, according to General Manager Daniel Briere. Knuble will report to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms for the remainder of the current 2025-26 campaign.

Knuble, 21, just wrapped his junior season at Notre Dame, where he recorded nine goals, 22 assists, and 31 points in 36 games while serving as an alternate captain and finishing third on the team in scoring. His strongest collegiate season came a year earlier, when he led the Fighting Irish in both points and game-winning goals, posting 12 goals and 39 points in 34 games. That 2024-25 campaign earned him a 2025 Hobey Baker Memorial Award nomination and a spot on the All-Big Ten Second Team. Over three seasons with Notre Dame, he totaled 30 goals, 60 assists, and 90 points across 106 games.

The Flyers selected Knuble 103rd overall in the fourth round of the 2023 NHL Draft, a pick that came after scouts watched him transform his physical game. Flyers assistant general manager Brent Flahr was direct about what drew the organization in. "He worked his ass off all summer, put weight on, got stronger and has become a good skater," Flahr said at the time of the draft.

Before Notre Dame, Knuble spent two seasons with the Fargo Force in the USHL, from 2021 to 2023. His breakout came in the 2022-23 season, when he led the Force in both goals (30) and points (66), finishing tied for eighth in the entire league in scoring. Across both USHL seasons, he totaled 115 points on 50 goals and 65 assists in 119 games.

A native of Grand Rapids, Michigan, Knuble also spent time with the U.S. National Team Development Program in 2020-21 and has attended Flyers development camp in each of the last three summers, from 2023 through 2025. Sources vary on whether he is listed at 5-foot-10 or 5-foot-11; his weight is consistently reported at 190 pounds. His positional designation similarly shifts depending on the source, with some outlets calling him a winger, others a center, and at least one noting he is primarily a winger who can slide into the middle when needed.

The family connection to Philadelphia runs deep. Knuble is the son of former Flyers forward Mike Knuble, who appeared in 338 regular-season games with the club from 2005 through 2009 and again in 2013, accumulating 118 goals and 229 points over five seasons with the organization.

The signing arrives six days after the Flyers inked another college forward, Noah Powell out of Arizona State, signaling a deliberate pattern of converting their prospect pipeline as players exhaust their collegiate eligibility. Knuble's arrival in Lehigh Valley gives the Phantoms a forward who has logged significant top-line minutes and carries leadership experience into a professional environment for the first time.