No--Deer love Phlox paniculata. I don't grow them for that very reason. You might try spraying them with a good deer repellent in future years.

I have been told just the opposite for my area - phlox paniculata are avoided by the deer here.
Hmmmmm - I have come to learn that you have to learn the habits and tastes of deer in your particular neighborhood. Most often the hard way it seems!

If the phlox blooms were eaten by the deer and not the main plant, the flowers will return. Three houses down from our property, another gardener has a serious deer problem. In one night, they meticulously ate all her soon to bloom phloxes. They have since grown new flower heads and should be blooming in the next week.
Mine do not get eaten by the deer (knock on wood) but then I have a bulldog which is welcome to leave his scent in the gardens on a daily basis!
Nicole.

See "great deer spray product" in this forum.