The Philadelphia Flyers start their training camp on Thursday but announced their 58-man roster today to kick off camp. And generally there are no huge surprises unless Ryan Johansen’s absence and that of Alexei Kolosov is news to some people.
The roster consists of six goaltenders, including three who appeared with the Flyers last season: Sam Ersson, Ivan Fedotov and Cal Petersen. Two of the other three goalies appeared at this past weekend’s Rookie Camp against the Rangers Friday and Saturday: Carson Bjarnason and Sam Hillebrandt. The lone outlier who’ll be making his first impression with the club is Finnish goaltender Eetu Mäkiniemi who the Flyers signed to a professional try out earlier in the summer.
Twenty defensemen are included in the camp. Obviously just over half of the blueliners listed played for the Flyers last season in Emil Andrae, Ronnie Attard, Louis Belpedio, Jamie Drysdale, Adam Ginning, Erik Johnson, Rasmus Ristolainen, Travis Sanheim, Nick Seeler, Cam York and Egor Zamula. Meanwhile others who could be knocking on the door or hoping to make a big impression to stay in the hunt for a spot include Oliver Bonk and Helge Grans but this week and next will be a measuring stick to see how much they’ve developed.
The remaining defenseman all appeared at the Flyers’ Rookie Camp last week including Emile Chouinard, the highly touted Spencer Gill, the imposing Matteo Mann (who scored a goal during the Rookie Series), Hunter McDonald (who could be in the running for a lengthy look at training camp and during the preseason), Ethan Samson, Sam Sedley and Carter Sotheran. Look for Erik Johnson to sew up the seventh defenseman spot and York, Sanheim, Seeler and Drysdale to be locks on the back end right off the bat. But the last two spots could be up for grabs if Zamula and/or Ristolainen come out of the gates looking unimpressive or just simply bad.
Finally but certainly not least, the Flyers bring 32 forwards to training camp with more eyes on Matvei Michkov than possibly the other 31 forwards or 57 players on the ice combined. But a close second could be 2024 first round pick Jett Luchanko who seemed to have some chemistry with the “Mad Russian.” Elsewhere the Flyers will see Rodrigo Abols on the ice for the first time after signing him to a one-year contract this past June as well as Swedish forward Oscar Eklind.
A handful look like they’re established AHLers who seem destined for Lehigh Valley. These include Cooper Marody, Olle Lycksell (who played 18 games with the Flyers last season), Rhett Gardner who had a cup of coffee with the Flyers last season, Anthony Richard who played with the Bruins for nine games last season and Brendan Furry who is on an AHL contract and played for Lehigh Valley last season. Those who appeared at the Rookie Camp also skating with the Flyers at training camp include J.R. Avon, Sawyer Boulton, Nick Capone, Elliot Desnoyers, Jacob Gaucher, Alexis Gendron, Matt Miller, Massimo Rizzo, Samu Tuomaala, Zayde Wisdom and Josh Zakreski.
The remaining forwards have all established themselves as close to locks on the roster unless they fall off a cliff in training camp or somebody simply outclasses them during this camp. They include Bobby Brink, Noah Cates, Sean Couturier, Nic Deslauriers, Joel Farabee, Tyson Foerster, Morgan Frost, Garnet Hathaway, Travis Konecny (and his new nifty contract), Scott Laughton, Ryan Poehling and Owen Tippett.
The first two days of the training camp schedule will see the players divided into three teams with each team having a 45-minute skate on day one, the day often notorious for coach John Tortorella’s bag skate which tests the players to the max. On Friday team 1 and team 3 will each have an off-ice workout, a practice and a scrimmage through the day while team 2 will have an off-ice workout and two scrimmages. The first off day is September 24 (next Tuesday) with another off day on September 29. So lots of players, lots of drills and slowly but surely lots of roster cuts in the next few weeks. Who stays and who goes remains to be seen.
