Chance Anies grew up at the tables of America’s chain restaurants. His mom’s career as a manager opening locations for TGI Friday’s, Olive Garden, Dave & Buster’s and others meant he and his siblings spent some of their most important life events in the glow of neon flair illuminating bottomless breadstick bowls and blooming onions.
“There was something magical about growing up there,“ says Anies, 34. “There was always something for everybody, for anyone who walked in the door, including kids. They were also affordable. And what I’ve found over the years is that middle-class dining like that has been dying.”
Manong, which opened three months ago in the former Tela’s space at 19th and Fairmount Avenue, is filled with references to the mid-tier chains of his youth. From the longhorn skull emblazoned on the sign at its front door, to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game being played for free by guests in the corner, to actual neon signs from both Applebee’s and Outback alight in its two bathrooms, the cues are here for what Anies calls his chain-inspired Filipino-American steakhouse. There’s even the signature Bloom Shroom, a fantastic fungi riff on the blooming onion, whose deep-fried thatch of enoki mushrooms is irresistible — at least, when it isn’t overcooked or oversalted, as it was on my first visit.
The Bloom Shroom at Manong on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025 in Philadelphia.
This kitchen has largely been more reliable than that, and nailed the shroom on a following visit, when its broom-like sweep of crunchy-earthy mushrooms threads lived-up to their potential. It was also clear after my visits here that catchy labels trying to characterize Anies’ sequel restaurant to Tabachoy, his Filipino BYOB hit in Bella Vista, really don’t do its concept justice. For one thing, it’s not a steakhouse, considering Manong didn’t even have a steak on the menu (beyond grilled beef skewers) for its first three months, when an intriguing hanger steak with fish sauce and pickled onions replaced the prime rib.
Chef Chance Anies posed for a portrait at Manong on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025 in Philadelphia.
The swap was a pragmatic concession to keep the menu on the more affordable side, a prime characteristic of chain restaurant culture Anies says inspires him. With check averages around $50 to $60, including drinks, dinner at Manong costs more than going to Longhorn. But it succeeds in hitting a more accessible sweet spot than most of Philly’s pricier destination restaurants without sacrificing the quality of from-scratch food. There’s a balancing act of handcraft and value here most chain restaurants simply can’t touch.
The dynamite lumpia at Manong in Philadelphia, Pa., on Thursday, March. 5, 2026.
There’s also a level of personality, bold flavors, and storytelling to the food at Manong that is the antithesis of the sanitized corporate restaurant. This menu is a unique reflection of Anies’ childhood and life experiences as a Filipino-American — including his previous careers as an English teacher, medical researcher and food truck operator — that also diverges with its whimsy and creativity from the more traditionally-framed Filipino flavors anchoring Tabachoy.
There’s an equivalent to mozzarella sticks at Manong, the dynamite lumpia, but they’re wrapped inside crispy spring roll wrappers and laced with tender pork and minced jalapeños alongside a sweet chili dip. Manong also offers one of the most distinctive new cheeseburgers in the city, a half-pound patty that spans the width of four small pandesal rolls that are still attached, like King’s Hawaiian bread.
The connected rolls can easily be divided into shareable sliders, but avoid the urge to supersize it into a full one-pound of meat because it throws all the proportions off. The standard serving maximizes its many Filipino flourishes, from the light sweetness on the fresh-baked bread to the tropical backnotes of the house banana ketchup, the calamansi-tanged slaw, and a mayo shaded by bangus (tinned milkfish), whose oily fillets are buzzed into an umami-rich spread that Anies says carries a Pinoy schmear of “je ne sais quoi.”
The 1/2lb balong burger at Manong in Philadelphia, Pa., on Thursday, March. 5, 2026.
The 75-seat Manong, which means “elder brother” in Ilocano, the Filipino dialect of Anies’ father’s family, is close to three times as big as Tabachoy, a 28-seater in Bella Vista so snug you need to access the bathroom through an alley door at the rear of the building. But Anies has made good use of this sunny, high-ceilinged corner space, warming its interior with rustic walnut accents and adding convivial booth seating to both its window walls and a central banquette.
The exterior of Manong on Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025 in Philadelphia.
With room for large parties, including a back alcove beneath mounted horns and a vintage truck grill with illuminated headlights, plus 13 seats at the bar, there were more groups of people simultaneously celebrating at Manong than any restaurant I’ve visited in recent memory. Conjuring that kind of joy, and for such a broad cross-section of customers, is one aspect of “everyone’s family” magic that Anies has successfully channeled.
Customers enjoying drinks and food at the bar at Manong in Philadelphia, Pa., on Thursday, March. 5, 2026.The interior of Manong on Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025 in Philadelphia.
A drink program overseen by beverage manager Eli Ezer helps buoy the festive mood with a variety of fun, colorful drinks that also offer thematic twists, like the sky blue Otso Otso, a riff on a spicy margarita infused with green peppercorn, lemongrass, and calamansi, or an espresso martini with the added taste of sweet corn (a combo with roots in the Philippines), or a Pinoy version of the City Wide, pairing San Miguel Lite with a shot of Kasama rum.
The Otso Otso cocktail at Manong in Philadelphia, Pa., on Thursday, March. 5, 2026.The Pandan latte at Manong in Philadelphia, Pa., on Thursday, March. 5, 2026.
It’s no surprise this room has a serious noise problem, and will eventually require some significant investment to sound-proof its hard surfaces. It recently opened for new daytime cafe hours to pump out purple ube and pandan lattes with Herman’s Coffee, along with a limited selection of pastries, and plans to expand the daytime menu with breakfast sandwiches for a brunch debut this spring. There’s also a retail bottle shop where a fridge case full of Red Horse beer, natural wines, and sakes add yet another reason to visit.
For now, however, Manong’s dinner is more than a worthy enough draw on its own. Aside from the bloom shroom, all of the skewers are winners, including the juicy grilled chicken thighs glazed in Filipino barbeque sauce and tagalog beef sticks that evoke Japanese negamaki with thin-sliced flank steak bundles on the skewer rolled around crunchy scallions in a calamansi soy-garlic glaze.
Anies aims to evoke the rich chain restaurant pastas of his youth with the “creamy pasta” entree, but it’s infinitely more interesting here with basil fettuccine tangled in a sauce creamed with coconut and Parmesan, flavor-boosted with ginger, garlic, and thin slices of pork belly. The “super duper creamy” version may be tempting, but once again, like that burger, the “more” option was less appealing. When we opted for the bonus of trout roe and shrimp on my second visit, it came in an overly thickened cream sauce that bordered on sludge.
The squash at Manong on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025 in Philadelphia.
One of Manong’s most creative dishes is its singular option for vegans, kalabasa pyanggang, a koginut squash marinated in a garlicky paste of charred coconut husks that’s served with a sweet vinegar lemongrass drizzle over a rich coconut milk sauce scattered with pepita seeds.
I would have loved the grilled swordfish with green mango-bitter melon salad if it had been fully cooked. That’s one fish I don’t enjoy medium-rare. But Manong has its roasted half-chicken down, a juicy lemongrass-infused bird glazed in tart calamansi vinegar and orange annato butter — at $28, a relative bargain in an era of high-priced chicken entrees
The kitchen’s pork dishes are also exceptional, including a traditional lechon liempo pork belly whose superbly tender chunks of meat are set beneath shattering amber sheets of crispy pig skin, atop a silky swoosh of creamy liver sauce.
The lechon liempo at Manong is slow-roasted pork belly topped with crispy skin over a sauce of pureed chicken liver.The pork & beans at Manong in Philadelphia, Pa., on Thursday, March. 5, 2026.
Perhaps my favorite dish at Manong is the “pork & beans”, a multi-cultural mash-up of a juicy grilled pork chop encrusted with green peppercorns and smothered with sweet and zesty mung beans. Think of the canned Heinz baked beans classic, but with a Filipino swagger of cane vinegar, the sweetness of brown sugar, and red yeast rice (typically used in Chinese char siu bbq), and firmer beans that possess a nutty snap of extra texture.
“Is it American? Is it Filipino? It’s neither, but also both,” says Anies, summing up not only this dish, but so much of the menu at Manong, where steaming sides of garlic rice, coconut-creamed spinach, and whipped potato salad studded with more crunchy garlic, corn, and shear potato skin chicharrones create a spirited fusion feast like no other.
Add some calamansi or mango water ice for dessert sandwiched on those fresh pandesal rolls, or the deep purple richness of its ube ice cream, and Manong’s Filipino fusion takes on a distinctly Philly vibe, too. Anies’ chain restaurant childhood may have been the impetus for the affordable and fun spirit of Manong, but he’s created something here that feels like an original.
The ube and mango ice cream sandwich at Manong in Philadelphia, Pa., on Thursday, March. 5, 2026.
Manong
1833 Fairmount Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19130, 445-223-2141; manongphilly.com
Dinner Wednesday to Sunday, 5-11 p.m. Cafe open for coffee and pastries Wednesday to Sunday, 8 a.m.-2 p.m.
Dinner entrees, $19-$35.
About 30% of the menu is gluten-free, including the bloom shroom, cooked in a gluten-free fryer.
Drinks: The cocktail list delivers affordability and style, with a series of classic templates transformed colorful tropical twists, from the sky blue Otso Otso infused with green peppercorn and lemongrass, to a backnote of corn in the espresso martini and Filipino rum mixed with coconut and purple sweet potato for the Ube Halaya. The beer list features both local brews and Filipino imports, including the smooth but potent Red Horse. There’s also a selection of natural wines by the 6 oz. carafe. In addition, a retail bottle shop has a fine selection of natural wines and sakes to go.
Like so many humans, perhaps the atmosphere is having issues adjusting to the time change. At the very least, it’s having trouble keeping track of the seasons.
After making a run at 70 degrees on a stormy Monday, on Tuesday it will be welcome back to hats and gloves in Philly.
Temperatures were forecast to fall to freezing by daybreak, which would be a drop of 35 to 40 degrees in less than 24 hours. In some years, that would rank among the biggest annual day-to-day temperature drops.
But this comes less than a week after the official readings plummeted from 83 degrees, normal for mid-June, to 35 in 24 hours, one of the largest day-to-day temperature swings in Philly’s climate record.
In official record-keeping dating to 1874 — covering more than 55,000 days — the Wednesday-to-Thursday shift would rank in the top 20 for day-to-day temperature tumbles, according to an Inquirer analysis.
“It’s really remarkable,” said Eric Balaban, pulmonary and critical care fellow at the Temple Lung Center.
He and other experts say that aside from what it may do to the morale of spring’s ardent fans, the thermal roller-coaster and the accompanying winds likely are having effects on health, particularly for people with respiratory cardiovascular conditions.
And we probably should expect to see the dramatic swings to continue for a while, said Matt Benz, senior meteorologist with AccuWeather Inc.
“I’d be surprised if we didn’t, given the pattern we’ve being going through,” Benz said.
Why the temperature has been so jumpy lately in Philly
Philadelphia and other areas in the mid-latitudes are prone to become battlegrounds this time of year between the stubborn winter and the impatient spring.
March is notorious for temperature swings as cold air masses from the north encounter encroaching warmth and storms tend to form along the borders of the skirmishes.
One reason the contrasts have been especially vigorous this year is the obvious. “After this hard winter, that’s to be expected,” said Ray Martin, a lead meteorologist at the National Weather Service. We haven’t had many of those lately.
But that 48-degree drop last week belongs in an elite category. It ranked No. 18 among day-to-day temperature falls, based on the available records. The all-timer was the 57-degree drop from March 28 to 29 in 1921, with several 50-degree drops appearing in the record.
Whenever they occur, the radical shifts can have health consequences, according to medical experts and a variety of studies.
The possible health effects of rapid temperature changes
The temperature changes typically are set off by potent fronts, such as the one that crashed through the region on Monday, and they generate powerful winds.
By stirring particulate matter and transporting early tree pollens, the winds present a risk to those with respiratory conditions and allergies, said Manav N. Segal, with the Chestnut Hill Allergy & Asthma practice.
“We are seeing an increase in call volume already because of patients’ spring allergy symptoms,” he said Monday. And conditions this week are just a prequel: The allergy season will pick up steam once the weather turns more consistently warmer and the allergy season intensifies, he said.
Said Balaban, “People who have preexsiting conditions are simply at higher risk.”
Rapid changes in temperature and levels of atmospheric moisture with frontal passages can irritate the airways and increase airway inflammation, said Joann Martin, nurse with Guardian Nurses Healthcare Advocates in Flourtown, Montgomery County. Studies have shown associations between temperature variability and increased asthma-related hospital visits.
Changes in temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure — a measure of the weight of the air that falls as fronts approach and rises after they pass — are “recognized triggers for migraine and severe headaches.”
In addition, “Sudden temperature shifts can affect blood pressure, vascular tone, and cardiac workload,” Martin said, increasing the changes for heart attacks and strokes.
For most people, however, after a long winter, the temperature drops are a source of frustration over the delay of a much-anticipated spring.
More temperature swings are likely in coming weeks in the Philly region
For now, at least, it appears that the region’s cherry blossoms should be safe, even though temperatures Tuesday morning were expected to come close to freezing in Philly and may fall into the upper 20s Wednesday and Thursday mornings.
Daytime highs won’t be much higher than 40 Tuesday and Wednesday, before a modest warmup begins.
It likely would take a serious late-March or early-April freeze to damage the blossoms, said Sandi Polyakov, head gardener for the Japan America Society of Greater Philadelphia. He expects a bloom peak in early April.
Coinciding with the expected behavior of the atmosphere over Philly, the clocks are taking a major leap into spring this weekend, this time around as early as it ever happens.
On Sunday the clocks will skip right over 2 a.m. and proceed to 3 a.m. as daylight saving time begins and will continue throughNov. 1.
The sun won’t set before 7 p.m. until Sept. 22.
Congratulations to those who prefer eating dinner before dark or savoring an extra dose of daylight after work. If you dread being shorted an hour on a precious weekend and hold that DST actually stands for “delayed sunrise time,” we offer a modest consolation prize.
The sun appears to be setting on the all-DST-all-the-time movement.
Recall that the U.S. Senate unanimously (at least technically) passed the 2022 iteration of the Sunshine Protection Act that would have ditched the switch and installed daylight saving time as the year-round system. U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle (D., Pa.) said at the time “the idea definitely has legs,” and isn’t that what they said about the Eagles’ offense?
It’s as if the campaign has gone back to bed.
The 2022 bill’s sponsor, Marco Rubio, at the time a senator representing the Sunshine State, is now the secretary of state and appears to have bigger fish to fry. His immediate supervisor, President Donald Trump, who at different timesadvocated for year-round standard and year-round DST, has lost interest.
So, evidently, have legions of state lawmakers around the country.
The number of bills calling for year-round daylight saving time has dropped dramatically, and this year they are far outnumbered by bills advocating year-round standard time, based on a survey of data compiled by the National Conference of State Legislatures.
That said, the discussion may never die. The Sunshine Protection Act was reintroduced in the Senate last year. Sen. Rick Scott (R., Fla.) says he’s giving it another shot. But expect 100% chance that clocks go back in the fall; the bill remains in committee.
To honor a day that so many look forward to, and so many others dread, we offer a few numbers for consideration, starting with a visit to Marquette, Mich.
79: Minutes of difference in sunrise times
Sunrise Monday in Marquette doesn’t occur until 8:11 a.m., compared with 6:52 a.m. in Lubec, Maine. That is a 79-minute difference — in the same time zone. Lubec is on the shores of the Atlantic. Marquette is on the shores of Lake Superior in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
In Marquette, the sun’s reluctance to get out of bed may be understandable. The city already has had close to 210 inches of snow (about 10 Philly winters’ worth) this season. “Even by our standards, this has been a pretty remarkable winter,” said Chris Burling, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Marquette.
As with the snow, the locals appear to accept the late sunrises with a measure of equanimity. “I think there’s some grumbling for a couple days,” said Burling, “but otherwise, it’s just …that’s how it is.”
Sleep experts advise that people in the westerly longitudes of time zones stand to suffer more than their counterparts to the east. In Marquette, twilight won’t end until close to 10:30 p.m. around the summer solstice. That can be disruptive to bodily sleep rhythms, experts say, by depriving bodies of melatonin, the sleep hormone that the body produces in the dark.
The Michigan legislature is among those that have considered a bill for year-round standard time. Federal law permits states to go all-standard, but all-daylight saving time would require Congress to pass a law to allow it.
800: Pro-daylight saving time bills
Eight hundred bills have been introduced in state legislatures since 2005 to enact year-round daylight saving time, according to Tom Klein, policy associate with the legislatures conference.
93: Time-change bills in 2025
There were 93 bills introduced in 2025 in favor of either year-round Daylight Saving Time or standard time.
35: States
Thirty-five states considered such bills in 2025, about evenly split between all-DST and all-standard, by the conference’s count.
21: Bills this year
In 2026, 21 bills are under consideration, with 16 calling for year-round standard time and five favoring all-Daylight Saving Time.
1,454: Days
It’s been 1,454days since the U.S. Senate approved the Sunshine Protection Act.
Just 238days until we fall backward again. Incidentally, since Daylight Saving Time begins on the second Sunday in March, this is the earliest it could happen. Nov. 1 is the earliest possible starting date for standard time.
Innumerable
Projected number of days before the clock-switch debate ends.
With one trade Friday morning, the Flyers got more interesting. Not immediately. They’re still likely to miss the playoffs this season, which would be the sixth in a row that they’ve failed to qualify for the postseason. For all that time and longer, they’ve been the NHL’s version of late-career Martin Scorsese: Back in the day, they were great and fascinating, and now they’re one suspenseless snoozefest after another. (Seriously, has Killers of the Flower Moon ended yet?)
Their decision to send winger Bobby Brink to the Minnesota Wild for defenseman David Jiříček was an eyebrow-raiser, though. The move in and of itself wasn’t all that surprising, in that the Flyers have a surplus of wingers both on their roster and in their farm system. They were bound to say goodbye to one of them at this trade deadline, and Brink was a prime candidate: At 24, he’s a relatively promising player on a cap-friendly contract.
No, the intrigue of the Brink trade comes from its context. It’s the latest thread in a larger pattern that general manager Danny Brière and team president Keith Jones have been weaving since they took control of the Flyers’ player-personnel department in 2023. Rather than having the team bottom out over a full season or two and ending up with a pick or picks that are at worst among the top five in their drafts, the Flyers are taking risks, some more calculated than others, by acquiring young players who were high draft picks for other clubs.
They did it with Jamie Drysdale, whom the Anaheim Ducks had picked sixth in 2020 before trading him to the Flyers for Cutter Gauthier in January of 2024. They did it with Trevor Zegras — another Ducks draftee, ninth overall in 2019 — when they got him last offseason for Ryan Poehling and two draft picks. They did something similar in 2023 when they drafted Matvei Michkov, who fell to them at No. 7 in part because of worries among NHL clubs that he wouldn’t be leaving Russia for three years, if he was able to leave at all.
Now they’ve done it with Jiříček. Drafted sixth overall in 2022 by the Columbus Blue Jackets, he reportedly was unhappy that the Blue Jackets thought he needed to spend time in the minors. They shipped him to Minnesota in November 2024; there, he bounced between the Wild and its farm team until Friday.
Flyers forward Trevor Zegras has been a shrewd addition after struggling the past two seasons in Anaheim.
At first glance, that’s not an especially appealing player profile: a high draft pick who has been traded twice before his 23rd birthday, once because he was malcontented, once because he couldn’t stick on an NHL roster. And it’s generally acknowledged that Jiříček’s skating has to improve substantially. Still, he is just 22, and he is 6-foot-4 and rugged, and he has a booming slap shot. There are tools there, and there is still time for him to mature into the player he was projected to be.
The Flyers are attempting a daring bit of raindrop-dodging here. They haven’t tanked. They don’t want to tank. They believe it would be corrosive to the franchise as a whole and to the locker room in particular (and it certainly would be to their ticket-sales department). So they are banking — and a team source confirmed Friday that this element was part of their approach — that head coach Rick Tocchet, his staff, and the other power people in the organization can cultivate a strong enough culture that Drysdale, Zegras, Jiříček, and players like them can develop and thrive here even though they didn’t elsewhere.
Michkov is again an instructive example in this regard. After entering the season out of shape and seeing Tocchet limit his ice time, he has been a better player since the Olympic break. The fears within the fan base that Tocchet was angering or alienating him have quelled, and Tocchet’s strategy for handling the most important player on the roster seems to be working, for the time being anyway.
Drysdale hasn’t been the same caliber of player that Gauthier has been — someday, someone will get the full story on why the relationship between the Flyers and Gauthier deteriorated to the point that they felt they had to trade him — but he has come a long way and is just 23. Zegras, 24, has been an excellent addition so far. The Flyers are in need of two major components of a Stanley Cup-contending team — a No. 1 center and a No. 1 defenseman — and Jiříček’s pedigree suggests that he can one day be a top-tier defenseman, assuming a team can figure out how to get the best out of him.
He may or may not become that kind of player. Whether he does or doesn’t isn’t really the point. The point is that the only way the Flyers are going to return to respectability again is by taking some chances and having those gambles pay off. They’re past playing it safe. They might end up exactly where they are now or in even worse shape, but at least they’ve stepped into the casino.
Danny Brière has taken an unconventional and risky path to rebuilding. Time will tell if it pays off.
Russia is providing Iran with targeting information to attack American forces in the Middle East, the first indication that another major U.S. adversary is participating — even indirectly — in the war, according to three officials familiar with the intelligence.
The assistance, which has not been previously reported, signals that the rapidly expanding conflict now features one of America’s chief nuclear-armed competitors with exquisite intelligence capabilities.
Since the war began Saturday, Russia has passed Iran the locations of U.S. military assets, including warships and aircraft, said the three officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity.
“It does seem like it’s a pretty comprehensive effort,” one of the people said.
Reached by The Washington Post on Friday, Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, declined to comment on the intelligence findings. Moscow has called for an end to the war, which it labeled an “unprovoked act of armed aggression.”
The extent of Russia’s targeting assistance to Iran was not entirely clear. The Iranian military’s own ability to locate U.S. forces has been degraded less than a week into the fighting, the officials said.
Six U.S. troops were killed and several others were injured by an Iranian drone attack Sunday in Kuwait. Iran has fired thousands of one-way attack drones and hundreds of missiles at U.S. military positions, embassies and civilians, even as the joint American-Israeli campaign has hit more than 2,000 Iranian targets — including ballistic missile sites, naval assets, and the country’s leadership.
“The Iranian regime is being absolutely crushed,” said a White House spokeswoman, Anna Kelly, without commenting on any Russian aid to Iran. “Their ballistic missile retaliation is decreasing every day, their navy is being wiped out, their production capacity is being demolished, and proxies are hardly putting up a fight.”
The CIA and the Pentagon declined to comment.
When asked this week about his message to Russia and China, which are among Iran’s most powerful backers, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that he didn’t have one and that “they’re not really a factor here.”
Two of the officials familiar with Russia’s support for Iran said that China did not appear to be aiding Iran’s defense, despite close ties between the two countries.
In a statement, the Chinese Embassy in Washington referred to Beijing’s diplomatic efforts to engage with partners in the region since the war began and said that the conflict should be “immediately ceased.”
Analysts said that the sharing of intelligence would fit the pattern of Iran’s strikes against U.S. forces, including command and control infrastructure, radars and temporary structures, like the one in Kuwait where six service members were killed.
Iran is “making very precise hits on early warning radars or over-the-horizon radars,” said Dara Massicot, an expert on the Russian military at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “They’re doing this in a very targeted way. They’re going after command and control,” she added.
Iran possesses only a handful of military-grade satellites, and no satellite constellation of its own, which would make imagery provided by Russia’s much more advanced space capabilities highly valuable — particularly as the Kremlin has honed its own targeting after years of war in Ukraine, Massicot said.
Nicole Grajewski, who studies Iran’s cooperation with Russia at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center, said that there had been a high level of “sophistication” in the Iranian retaliatory strikes, both in what Tehran has targeted and in its ability in some cases to overwhelm U.S. and allied defenses.
“They’re getting through air defenses,” she said, noting that the quality of Iran’s strikes appeared to have improved even from its 12-day war with Israel last summer.
The Pentagon is quickly burning through its supply of precision arms and air defense interceptors, people familiar with the matter have told the Post, underscoring concerns raised by Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as President Donald Trump deliberated whether to approve the operation. The administration has sought to downplay Caine’s assessment.
Russia’s assistancereshuffles how various countries have engaged in a proxy war since Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Throughout that conflict, U.S. adversaries including Iran, China and North Korea have provided Russia with either direct military aid or material support for Moscow’s vast defense industry. The United States has given Ukraine tens of billions of dollars’ worth of military equipment and shared intelligence on Russian positions to improve Kyiv’s targeting.
On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posted on X that the Trump administration had requested assistance in helping protect against Iranian drones and that Kyiv would provide “specialists” in response.
Iran has been one of Russia’s chief backers during the Ukraine war, sharing the technology to produce cheap one-way attack drones that have repeatedly been used to overwhelm Kyiv’s air defenses and exhaust Western stocks of interceptors donated to protect Ukrainian cities.
“The Russians are more than aware of the assistance that we’re giving the Ukrainians,” said one of the officials familiar with Moscow’s support for Tehran. “I think they were very happy to try to get some payback.”
The quality of Russia’s intelligence collection is not on a par with America’s but still ranks among the world’s best, this person continued.
The Post has previously reported that despite the blow to one of its closest partners, the Kremlin sees possible advantages in a prolonged war between the U.S. and Iran, including higher oil revenue and an acute crisis that distracts America and Europe from the war in Ukraine.
Iran, whose supreme leader was killed early in the conflict, could become the latest country to lose a pro-Russian government in recent years, following a Syrian uprising in late 2024 that ousted longtime dictator Bashar Assad and the U.S. military raid to seize Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January.
Still, the lack of direct military involvement from Moscow is in part a sign of its need to focus elsewhere, Massicot said.
The Kremlin, she said, is “very much considering this is not their problem and not their war. From a strategic calculus perspective, Ukraine is still far and away the number one priority.”
The conversation reared its head again this week after a New Jersey Girl Scout troop set up shop outside of a Mount Laurel recreational marijuana dispensary to sell Thin Mints and Caramel deLites. Owners of Daylite Cannabis dispensary had been trying for years to make this possible, and were excited to share the news of a “pilot program” at their store, owner Steve Cassidy said in an article for NJ.com.
“Being community-minded is a core part of our mission at Daylite. We’re a locally and family-owned business, so supporting local organizations and helping them raise funds in the community is very important to us,” Cassidy said, who runs the dispensary alongside his wife and parents.
What they didn’t expect was for it to become a national and global headline, upsetting higher-ups at the Girl Scouts of America. A representative for the Girl Scouts of Central and South Jersey said that there was no formalagreement to allow Girl Scouts to sell cookies in front of a dispensary and don’t approve of the practice.
“Our guidance for Girl Scout cookie booths is that girls should not set up booths in front of any businesses that they themselves could not legally patronize,” the representative said. “It’s just unfortunate that [the owner] was quoted as saying this is a ‘trial’ because that is factually incorrect.”
The Girl Scout troop, which Cassidy did not identify, sold cookies outside the dispensary on NJ Route 73 in February to much enthusiasm from customers, Cassidy said. Some customers even bypassed the marijuana to go to the cookies first, he told NJ.com.
Girl Scouts of Central and South Jersey said they do not know how the miscommunication occurred. Cassidy said he was told by a member of a local Girl Scout organization that a “small pilot program” had been approved.
“Our intention was simply to support a local troop and be part of our community. We’ve seen an overwhelmingly positive response from people who enjoyed supporting the girls, and we hope that enthusiasm helps encourage similar community partnerships in the future.”
Girl Scout cookie season runs from January to April, providing young girls the chance to exercise the entrepreneurial spirit and engage with their community. Girl Scouts started selling cookies in 1917, but Girl Scouts selling cookies in front of weed dispensaries has been making headlines for more than a decade.
At the time, Lei’s mom told press that she encourages her daughters to “set up shop at various points around San Francisco so they can learn about different environments while earning some cash” and to use it as an opportunity, “to start a conversation about drugs and how some people use marijuana as medicine while others just get high.”
Philadelphia’s oldest wine school says a competitor is attempting to erase its existence from the internet through a “cyberbullying” campaign and trademark infringement, according to a federal lawsuit.
In the suit, PhillyWine LLC alleges that Keith Wallace and Alana Zerbe, the husband-and-wife duo behind the Wine School of Philadelphia, took extraordinary steps to confuse customers and piggyback on PhillyWine’s prestige, causing PhillyWine economic and reputational damage. The suit, filed Feb. 26 in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, also accuses Wallace, the founder of the Wine School of Philadelphia, of fabricating his credentials and using aliases to open businesses that promote his school.
Wallace and Zerbe “have made it their mission to destroy” PhillyWine “by attempting to erase its existence and take over its name,” the suit says. The two schools have coexisted since the early 2000s — “although not always peacefully,” the suit notes — but tensions escalated at the end of 2025, when Wallace secured what the suit calls a “fraudulently obtained trademark” for the name “Philly Wine School.”
A screenshot from the Philadelphia Wine School’s website using the Philly Wine School name, which PhillyWine alleges infringed on their brand.
Armed with the trademark, Wallace convinced Instagram to suspend PhillyWine’s account in December, according to the complaint, and he has since attempted to take over the school’s Google business listing and shut down its website. Meanwhile, he was propping up his own business through a “self-legitimizing web of deception,” the suit says.
PhillyWine’s enrollment and attendance have been down since December, co-owner Matt Kirkland said in an interview, declining to share specific figures.
“The name confusion has disrupted student registration and appears to be redirecting traffic” to Wallace’s sites, said Kirkland. “I think there needs to be clarity in naming and clarity for students so they sign up for the classes they think they’re signing up for.”
PhillyWine is asking a federal judge to issue an injunction that would prohibit Wallace from using Philly Wine School, or any other confusingly similar name, and from attempting to disable PhillyWine’s online accounts. Without an injunction, the request said, PhillyWine would face an “existential threat.”
“These attacks must end now, and PhillyWine must be allowed to resume its business under normal conditions without further harassment,” the LLC said in court filings.
The lawsuit seeks profits the Wine School of Philadelphia earned from misappropriating PhillyWine’s name through trademark infringement, unfair competition practices, and false advertising. It also asks a judge to nullify the trademark.
Wallace denied the allegations and characterized the complaint as a way for PhillyWine to “bully” him out of the business he spent decades building.
A wine war ferments
Created by former owner Neal Ewing in 1999, PhillyWine is the city’s only wine educator fully accredited by the Wine & Spirits Education Trust, a nonprofit organization which sets international standards for alcoholic beverage education. PhillyWine is one of 47 programs globally — and the only in the tri-state area — approved to teach the trust’s full wine diploma, which PhillyWine has leveraged to host classes with Drexel and James Madison universities.
The Wine School of Philadelphia, founded in 2001 by Wallace,is not accredited by the Wine & Spirits Education Trust. It hosts wine tastings as well as semester-long sommelier courses using curricula from the National Wine School, which Wallace also founded. About 3,000 people attend Wine School of Philadelphia classes annually, according to Wallace.
In 2019, the education trustsent Wallace a letter asking him to cease comparing his school with PhillyWine on his site, the suit says. Wallace said he had “no idea” if he ever received such a letter.
When Ewing retired in 2022, he sold the business to current co-owners Kirkland, a Penn surgeon, and Noelle Allen, a former banking executive andcertified wine educator. Then, a digital wine war began to ferment.
That August, the school learned that Wallace had claimed the Instagram handle @PhillyWine to “antagonize” Ewing, the suit said, and it had to compromise for the now-defunct @PhillyWineSchool. The account @PhillyWine currently has a photo of Wallace as its profile picture and features videos of Wallace and Zerbe filming their wine podcast.
Wallace denied obtaining the Instagram handle togrind an axe, but acknowledged a rift between the two wine schools. “Everyone knows — including my wife and therapist — that I have a sharp tongue, and I have always been critical of certain ways of [teaching] … but I have never said anything nasty or even a little mean” about PhillyWine, he said. “They just do not like me.”
In late 2024, Wallace filed an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to trademark “Philly Wine School” for use alongside food and wine classes. He obtained the name in December; it had no prior trademarks.
Themove blindsided PhillyWine’s owners. “We frankly saw no reason and anticipated no need for a reason to try to trademark something,” Kirkland said.
The lawsuit alleges Wallace lied in his trademark application by attesting that the Philly Wine School name “has acquired distinctiveness in the marketplace through nearly two decades of continuous use.” But there is no evidence he used that name on his school’s website before filing the application in November 2024, according to the suit.
Wallace chalked the sudden use of “Philly Wine School” on his website up to pride in having the trademark. “When you get something, you show it off,” he said.
Bringing a ‘bazooka’ to a ‘wine fight’
Once the trademark was issued, Wallace “immediately used the document to inflict cyberbullying on PhillyWine,” the suit said.
Wallace successfully asked Instagram tosuspend PhillyWine’s account, according to the complaint, and has attempted to claim the school’s Google Business profile. He also filed a takedown request with SquareSpace, the host of PhillyWine’s website, and created a Google Maps listing for a “Philly Wine School” at 109 S. 22nd St., the Wine School of Philadelphia’s address. Kirkland said the latter action has led to PhillyWine, which teaches three blocks away at the Fitler Club, receiving negative reviews for classes taken at Wallace’s Wine School of Philadelphia.
“A review like that — where someone posts about us and they’re not our student and have never taken our classes — is direct reputational damage,” said Kirkland. Lawyers representing PhillyWine sent a cease and desist on Dec. 31, asking Wallace to abandon his trademark and “discontinue his efforts to take over” or remove the school’s online accounts,according to documents reviewed by The Inquirer.
Wallace confirmed receiving the cease and desist, but rejected allegations of using the trademark to bully PhillyWine or its owners. Instead, Wallace said, he’s the true victim.
“If they wanted these things, they could’ve done them too,” Wallace said. “We’re nothing but peace, love, and happiness. They just have this tiny little lawsuit, and they filled it with all this nastiness.”
A negative PhillyWine review on SOMM, a website operated by Keith Wallace, owner of The Wine School of Philadelphia.
The lawsuit also alleges that Wallace has been untruthful about his credentials and used aliases to start businesses such as the National Wine School and the website somm.us in order to promote his school. (Wallace said he founded somm.us in 2015 and maintains a relationship with the website, but doesn’t control its ratings or content.)
Wallace’s biography on the Wine School of Philadelphia website previously stated he graduated from University of California Davis and was a professional winemaker in Napa Valley. Neither are true, according to the suit.
Wallace declined to say when he matriculated at or graduated from UC Davis or elaborate on his stint in Napa Valley. UC Davis has no record of a person with Wallace’s name or date of birth ever attending, a representative for the university said via email.
The lawsuit’s allegations, he said, have him fearful for the future of his school.
“They brought a bazooka to a knife fight,” Wallace said. “This isn’t even a knife fight, it’s a wine fight.”
The NHL trade deadline passed at 3 p.m., but Flyers defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen, who appeared to be player most likely to be dealt, remains with the team.
Tyson Foerster hasn’t played since injuring his arm back in December, but GM Danny Brière said Friday that if the Flyers made the playoffs, the winger would be on track to return following surgery.
“Tyson is doing really well,” Brière said. “I think when we announced he had the surgery that he was going to be out until the playoffs, or somewhere [around] the beginning of the playoffs. He’s pretty much on pace. It would be nice if we could get in the playoff hunt, but so far it’s going well.
“He’s starting to skate and shoot pucks. It’s trending in the right direction. I know he’s going to start knocking on my door soon to get back in the lineup early, he’s just that type of person. He’s going to push to get back earlier, but it’s exciting.”
Sielski: Acquiring David Jiříček is worth the risk
David Jiříček is just 22 years old.
With one trade Friday morning, the Flyers got more interesting. Not immediately. They’re still likely to miss the playoffs this season, which would be the sixth in a row that they’ve failed to qualify for the postseason. For all that time and longer, they’ve been the NHL’s version of late-career Martin Scorsese: Back in the day, they were great and fascinating, and now they’re one suspenseless snoozefest after another. (Seriously, has Killers of the Flower Moon ended yet?)
Their decision to send winger Bobby Brink to the Minnesota Wild for defenseman David Jiříček was an eyebrow-raiser, though. The move in and of itself wasn’t all that surprising, in that the Flyers have a surplus of wingers both on their roster and in their farm system. They were bound to say goodbye to one of them at this trade deadline, and Brink was a prime candidate: At 24, he’s a relatively promising player on a cap-friendly contract.
No, the intrigue of the Brink trade comes from its context. It’s the latest thread in a larger pattern that general manager Danny Brière and team president Keith Jones have been weaving since they took control of the Flyers’ player-personnel department in 2023. Rather than having the team bottom out over a full season or two and ending up with a pick or picks that are at worst among the top five in their drafts, the Flyers are taking risks, some more calculated than others, by acquiring young players who were high draft picks for other clubs.
Flyers lost a ‘great teammate’ and a ‘heart and soul guy’ in Nic Deslauriers
Former Flyer Nic Deslauriers never backed down from a fight.
While the return for Nic Deslauriers isn’t much — a conditional seventh-round draft pick — the move was more about the organization doing right by a popular veteran who seemed to want a change of scenery and a chance to chase a Stanley Cup, which he certainly will get with the Metropolitan-leading Carolina Hurricanes.
“A great teammate, a great protector for our guys the last few years,” Danny Brière said of Deslauriers. “We had a discussion, him and I, Nic wasn’t looking to leave, he loves it here, I think he even said his family is not going anywhere, they’re staying in the area. But he said if you need to trade me, I’m open to it, I don’t have a problem. I said, look, we’re not trying to trade you, but if you want to have the chance to go chase a Cup, I’ll give you that opportunity.
“I had a chat with Carolina, they were interested, and Nic was interested as well. It was one of those things, Nic has earned that right, for everything that he’s done for his teammates, for our players, our organization, [I] thought it was the right thing to do for him.”
And those now-former teammates are glad to see Deslauriers get a chance to contend for a Cup.
“I’m happy for him. I think he still has gas in the tank, too,” forward Garnet Hathaway told The Inquirer on Friday after the Flyers’ practice, which Deslauriers participated in. “I see it every day. I see the work ethic, I see how much he cares, and I see the teammate he is. So Carolina has got a great player [and a ] great guy.”
Deslauriers’ time in Philly will be defined by his willingness to stand up for his teammates and take on all comers. Long one of the most feared and toughest customers in the league, the fourth-line winger managed nine goals and 20 points in 195 games with the Orange and Black. He also had 33 regular-season fights, including spirited bouts against heavyweights like Matt Rempe, Ryan Reaves, and Tanner Jeannot.
“One of the toughest guys in the league around. So we’ll definitely miss him,” center Noah Cates said.
He was also beloved by his teammates for his selflessness, toughness, leadership, and the space he created for teammates with his physicality. Whether Deslauriers will have a nightly spot in Carolina’s lineup remains to be seen, but he does bring a physicality and toughness that many have criticized the Hurricanes for lacking in recent playoff runs.
“A heart and soul guy who has your back no matter what, competes every night, and is a guy, regardless of how many minutes or how many games or how things are going, you know he’ll be a guy to support you, and will always be around to help too,” said Hathaway, who laughed when asked if he’s happy the Flyers don’t play the Hurricanes again this year.
“It’s probably tougher than most people think, to be so competitive, as I think all of us are in this league, and not have the role you want, or the ice time you want.
“And so be able to have that role, and personality-wise, not let it affect you, is special for a locker room to have and intricate for it to have, too. So I’m going to miss him.”
Briere believes Flyers have assets to go after top center in offseason
One of the things the Flyers need is a bonafide No. 1 center. They haven’t found one through the draft — but with the way some of their other young players are developing, Danny Brière believes the team may be close to having the assets to acquire one in the offseason.
“It’s all about value, and also your draft picks. As they get closer, you draft players, you get to know them, they become — they have more and more value,” Brière said. “It’s tougher to let them go, but at the same time, we have a lot of good young players who are coming. We have more and more assets. Three years ago, we almost had noithing to work with in terms of good young players coming, so it wasn’t enticing to other teams to trade young guys to us.
“But more and more with the way our young guys are coming along, and a lot of centers, those are always a lot of value, we have more and more assets. It’s going to hopefully get us a chance to get in on a player, or sometimes one of those players is just going to come and take it, like [Denver] Barkey did this year, surprised us a little bit. There’s going to be opportunities for our young guys to do that as well.”
Brière sees high potential with Jiříček, likens development to that of Jamie Drysdale
Jamie Drysdale, like Jiříček, entered the NHL at 18 years old.
Despite trading away an NHL player to acquire him, the Flyers announced that new defenseman David Jiříček will report to Lehigh Valley. The former top-10 draft pick hasn’t quite developed as quickly as some hoped — as evidenced by him joining his third team in the last four years — but general manager Danny Brière was optimistic that the 22-year-old defenseman will make an impact with the big club at some point.
Why? He pointed to the team’s development of another reclamation project: Jamie Drysdale.
“I think a little bit about Jamie Drysdale, totally different style of players, but I think about the development of Jamie Drysdale, where they both came in [to the NHL] at 18 years old, probably a bit too early to turn pro yet, go through some ups and downs, probably lose their confidence along the way,” Brière said. “He’s going to need some love, he’s going to need some reps, especially. He needs time, he needs to play a lot of minutes and build his confidence. The talent is there, it’s working with him.
“Defenseman, it seems, they need time. We saw it with Jamie, to see him kind of come into his own this year is really exciting, but we went through a learning curve with Jamie. I expect the same thing with David, we’re going to give him the chance to build his game, we’re going to work with him, I really like what Todd Reirden and Rick Tocchet’s staff has done with a lot of our young guys, especially Jamie, and I hope the same kind of wave can be on for David.”
As for whether or not he can make an impact this season, Brière said that remains to be seen. More important, he explained, is making sure Jiříček is ready to roll next season.
“I didn’t make him any promises [about NHL playing time], but yeah, at some point, if we have the chance I’d like to give him a look, give him a few games,” Brière added. “The most important, we felt, is for him to start in Lehigh, give him high minutes and lots of reps, and if things go well, I’d like to see him play a few games here, and get him ready for next season would be the ideal part.”
Once he does make the jump back to the NHL, the team thinks he could play a key role, especially if he’s able to return to the top-4 defenseman potential the Flyers saw when they considered drafting him with the fifth pick.
“The potential is high,” Briere said. “Yeah, he hasn’t maybe come out of his draft year as high as people expected, and look, that’s why he’s available as well. If he was playing like Matthew Schaefer we wouldn’t be talking about him. But we still see a high potential. You know, 21-22 year old, 6-foot-4 defensemen of his caliber are tough to find. We know we have to work with him, we need to be patient, we need to give him a bit of rope to develop him, but that’s why I go back to the Jamie Drysdale learning curve. [It] gives us hope that he can get on the same track and eventually become a difference maker for us.”
David Jiříček will hope the third home is a charm as he joins the Flyers after stops in Columbus and Minnesota.
It’s no secret that the Flyers have previously shown interest in defenseman David Jiříček, whom they acquired Friday for Bobby Brink. Chuck Fletcher nearly drafted him over Cutter Gauthier with the fifth pick in 2022. Then, last deadline, they were reported to be one of the teams interested in him when he was traded from Columbus to Minnesota.
“We inquired about him, we were in the mix before, when he was traded to Minnesota we were very interested,” GM Danny Brière admitted during his post-deadline press conference. “I didn’t think he was going to be available, all of a sudden we started talking to Minnesota, they liked Bobby, he’s from there too, so there’s something special. They knew Bobby very well because of him being from Minnesota, and all of a sudden the conversation turned to that.
“They paid a huge price for David when they acquired him — I think he was supposed to be part of their future, and then all of a sudden, they resigned [Kirill] Kaprizov, traded for Quinn Hughes, and everything opens up for them and they become contenders this year.
“David was a piece for them, because they thought he was not ready to play a big, heavy role that we just talked about yet, so he became a piece they could use to acquire someone who could help them. That’s kind of how it came around, and the price was reasonable at this point since we had so many wingers.”
Why did the Flyers keep Ristolainen? Brière explains.
The Flyers are keeping defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen.
Defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen was considered to be the Flyer most likely on the move ahead of Friday’s deadline, but when the deadline passed, he was still with the team.
After practice, GM Danny Brière explained why the team stuck by their reportedly high asking price and ultimately didn’t move him.
“You guys made a big story, I didn’t know I was trying to sell him, but you guys made it sound like we were dumping Risto for next to nothing,” Briere said. “At the end of the day, Risto has a lot of value to our team. I wasn’t trying to dump Risto. I wasn’t trying to get rid of him. I think the media turned it into a little bit of a circus to be honest, and that’s OK. I get it’s part of the job, part of my job to deal with that.
“But the reality is, Risto is an important part of our defense. He’s still under contract next season, so we weren’t looking to dump him. Where do you find 6-foot-4, physical, top-4, right-shot defenseman? There’s not a lot [of them]. We saw it on the market, and when that came out, we did get a lot of calls. We took them seriously, and we went through all the teams that were serious, but at the end of the day it just did not make sense value-wise. There’s nothing that made more sense to trade him.
“Risto’s an important leader in our room. I can promise you that our guys prefer having him on their side than playing against him. He’s the type of defenseman that brings guys to the fight, he runs around, he hits guys, he pisses off the opponents, there’s a lot of value to that. At the end of the day, it made more sense, we listened, but it made more sense to have Risto with us.”
When asked if a first-round pick was ever on the table, Brière declined to comment, only saying that “the value wasn’t as high as we needed for us moving forward.”
As for whether or not keeping the 31-year-old blue-liner, who could still be dealt around the NHL draft in June, creates a logjam for the organization’s defensive prospects, Briere said they’ll worry about that when the time comes.
“When they’re ready, we’re going to make room for them, a little bit like the Bobby Brink trade,” he said, referring to the team’s other log jam at left wing. “We feel like guys are almost there and we’re trying to make a little bit of room. It’s the same thing, I can’t say that David [Jiříček] and Oliver Bonk are ready to come in today, especially in a top-4 position. It’s one thing to come in and play in a bottom pairing as they start, but they haven’t even done that yet. I think they need a little bit more time, and we need to protect them a little bit. You ask those two guys to come in and play — Risto’s playing top pairing with Sanheim right now. I don’t think it would be fair to ask David or Oliver to come in and play those minutes yet.
“We hope that at one point it comes to that, but I don’t think they’re ready for that role yet. Risto has shown since he’s come back that he can handle those minutes, he’s shown at the Olympics as well how valuable he can be for a team. We hope they get there, but we want to protect them.”
Danny Brière on Bobby Brink trade: ‘Not an easy one’
Flyers GM Danny Brière made a couple of moves ahead of Friday’s deadline.
Following the passing of the NHL trade deadline, Flyers general manager Danny Briere spoke to reporters at the team’s practice facility in Vorhees.
Here are this thoughts on the biggest deal the Flyers actually made on deadline day, trading Bobby Brink to Minnesota for defenseman David Jiříček …
“Not an easy one. I was part of the development staff when Bobby came along. We had some long discussions about his future and his career, so having been part of that, and seeing him blossom into the player he has become, selfishly there’s a lot of pride in that, so he wasn’t an easy one to let go of,” Briere said. “But when you look at the way our team is coming along, you look at the depth that we’re building on the wings — [Travis] Konecny, [Matvei] Michkov, [Owen] Tippett, [Trevor] Zegras; Tyson [Foerster], who’s going to come back next season; [Porter] Martone that’s getting close; [Denver] Barkey, who surprised us this year in how well he’s played; you have Alex Bump; and then other guys behind that who are also pushing.
“It’s tough, at some point we were going to have to make a change or trade some wingers for other positions. When that came in yesterday, we started thinking it’s a chance to add a big, young, strong defenseman like David, we felt that’s a good opportunity to look toward the future and add another hopefully big piece down the road to our D-core, adding the size.”
Right wing Bobby Brink (right) celebrates a goal with former teammate Noah Cates. Brink was traded to Minnesota on Friday.
Bobby Brink’s former linemate Noah Cates discussed the departure of the winger, who was traded to the Wild on Friday, after the team’s practice in Vorhees.
“He’s helped me a ton with my game [and] hopefully he can say the same about me. Both being from Minnesota, there’s a lot of good things; it’s sad, but obviously happy, he’s going back home and going to a really good team. But definitely a shock, and still processing it. This still doesn’t feel too real. So, obviously, just a great kid, and [he] means a lot to me. So, hoping nothing but the best for him.”
Cates did not see Brink before he left for Las Vegas, where the Wild play on Friday night, and hadn’t sent him a text just yet. But he will be seeing him next Thursday, when the Flyers are in Minnesota (8 p.m., NBCSP).
“He went through some tough times with Torts and being a younger player, smaller player, skilled player. And he really helped me,” Cates said. “And I think our games kind of meshed well together and found some good chemistry. … He grew a ton. And credit to him. He’s seen as a critical piece to the Wild that they want, and for them to go on a playoff run. So obviously, an awesome kid, and we’re going to miss him.”
The team’s captain, Sean Couturier, also saw considerable growth from Brink during his time with the Flyers.
“He’s come a long way,” Couturier said back in October. “We’ve always seen his offensive skills and his ability to make plays and create offense, but the defensive side and the reliability of him have really improved. Feels like he’s a complete player, can play in all situations, and he’s going on a nightly basis against top lines. So, credit to him for developing that side of the game.”
A year after the Flyers traded Scott Laughton to the Maple Leafs, the forward is on the move again. According to Elliotte Friedman, Toronto is sending Laughton to the Los Angeles Kings for a third-round draft pick. That pick can become a second-rounder if the Kings make the playoffs, according to ESPN’s Emily Kaplan.
Flyers defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen was not moved at the deadline as the team couldn’t find someone to match their asking price.
It’s after 3 p.m., and Rasmus Ristolainen is still a Flyer. The team elected to hold onto the right-handed defenseman at the deadline, after it was reported that no team met the high price the Flyers were looking for in a deal, which was reportedly at least a first round pick and a prospect. This is the third straight year that Ristolainen has been the subject of trade talks, and the third time the team opted not to move him.
Ristolainen still has one more year on his contract at an affordable $5.1 million a season, and could be a trade piece in the offseason or at next year’s deadline. He played in 24 games this year and has been regularly hurt during his five-season tenure with the Flyers, including an upper body injury that sidelined him for the first 31 games this season.
General manager Danny Brière will speak shortly on the deadline and why the team decided to hang on to Ristolainen.
While some deals could trickle in in the next few minutes — assuming they were made before 3 p.m. — it appears the Flyers are done for the day.
Gone are Bobby Brink and Nic Deslauriers, while the Flyers added David Jiricek and a conditional seventh-round pick. The Flyers also traded minor leaguers Alexis Gendron and Massimo Rizzo for Bruins minor leaguers Brett Harrison and Jackson Edward, and reportedly picked up forward Luke Glendening off waivers from the Devils.
With Bobby Brink and Nic Deslauriers both on the way out at the trade deadline, the Flyers reportedly picked up forward Luke Glendening off waivers from the Devils.
Glendening is a 36-year-old center known for being elite at the face-off dot, with a career 55.5% win percentage, and good on the penalty kill. He’s a depth center option for the fourth line, which as of late has been centered by winger Carl Grundstrom.
The Flyers have dealt Nic Deslauriers to the Carolina Hurricanes ahead of the deadline for a conditional pick.
Can confirm the reports, #Flyers forward Nic Deslauriers has been traded to the Carolina Hurricanes for a conditional pick. As Deslauriers told me the other day, he thinks he still has some gas in the tank.https://t.co/3T9dl2YaeZ
Just 16 months ago, the Wild traded a player and four draft picks (one from each of the first four rounds) to the Blue Jackets for David Jiříček.
While David Jiříček is the newest Flyer, the defenseman is a familiar figure to many holdovers from the Chuck Fletcher era that remain in the Flyers’ front office, including general manager Danny Brière and assistant GM and head of scouting Brent Flahr.
Why? The Flyers were high on Jiříček entering the 2022 NHL draft, with many believing that the decision at Pick No. 5 ultimately came down to Cutter Gauthier and Jiříček, with the Flyers selecting Gauthier and Jiříček going a pick later to Columbus. Fast forward nearly four years and the roles are reversed, as Gauthier is gone and Jiříček is a Flyer.
There were also reports that the Flyers kicked the tires on acquiring Jiříček in 2024 when he was traded to Minnesota for a massive haul that included defenseman Daemon Hunt and first-, second-, third-, and fourth-round picks. While some more of the luster has worn off Jiříček now that he’s flopped with a second organization, from an assets management standpoint, the Flyers acquiring him for just Brink seems like a win considering what he cost the Wild just 16 months ago.
The Flyers are big on reclamation projects — Owen Tippett, Trevor Zegras, Jamie Drysdale — and they obviously believe Jiříček, 22, has the offensive tools to still reach his potential as a top-four NHL defenseman.
Nick Sirianni doppelganger, Nick Foligno, is on the move
Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni, left, and Chicago Blackhawks left wing Nick Foligno, right, look so similar that they went as each other for Halloween.
Eagles coach Nick Sirianni is staying put, but Nick Foligno, the man who dressed like the Eagles coach for Halloween — and who Sirianni returned the favor by dressing like during his own trick or treating — is headed to a new city.
NEWS: The Blackhawks have traded forward Nick Foligno to the Wild, a source tells The Athletic.
“I had a good laugh,” Foligno said of his reaction to seeing the Eagles coach dressed as him. “He was a great sport about it. I give him credit, especially in the Philly sports market, to rip a Chicago Blackhawks [jersey]. But I think it shows his personality. He gained a lot of points in my eyes just for the fun of it.”
Foligno was scheduled to come to Philly later this month with the Blackhawks and hoped to meet Sirianni in person. While the Flyers head to Minnesota next week, the Wild aren’t scheduled to play in Philly again this season. So it appears a meeting of between the two Nicks will have to wait.
The Flyers traded minor leaguers Alexis Gendron and Massimo Rizzo for Brett Harrison and Jackson Edward from the Bruins. Harrison was a third-round pick in 2021, and spent most of his career with the Providence Bruins. Edward was drafted in the seventh round of the 2022 draft, and has bounced between the ECHL Maine Mariners and Providence.
Gendron has spent three seasons playing with Lehigh Valley, and Rizzo, who was acquired from Carolina in 2023, has played for both Lehigh and the ECHL Reading Royals.
TRADE ALERT: We’ve acquired forward Brett Harrison & defenseman Jackson Edward from the Boston Bruins in exchange for forwards Alexis Gendron & Massimo Rizzo.
The Flyers traded right wing Bobby Brink to the Minnesota Wild on Friday.
The Flyers traded Bobby Brink to Minnesota in exchange for defenseman David Jiříček, swinging a middle-six winger for a high-upside defenseman who hasn’t found his footing yet in the NHL. So, who actually won the trade?
For a team with a glut of winger prospects coming up — most notably last year’s No. 6 overall pick Porter Martone — Brink became expendable to acquire players in positions of weakness, like defense. At this stage, Jiříček is more of a reclamation project than a top prospect, but the Flyers swung on Trevor Zegras and he’s bounced back into an elite player. Could the same happen with Jiříček?
Here’s what a few hockey analysts had to say about Jiříček and the deal …
David Jiricek, acquired by PHI, is a developing offensive defenceman. Legit puck skill but defensive awareness, risk management, and especially skating have held him back from carving out more than a sheltered depth role. pic.twitter.com/4m2D09wet7
Love this trade for Minnesota. Bobby Brink is a sneaky good add that fits their ever-present defensive identity. Not a Jiricek believer pic.twitter.com/F7rN0GDf9S
David Jiricek, acquired by the Flyers, was my third-ranked Wild prospect in my upcoming pool rankings.
He's a big right-shot D with a big point shot and a desire to play a commanding game, but bad feet and inconsistent reads have limited his ability to do it at the NHL level.
Meanwhile, Erik Johnson, who spent parts of the past two seasons with the Flyers before retiring and joining ESPN as an analyst, thinks the Wild made out in the deal to acquire the Minnesota native.
Great move by the Wild. I played with Bobby and he is underrated. Defensive game has improved a ton. Can trust him on both ends of the rink. Great kid.
The Flyers acquired Minnesota Wild defenseman David Jiricek ahead of the trade deadline.
The Flyers have traded Bobby Brink to the Minnesota Wild for defenseman David Jiříček. So who did they get back?
Jiříček was drafted sixth overall in the 2022 NHL draft by Columbus, but has struggled to stick in the NHL. He was traded to Minnesota in November 2024. In 2025-26, he has played 25 games with the Wild, scoring no points, and 24 games with the AHL Iowa Wild, with two goals and eight assists.
During his draft year, Jiříček, a righty, was praised for his offensive skills, especially his hard shot, but he’s struggled to establish those tools at the NHL level.
The Flyers are officially in the trade column, as the team started to unclog its logjam on the wing by trading Bobby Brink to the Minnesota Wild for defenseman David Jiříček, a source confirmed to The Inquirer on Friday morning.
While Rasmus Ristolainen was the biggest name in play for the Flyers heading into Friday, Brink was another player that many felt could be moved ahead of the 3 p.m. trade deadline. Brink, who was set to be a restricted free agent at season’s end, will also relish the destination as he is a native of Minnetonka, Minn.
The 24-year-old winger, who was a second-round pick in 2019, has 13 goals and 26 points in 55 games this season, and was on pace for a career-high 17 goals. Brink, who really developed chemistry and increased his all-around effectiveness on a third line with Noah Cates and Tyson Foerster the past few seasons, tallied 36 goals and 94 points in 201 career games with the Orange and Black.
Nic Deslauriers has been a good soldier since signing a four-year, $7 million deal in July or 2022. One of the league’s toughest and most feared customers, the 35-year-old has played a hard and physical game and has fought 33 times as a Flyer, many of which were in defense of or to stand up for fallen teammates.
The Flyers could look to do right by the popular veteran and trade him to a team where he can get more ice time and play a regular role. Deslauriers, who has only played in 24 of the Flyers’ 61 games this season, would be a particularly good fit for a team looking for someone to protect their youngsters and help mentor them off the ice.
Deslauriers told Jackie Spiegel recently he still thinks “I have some in the gas tank” and hopes to play a few more years. But with the Flyers upgrading American Hockey League tough guy Garrett Wilson’s contract to an NHL one on Thursday, it looks like his time with the Flyers is coming to an end.
Was Thursday night’s loss to the Mammoth the final game in a Flyers jersey for defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen?
The list of potential landing spots for Rasmus Ristolainen, the Flyers’ rugged right-shot defenseman, shrunk overnight. With Buffalo adding a pair of big blueliners in Logan Stanley and righty Luke Schenn, and Anaheim making a surprising move for veteran righty John Carlson, you can cross two more potential suitors off the list. This came after Dallas, Edmonton, and Utah, three other clubs that had been linked with Ristolainen, made moves for defensemen in recent days.
Detroit and Boston now seem to be the two most likely trade partners for Danny Brière. The Red Wings and Bruins are both well-stocked when it comes to future first-round picks and young centers and defensemen. Detroit center prospect Nate Danielson would be an intriguing name for the Flyers, as would 6-foot-7, 230-pound Bruins pivot Dean Letourneau. The Bruins, who have four first-rounders over the next two years, are also dangling 21-year-old center Matthew Poitras and 25-year-old offensive defenseman Mason Lohrei in potential trades.
The Flyers are still holding out for a first-rounder plus an A- or B-level prospect in return for the Finnish defenseman. Ristolainen, 31, has one more year remaining on his contract and carries a $5.1 million cap hit. The Flyers could offer to retain 50% of Ristolainen’s deal to sweeten the pot as well.
Flyers defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen could be on the move ahead of the trade deadline.
It’s deadline day.
The Flyers, six points out of the last wild card spot, are expected to be sellers, and the loudest rumors have surrounded defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen, who has another year on his contract at $5.1 million after this one. That extra year could keep him in Philadelphia past the deadline if Danny Brière doesn’t get the offer he wants.
“I can’t really control that,” Ristolainen said after Thursday’s loss to the Mammoth. “I just try to come in here every day, and obviously tomorrow, we’ll see what happens.”
The d-market has been moving in the lead-up to 3 p.m., with the Capitals trading John Carlson to Anaheim in the dead of night for a conditional first-round pick. The Sabres acquired Logan Stanley and Luke Schenn after striking out with Colton Parayko, and the Stars acquired Tyler Myers earlier in the week.
Other Flyers who could potentially be moved are wingers Bobby Brink and Owen Tippett, and pending free agents Garnet Hathaway and Nic Deslauriers.
Capitals trade John Carlson to the Ducks in ‘jaw-dropping’ move
The Washington Capitals traded defenseman John Carlson to the Anaheim Ducks early Friday morning.
John Carlson is going to the Anaheim Ducks as part of a surprising deal from the Washington Capitals agreed to just after midnight on NHL trade deadline day.
Anaheim sent a conditional first-round pick in either this or next year’s draft plus a 2027 third-rounder to Washington for Carlson, a 36-year-old defenseman who has only played in the league for the Capitals since 2009 and helped them win the Stanley Cup in 2018.
Longtime hockey insider and former Daily News reporter Frank Seravalli called the move “jaw-on-the-floor shocking,” describing it as the “end of an era in Washington.”
“John Carlson brings leadership, character, a high hockey IQ and a presence to our lineup,” Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek said. “We are very excited to add a Stanley Cup winner to complement our group and make a big push down the stretch.”
Carlson is a pending free agent without a contract beyond this year but was not expected to get moved before the deadline. He joins the Ducks as they look to end a seven-year playoff drought.
With a surplus of wings, the Flyers could move Owen Tippett ahead of the trade deadline.
The Flyers aren’t moving Dan Vladař, Travis Konecny, Travis Sanheim, Matvei Michkov, Trevor Zegras, or top prospect Porter Martone, but everyone else would seem to be — and should be — in play.
Topping that list is rugged but oft-injured defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen, who has been on the trade block each of the past two seasons but has so far stayed put. The 31-year-old doesn’t fit the team’s timeline, has a year remaining on his contract, and is exactly the type of player that contenders tend to overpay for due to his physicality and “playoff brand of hockey.”
Trading him at this deadline would at minimum land a second-rounder and a legit prospect, and potentially a first-rounder. The Flyers should look to cash in on the 6-foot-4, 208-pound Finn on the heels of his eye-catching Olympics and should be seeking a first-round pick or a high-end center or blueline prospect in return.
The Flyers also have a surplus of wings with Konecny, Michkov, Zegras, Tyson Foerster, Owen Tippett, Bobby Brink, Denver Barkey, and Nikita Grebenkin, and more on the way, headlined by Martone and Alex Bump. Sooner or later the Flyers are going to have to make room for guys, and parting with Tippett or Brink would start that process and recoup the Flyers something in return, potentially at a position of need.
With teams always looking for a scoring punch this time of year, trading the 27-year-old Tippett, who is cost-controlled for the next six seasons and on his way to a third 25-plus-goal season in four years, would yield the largest return, assuming Konecny and Zegras are off limits. The Flyers reportedly have a high ask on the speedy Tippett, including a first-round pick, but could a package that includes a center be enticing? The Flyers could opt to hold fast for a better return at the draft, when this type of trade may be easier to complete, but trading a winger or two before next season seems inevitable.
The Flyers don’t seem willing to meet the high price for St. Louis Blues All-Star Robert Thomas, but Detroit’s Nate Danielson, Minnesota’s Danila Yurov and Charlie Stramel, Buffalo’s Noah Ostlund, Tampa Bay’s Conor Geekie, and Seattle’s Shane Wright are some younger center prospects who could be available in a package involving Ristolainen, Tippett, or someone else.
In addition to trying to move pending unrestricted free agents Nic Deslauriers, Noah Juulsen, and Carl Grundström, the Flyers could explore trading depth center Noah Cates or restricted free agent defensemen Jamie Drysdale and Emil Andrae, all young players with runways to improve who would generate some interest around the league. Like Ristolainen, Cates is a player that contending teams could view as a final piece due to his versatility, penalty killing, and two-way play. Andrae looks to be in need of a change of scenery and could be swapped for a player in a similar boat.
Nick Seeler would have some value as a steady, stay-at-home defenseman, but the 32-year-old, who is currently nicked up, would have to waive his no-move clause. Maligned backup goalie Sam Ersson also could be offloaded for a mid-round pick, especially if the team has already decided it won’t extend a qualifying offer to the pending free agent.
Flyers trade talk: Rasmus Ristolainen, Bobby Brink, and others
There’s a good chance the Flyers trade away defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen.
The NHL trade deadline is Friday at 3 p.m. and there are plenty of questions on how the Flyers will approach it. Ahead of the deadline, Inquirer reporter Jackie Spiegel took to Reddit to answer fans’ questions ahead of the deadline. Here are some highlights from her Reddit AMA — “Ask Me Anything” — on Wednesday.
Q: There’s been a lot of talk about selling at the deadline, with guys like Owen Tippett and Rasmus Ristolainen as top candidates. Is there anyone else who might be on the block and could be a ‘surprise’ player dealt at the deadline?
A. It’s a good chance that Ristolainen is gone with how he’s been playing, his friendly contract, the farm system, and that he’s a right-shot defenseman. Tippett is less of a sure bet as he brings elements — size, speed, goal-scoring ability — that any team, including the Flyers, would want. However, Tippett does have a modified no-trade clause that begins on July 1, so if they’re going to do it, time is ticking.
The Flyers do have a logjam on the wings, and one surprise, at least for this week, could be Bobby Brink, who has long been rumored to be on the way out because of who is waiting in the wings. There’s always a chance Danny Brière could do right by some veterans like Noah Juulsen and Nic Deslauriers, each on expiring contracts, and trade them to a contender looking for depth.
Q. Where do you see us getting an actual top-line center option from and what would it realistically take?
A. This is a great question. I think part of the issue for the Flyers is that they were banking on this upcoming offseason to get that No. 1 center and all those guys inked extensions. Could Trevor Zegras be that guy? Maybe. Could they swing for a Robert Thomas? Maybe, but from what I’ve been told, that deal would require sending at least one of the Flyers’ young centers in the system the other way. I’m starting to wonder if a true No. 1 center is needed, because if you have enough talented high-end wingers — like Tyson Foerster, Martone, Travis Konecny, Matvei Michkov, Tippett — maybe a less elite center works too?
Q. What do the Flyers plan to do about Sean Couturier?
A. From what I can tell, there are zero plans for Couturier. From the outside, yes, his production is down, but a lot of that, in my opinion, has to do with his focus on defense as he lets his younger, more skilled wingers take charge offensively. And heading into the return from the Olympic break, his analytics were actually some of the best on the team. There’s also the leadership in the room that fans do not see. As assistant coach Todd Reirden mentioned, while he was taking over media responsibilities with Rick Tocchet at the Olympics, Couturier’s “voice carries a lot of weight. He’s not [a captain] that’s rah rah, but when he does talk, no one’s not listening. I can tell you that much. So he’s the leader of our team for a reason.”
The Flyers’ chances ending their five-season playoff drought became a bit slimmer Thursday night after their 3-0 loss to the Utah Mammoth.
Eight teams in the Eastern Conference will move forward to the NHL playoffs – the top three teams in each division, plus two wild cards.
The Flyers currently sit in sixth place in the Metropolitan Division 6 points out of a playoff spot. But with 21 games remaining on their schedule, the odds of making the playoffs are slim but not impossible. The New York Times currently pegs the Flyers’ chances of a postseason berth at 14%.
Metropolitan Division
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Eastern Conference
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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday fired his embattled Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, after mounting criticism over her leadership of the department, including the handling of the administration’s immigration crackdown and disaster response.
Trump, who said he would nominate Oklahoma Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin in her place, made the announcement on social media after Noem faced a two-day grilling on Capitol Hill this week from GOP members as well as Democrats.
Noem’s departure marks a stunning turnaround for a close ally to the president who was tasked with steering his centerpiece policy of mass deportations. But she appeared to increasingly become a liability for Trump, with questions arising over her spending at her department and over her conduct in the aftermath of the shooting deaths of two protesters in Minneapolis earlier this year.
Trump said Noem “has served us well, and has had numerous and spectacular results (especially on the Border!).” He said he was making her a “Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas,” a new security initiative that he said would focus on the Western Hemisphere.
Noem, who appeared at a law enforcement event in Nashville, moments after Trump’s announcement, did not address her ouster there. She read from prepared remarks and was not asked by attendees about the development.
Later, in a social media post, she thanked Trump for the new appointment and touted her accomplishments as secretary.
“We have made historic accomplishments at the Department of Homeland Security to make America safe again,” she wrote.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the administration will work with the GOP-led Senate to get Mullin, whom she called “extraordinarily qualified,” confirmed to lead DHS “as soon as possible.”
The administration’s immigration crackdown faced criticism, especially in Minnesota
Noem is the first cabinet secretary to leave during Trump’s second term. Her tenure looked increasingly short-lived after hearings in Congress this week where she faced rare but blistering criticism from Republican lawmakers. One particular point of scrutiny was a $220 million ad campaign featuring Noem that encouraged people in the country illegally to leave voluntarily.
Noem told lawmakers that Trump was aware of the campaign in advance, but Trump disputed that in an interview Thursday with Reuters, saying he did not sign off on the ad campaign.
Noem has faced waves of criticism as she’s overseen Trump’s immigration crackdown, especially since the shooting deaths of the two protesters in Minneapolis at the hands of immigration enforcement officers. In the immediate aftermath of the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, Noem portrayed both of them as aggressors, contradicting widely viewed videos and descriptions of their deaths from bystanders. She declined to apologize for her description over two days of congressional testimony.
The former South Dakota governor was also criticized over the way her department has spent billions of dollars allocated to it by Congress.
Her department, DHS, has been at the center of a funding battle in Congress over immigration enforcement tactics and has been shut down for 20 days, although many of the employees are continuing to work, often without pay.
Even before Noem’s appearance before key congressional committees this week, Republican lawmakers had been anticipating the secretary’s eventual ouster, particularly after her handling of the immigration enforcement crackdown in Minneapolis.
As they tried to end the ongoing Homeland Security shutdown, Senate Republicans had noted privately to Democratic senators that Noem was likely on her way out and that that should prompt Democrats to move forward with agreeing to fund the department again, according to two people familiar with the discussions.
Democrats did not see that as an actual concession by Republicans, considering Noem was becoming a political liability for the GOP, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private negotiations.
Aside from immigration, Noem also faced criticism — including from Republicans — over the pace of emergency funding approved through the Federal Emergency Management Agency and for the Trump administration’s response to disasters.
Critics welcomed Noem’s departure. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey wrote “good riddance” on social media, a sentiment echoed by Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer.
Some immigration activists questioned whether her departure would change the execution of an immigration agenda that they fundamentally disagree with.
“This is not accountability, just a reshuffling of the enablers of the agenda of President Trump,” said Vanessa Cárdenas, executive director of America’s Voice, an advocacy group. She said Noem’s tenure was “marked by cruelty.”
Gregory Bovino, a Border Patrol official who was elevated under Noem’s watch to lead immigration crackdowns in cities including Los Angeles, Chicago and Minneapolis, was one of the few who applauded Noem’s tenure.
“She is the best Secretary I ever worked for, period. The others weren’t even close. Noem is the ultimate patriot,” Bovino told the Associated Press.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (center) arrives at Philadelphia International Airport to attend the NCAA Division 1 men’s wrestling championships at the Wells Fargo Center on March 22, 2025.
DHS leadership changes come at a pivotal time
Mullin would need to be confirmed by the Senate, but under a federal law governing executive branch vacancies, he would be allowed to serve as an acting Homeland Security secretary as long as his nomination is formally pending.
Voting in the Senate just after Trump’s announcement, Mullin said he has “no idea” how quickly his nomination will move.
“The president and I are good friends. So we look forward to working closer with the White House, and obviously I’m gonna be over there a lot more,” he said.
Mullin would take over the third-largest department in government that has responsibility for carrying out Trump’s hard-line immigration agenda. And he would assume the role at a pivotal time for that agenda.
Immigration enforcement during the first year of Trump’s administration was largely defined by high-profile, made-for-social-media operations with flashy names, often led by Bovino, who reported directly to Noem. Noem herself often went out on those operations, riding along with officers when they went out to make arrests.
But those high-profile operations in places like Los Angeles, Chicago and Minneapolis often led to clashes with activists and protesters that were captured on video and drove opposition to the president’s immigration agenda.
That culminated with the shooting deaths in Minneapolis after which Trump shuffled leadership of the operation. The number of officers there was drawn down shortly after.
Pennsylvania’s minimum wage hasn’t budged from the $7.25 federal minimum that was set in 2009. But the number of Pennsylvanians actually making that much per hour is small and shrinking.
That’s about a 9% decline from 2024. This group makes up less than 1% of all Pennsylvania workers. The state’s population of minimum-wage workers has dropped by roughly 42% in the last five years.
Still, hundreds of thousands who make more than minimum wage would see their wages rise if the Pennsylvania’s wage floor was set to $15 an hour.
Last year, 189,900 people in Pennsylvania (6.4% of hourly workers) earned at least $7.26 and up to $12 per hour.
Another 320,900 (10.8% of hourly workers) earned between $12.01 and $15 per hour.
Each of these groups making low wages in Pennsylvania — up to $7.25, up to $12, and up to $15 per hour — was smaller in 2025 than the year before.
That’s due in part to increasing wages across the state, the report said, as well as a lower number of hourly wage earners and a shrinking workforce overall. Pennsylvania’s median wage rose to $20.95 per hour last year — roughly a $1 increase from 2024.
The report is based ondata from a U.S. Census Bureau survey. Last year’s data is missing October figures due to the government shutdown, the report noted.
Some are exempt from federal and state minimum wage such as farmworkers, some seasonal workers, and newspaper delivery people. Workers who make much of their money in tips have a lower minimum wage. Workers from these categories were not excluded from data in the report.
Pennsylvania’s minimum wage is not enough money to cover a person’s basic needs, according to a living wage calculator developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It estimates that the living wage for a single adult without a child in Pennsylvania is $23.32 per hour.
Mayor Cherelle L. Parker speaks during a rally in support of raising the minimum wage and also freeing the city to set its own minimum wage separate from the state, at City Hall, in Philadelphia, April 29, 2025.
Who actually made minimum wage last year?
In 2025, workers who made at or below the minimum wage in Pennsylvania were predominantly women. While they make up roughly 51% of the state’s workingpopulation, they represent a disproportionate 81% of workers who earned $7.25 or less last year.
Nearly 79% of these workers are white, and roughly half have a high school diploma or less education.
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Nearly three-quarters of them work in food preparation and serving jobs. Though it should be noted that tips and overtime for restaurant workers are not accounted for in the report’s data, and tipped restaurant workers’ minimum wage is $2.83 by law.
Unmarried people and young workers aged 16 to 24 also make up a disproportionately large segment of Pennsylvanians making minimum wage or less, the report says.
Working full time at the minimum wage, a worker would make $15,080 annually. But 80% of Pennsylvania workers who made minimum wage or less last year worked part-time.
Other sectors that employ these low-wage workers in Pennsylvania include hotels and lodging, retail, art and entertainment, hospitals, educational services, construction, and manufacturing.
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Pennsylvania’s neighboring states have higher minimum wages
Despite efforts to raise Pennsylvania’s minimum wage, it lags behind that of neighboring states.
New Jersey’s minimum wage, which increased in January to $15.92per hour, is over double that of Pennsylvania’s, and 22 states are soon increasing their minimum wage or have done so already this year. In Delaware, the minimum hourly wage has risen from $9.25 in 2021 to $15 in 2025, thanks to legislation mandating the gradual increase.
A sign in support of an increase in the state’s minimum wage in the state Capitol Feb. 3, 2026.
Gov. Josh Shapiro has backed raising the minimum wage at every annual state budget address since he was elected. In February he called on the General Assembly to advance minimum wage legislation, adding that raising it to $15 an hour would save the state millions on entitlement programs like Medicaid.
“If you aren’t going to do this because it’s the right thing to do, or because it would let more families put food on the table for their kids, then do it because it’s going to save us $300 million, shrink our entitlement budget by growing our workforce and putting more money back in workers’ pockets,” he said.
