The Philadelphia Flyers are in action for the first time this week and are facing the archrival Pittsburgh Penguins for the first time this season, as well. Ahead of this Pennsylvanian collision, Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet decided to shakeup the lineup a little bit and take out a fan favorite from the game.
Reported through multiple sources as skaters started to take the ice at Tuesday’s morning skate and later confirmed by the team, the Flyers are making several changes and we will be seeing a somewhat different-looking team on the ice. Forward Nic Deslauriers and defenseman Egor Zamula comes back into the lineup and they will be taking the place of blueliner Adam Ginning, and somewhat controversially, rookie sensation Nikita Grebenkin.
Lineup updates for #PITvsPHI:
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) October 28, 2025
• Sam Ersson starts in net
• Forward Nick Deslauriers and defenseman Egor Zamula slot into the lineup.
• Nikita Grebenkin and Adam Ginning come out. pic.twitter.com/ZI1nesTtdy
Additionally, Sam Ersson is going to be making his second consecutive start after earning the gutsy 4-3 shootout win over the New York Islanders on Saturday.
Flyers scratch Grebenkin to bring in Deslauriers
We’ll get back to Ersson, but really the key to this whole change is bringing in the veteran tough guy and taking out the rookie, for some strange reason. Grebenkin has looked the part since making his Flyers debut earlier this season. The 22-year-old winger has been mostly locked to the fourth line, but recently has been given more of an offensive role on occassion when put on the left wing of Trevor Zegras and Matvei Michkov, to just see if he would be able to hang with the two most skilled forwards on this team.
But overall, it’s more of a visual thing than on the stat sheet. Grebenkin has earned one assist through six games and has one single shot on goal while averaging 8:53 TOI. But it’s all about development, at the end of the day and that’s why it’s just a little perplexing why Tocchet would go for Deslauriers in this situation.
The main argument has to be that there is an expectation that gloves will be dropped as they normally do when these two teams meet. But, who on that Penguins roster is really the tough guy that can match Deslauriers? Justin Brazeau is a 6-foot-6 behemoth and can drop the gloves, but he’s one of their hottest scorers. Anthony Mantha is big but a little bit on the soft-for-his-size side. And then the next biggest opponent could be…Matt Dumba? Caleb Jones? Parker Wotherspoon? We’re not really talking about a team full of heavyweights here.
And considering that this season, we’ve already seen Grebenkin drop the gloves in emphatic fashion, and other roster mainstays like Garnet Hathaway and Nick Seeler more than capable of holding their own in a bout — is Deslauriers really needed to take up a spot in the lineup for that purpose?
It just feels a little counterintuitive and unnecessary. Might end up just being Tocchet “doing good” by the veteran Deslauriers and getting him in for the rivalry game; nothing more.
On the blue line, is anyone really clamoring for Ginning to be in the lineup over Zamula? The Russian defenseman has not played well, but it’s not like Ginning is setting the world on fire and provides a different dynamic than Zamula potentially could. If anything, Zamula actually has more physical ability (like potential breakout passes and not shying away offensively) than who he is replacing.
Ersson making consecutive start — what’s the plan?
Dan Vladar is going to be Ersson’s backup for the second straight game, for the first time this season. We’ve already seen the Czech netminder essentially take the starting job very early on after some outstanding performances in between the pipes — through five starts, Vladar has a .932 save percentage and 1.81 goals against average — but now it’s Ersson’s turn to have the advantage.
Ersson’s first two starts of the season did not go particularly well — managing to save 35 of 39 shots against the powerhouse Carolina Hurricanes for his first, and then followed that up with a miserable 10-for-14 performance against the Winnipeg Jets. But on Saturday, he did slightly better than that, saving 23 of the 26 shots he faced and being lights out in the shootout.
Whether it has been his recent performance (maybe not) or the fact that the Flyers are facing the Penguins, who should be playing worse than they currently are and will eventually collapse, Tocchet feels comfortable giving Ersson this second straight opportunity. But now, due to the schedule, Vladar will not be able to get in the crease until Thursday at the earliest, making it a week without the Flyers’ top netminder in net.
Either way, the Flyers have decided to do a little bit of a lineup shakeup before the Keystone State collision. It might end up working, despite taking away a potentially offensive young winger and their best goalie away from the ice, but it is still a slightly weird decision to begin with.
Puck drop is at 6:00 p.m. as it kicks off the NHL’s Frozen Frenzy Tuesday night.
