At long last, the first proper round of cuts is here! With the somewhat frenetic schedule the Flyers have been dealing with to start the preseason, they’ve needed a few more bodies around to keep anybody from getting too worn down, so this has been a long time coming. It isn’t a massive trimming of the roster, but it’s something!
The Flyers have assigned the following players to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms:
Samuel Ersson
Logan Day
Samu Tuomaala
Mason Millman
Maksim Sushko
Wyatte Wylie
Max Willman
Matthew Strome
In addition, they have also returned Elliot Desnoyers to Halifax of the QMJHL.
And there’s not too much that’s surprising here. All of these players were pretty well outside of the mix for a spot with the Flyers right out of camp, and this allows the Flyers to get their camp numbers to a bit more manageable of a spot, while allowing these players to get rolling with the Phantoms in their training camp without much delay.
The one particularly interesting piece, though, is that Tuomaala was assigned to the Phantoms and not sent right to Sudbury of the OHL (who holds his rights). It still isn’t clear where he’s going to play this season—though he has noted that he wants and feels ready to make the jump to the AHL—but this tells us that the Flyers haven’t ruled out the possibility of him playing pro this season. His time with the Phantoms in camp might just be for further evaluation purposes, this doesn’t guarantee that he won’t be assigned to the OHL when their camp is over, but the fact that the door remains open with them does say something. The Phantoms kick off their preseason with a game against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins tomorrow (yes, tomorrow!), so this will be something interesting to keep an eye on as we move forward.
As for the Flyers, their training camp roster still sits at 42 players (34 when you exclude the injured players), and they have just two preseason games left, so we can expect some more cuts coming in the not too distant future.
