Flyers' Dale Weise now finding the net on new line

WINNIPEG, Manitoba - The most frustrating season in Dale Weise's seven-year career is coming to an end, but the veteran winger is hoping to take a strong finish into the summer.

It's a small sample, but in his first three games with linemates Brayden Schenn and Sean Couturier, Weise seemed to have found a home.

"We hadn't played together all year, but we just kind of clicked right away," Weise said before the Flyers faced the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday night. "It's a north-south game; we play a heavy game and like to play the game down low and get pucks to the net and generate offense like that."

Weise, 28, had two goals in his first three games on Couturier's line. Before that, he had just two goals in his first 50 games this season.

"He's found a little bit of chemistry with Coots and Brayden Schenn," coach Dave Hakstol said. "The three of them have been effective playing a straight-line game with pace."

Weise, a free agent who signed a four-year, $9.4 million deal in July after scoring a career-high 14 goals with Montreal last season, said he was "finally getting some bounces. And you get one goal and you get a little bit of confidence and you start shooting the puck a little more and things start to find you a little more. I just have to keep shooting the puck."

On Tuesday, he returned to his roots. Weise grew up in Winnipeg and still lives there in the offseason.

"I got to see my mom and dad, my brother and niece and nephew, so that was good," said Weise, who had 40 relatives and friends at the game. "It's always nice in the season to get some family time. I haven't seen them for a while."

Hakstol also returned home, just two hours from where he lived when he coached at North Dakota.

"There are so many friends and people I know very well in this area," Hakstol said. "It's a great hockey town and a great hockey area."

The Flyers signed defenseman Mark Friedman, a third-round pick in the 2014 draft, to an entry-level contract for the 2017-18 season.

Friedman, 21, a righthanded shooter, will report to the AHL's Phantoms for the rest of this season. He will bypass his senior season at Bowling Green University.

This season, the 5-foot-10, 191-pound Friedman collected eight goals, 26 points, and a plus-6 rating for Bowling Green.

Brandon Manning missed his fifth straight game with a shoulder injury but is expected to play during the four-game road trip. . . . Nick Cousins did not make the trip; he is believed to have concussion concerns.