The Philadelphia Flyers are starting to shed the players they don’t consider as part of their final roster. On Monday, they cut nine players and reduced their roster down to 31 players. Now on Tuesday, they did so by another pair of players.
According to the team, the Flyers have put goaltender Cal Petersen and forward Tanner Laczynski on waivers. If cleared, both players will be sent down to the AHL on Wednesday.
This could be part of some larger roster-wide cuts, but as of right now, all we know is that these two players are on waivers and most likely will not be part of the Flyers’ training camp for much longer.
Additionally, the players that the team put on waivers yesterday — forwards Adam Brooks, Rhett Gardner, and Cooper Marody, and defenseman Louie Belpedio and Victor Mete — all cleared and will be in Phantoms training camp.
Petersen came as one little part of the trade that sent Ivan Provorov to the Blue Jackets and a whole lot of assets from Los Angeles and Columbus, to Philadelphia. Essentially a cap dump considering his substantial two years and $5 million per-year salary still left on his contract, he will now be applying his trade to the AHL. Additionally, the Flyers will be getting some relief of his giant cap hit. With Petersen in the minors, just $3.875 million will be counting against the Flyers’ cap, giving this team a little bit more wiggle room financially.
The veteran netminder came into this training camp as a potential NHL backup for Carter Hart, but it appears now that that battle is now between Sam Ersson and Felix Sandstrom, with Ersson having the much larger advantage. Sandstrom does require waivers to be sent down, so that provides a little bit of an interesting wrinkle, but to put it plainly, Ersson is the better goaltender.
For Laczynski, it’s just a numbers game. The 26-year-old is too good to be in the AHL, and some NHL team could possibly claim and use him, but for the Flyers, there is too much younger talent that they want on the team for him to have a place on this roster. And newcomers like Ryan Poehling and Garnet Hathaway are more intriguing options in the bottom-six forward group. If he clears, he will be joining one hell of a Phantoms team that could use a top-of-the-lineup player for some prospects to play with.
The Flyers now have 29 total players left on the training camp roster – 16 forwards, 10 defensemen, and the three goaltenders. There are still some interesting battles to be played out as the team gears up for the final preseason game on Thursday. Will it be Tyson Foerster or Bobby Brink taking that coveted spot in the lineup? What will the blue line look like outside of the top-four? And will some chemistry be a factor in creating the final lineup?
It’s a great time of year if you like transactions.
