We’re just a few short days away from the beginning of the regular season, with the Flyers kicking things off on the road in Vancouver on Friday, and the roster for that beginning to the season has been set.
The biggest piece of news that comes with this roster drop is the confirmation the Jett Luchanko is indeed sticking around for a while longer. It will be an interesting situation with him, as the nine-game limit before he must burn a year on his Entry Level Contract is looming overhead, but the Flyers are taking things about as day-by-day as possible with him. As Flyers General Manager Danny Briere spoke to the assembled media this morning, he made it clear that they don’t have precise expectations for how long Luchanko will be hanging around — it could be one day, it could be all season, he said — and it will be up to him, with how well he plays and how well they see him acclimating (or not) to the NHL level. It’s a fluid situation, but it was clear that they liked his training camp and feel that he has deserved a longer look. We’ll see where things go from there.
Away from that, there aren’t any big surprises, looking at this lineup. It’s worth noting, though, that the Flyers are carrying some extra skaters into the season, with 14 forwards and seven defensemen hanging around. This offers them a little bit of a insulation as they embark on this long road trip out West, but it also gives them some flexibility with their lineups, as they’ll have varying degrees of grit and veteran stability to play around with, as things move forward.
There’s a lot that’s uncertain about this season — how the final lineups will look and how well they will perform — but it is certain that there’s a lot of excitement building around the team this season, and that’s a real breath of fresh air.
