Just days before the Philadelphia Flyers open training camp, general manager Danny Briere held a press conference to clarify a few things — from some injuries that can affect some preseason rosters, to some rookies he’s excited to watch compete for spots in the lineup.
Let’s look at some general takeaways from everything that Briere said Tuesday morning.
Which rookies caught Briere’s attention
Briere said Tuesday that while the Flyers have added players and pieces to help them in the 2025-26 season, there are still some open roster spots and a lot of flexibility when it comes to the 23-man roster.
The Flyers general manager said a few players caught his attention last weekend and should make a case for remaining in the mix when the Flyers make the final cuts to their roster as the season opener on Oct. 9 approaches. He said part of that competition stems not just from outside acquisitions but from the internal development of the prospects such as Denver Barkey, Alex Bump and Nikita Grebenkin to others including Denver Barkey, and Jack Nesbitt.
“I think a big part of that is the development of our young guys pushing for spots. In the rookie games I thought Grebenkin and Bump looked good so they’re going to be some of the guys pushing,” Briere said. “Obviously Jett Luchanko is in that mix. I really liked (Jacob) Gaucher, Nesbitt and Barkey really stood out as well in those rookie games. They may be in that next layer but they’ve been really impressive as well.”
Other players fighting for spots
Whatever decisions await Briere is comfortable with different options, possibly going with seven or eight defensemen or using 13 to 14 different forwards if needed. He mentioned the additions of Noah Juulsen and Dennis Gilbert as vying for spots but also cited Helge Grans, Emil Andrae and Bonk (if healthy) as looking to make the cut with the big club. “It all depends on how guys perform during cam that we’re going to evaluate,” he said.
Briere said the additions of Gilbert, Juulsen and obviously forward Trevor Zegras will help the club move towards competing for a playoff spot. But he’s just as enticed by the battles for spots by the homegrown talent developed through the draft.
“There’s still going to be some interesting fights,” Briere said. “You asked me the question about the roster spots but I guess there’s going to some internal fighting for responsibilities. That’s what I’m excited about. You saw Michkov, Foerster, Cates, and Brink take a step. That’s why some of the guys lost responsibilities and it gave us a chance to reset in some form the trade of Farabee, Frost, Laughton. The reality is those guys were starting to lose responsibilities because our young guys were starting to step up. Now we have more young guys that are pushing. That to me is what is exciting.
“Nobody can be comfortable or happy with what they’ve done in the past. They got to keep getting better and better, and that includes all our veterans because our young guys are starting to push and they want more. They’re hungry for more. And the following year we’re going to be having more of these young guys who are going to be pushing, guys like Martone, maybe Berglund, maybe Nesbitt. That’s really where it’s exciting for me. And we expect more of a fight internally and we hope that it’s going to make us better and hopefully make us more competitive throughout the season. And maybe push to get closer to the playoffs.”
Injuries for Flyers heading into training camp
In other news, Briere addressed some of the injury issues to four Flyers. Of the four players who had been dealing with injuries this off-season (as well as in rookie camp), three of them seem to be progressing according to plan.
According to Briere, defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen should be close to “meet up with the team” within the first six weeks to two months of the start of the regular season. Meanwhile Tyson Foerster will be in a non-contact jersey to start the initial phase of training camp starting Thursday but it’s expected he’ll play a few of the seven exhibition games the Flyers have and start the season with the Flyers. Briere said Foerster wasn’t able to do a lot of training regarding his strength as the arm got back to 100 per cent but worked with the training staff to get back to optimal levels. In other good news, Jett Luchanko was kept out of rookie camp mainly as a precaution and will be participating with the Flyers when camp begins.
Big club working out this morning. Jett Luchanko out there again and Tyson Foerster in non-contact jersey. pic.twitter.com/mWvl2Mvgjm
— Jordan Hall (@JHallNBCS) September 16, 2025
The only fly in the ointment rests with young defenseman Oliver Bonk. Bonk was originally scheduled to play in the Rookie Series against the Rangers last weekend in Lehigh Valley but missed both games.
“And then Bonk, so it just popped up, he was supposed to play the rookie games and then something upper body popped up on him,” Briere said. “We thought he’d be fine to play the next game and things are not moving as quickly as we expected so we had some images taken this morning, we’re just waiting for the doctors to give us a little more of an update once they are able to read it all.”
Briere clarifying the goaltending depth chart
Elsewhere, Briere spoke about another dilemma that was facing the Flyers this summer, namely what was happening between the pipes. The Flyers goaltending situation was a bit hazy after Dan Vladar was signed in free agency. The depth chart showed Sam Ersson, Ivan Fedotov, and Aleksei Kolosov still with the club. And Carson Bjarnason was turning pro and needing some time to develop his game in the American Hockey League.
Having five goalies for essentially four spots looked problematic. However, Briere took care of that a few days ago with the Ivan Fedotov trade to Columbus over the weekend for a sixth-round pick. Fedotov’s full cap hit for 2025-26 was completely removed, giving the Flyers and Briere more flexibility when it comes to issues like Long Term Injured Reserve and accumulating cap space regarding the trade deadline.
“One of the big things it is gives us a little bit more space salary cap wise because we were close (to the ceiling),” he said. “It gives up the option of keeping a little more freely 23 roster players if we want to. The fact is Carson Bjarnason turning pro, he’s a prospect that we want to develop and having two guys that were probably going to take ice time away from him and his development we wanted to clear the path there a little for him to play. Obviously we see Kolosov as the number three, clearly now Carson will be the number four and will get some games. Hopefully he pushes and earns more starts as the season goes by.
“It’s also important for Kolosov to play a lot of games this year,” Briere continued. “He’s still young, he’s still a prospect and it opens the door for him to play more games and to start probably in the American League. Just find his game, find his confidence, find that swagger that we’d seen from him the previous few seasons in the KHL.”
Still more players to be traded away?
Briere restated the Flyers obvious goals of making the playoffs consistently and taking some very good shots and deep playoff runs and eventually a Stanley Cup. However, he also said the internal competition and foundation the team is building could entice some big-name or highly talented unrestricted free agent at some point to consider Philadelphia a destination. Or keep high-end talent such as Matvei Michkov and others on the horizon part of the Philadelphia Flyers for an extended amount of time. A lot of that depends on the players themselves, particularly when it comes to this season where the blueprint doesn’t call for selling at the trade deadline.
“Obviously they have to hold their end of the bargain too, they have a job to do to get us there, for that to not happen,” Briere said when asked what the plan would be if this season went a bit pear-shaped. “We’re going to have to look into it if we’re not where we want to be. Going into this season the message has been we expect our team to take a step forward and try to help them. But not at the detriment of the future of this organization. We don’t feel we’re there. We’re still building this thing brick-by-brick. If there’s an opportunity we’re going to jump on it. But we’re still in the early stages of where we want to take this organization.”
The presser had one comical when Briere was asked about the status of Egor Zamula. Zamula was not listed on the 57-man training camp roster when it was released earlier Tuesday. Briere, clearly wondering where the question was coming from, said it was simply an oversight and that nothing has happened with Zamula.
Now, we just have to wait until we can actually watch some hockey being played.
