October 09, 2023
Training camp is a wrap, the season opener is Thursday night, and the roster has been submitted.
Promising prospects Tyson Foerster, Bobby Brink, and Emil Andare will be up with the Flyers to begin the 2023-24 season, jumpstarting the youth movement to come in what's now clearly been defined as a rebuild.
Here's the roster the Flyers will be running with when the puck drops in Columbus on Thursday night:
Forwards (13): Cam Atkinson, Bobby Brink, Noah Cates, Sean Couturier, Nick Deslauriers, Joel Farabee, Tyson Foerster, Morgan Frost, Garnet Hathaway, Travis Konecny, Scott Laughton, Ryan Poehling, Owen Tippett.
Defensemen (7): Emil Andrae, Travis Sanheim, Nick Seeler, Marc Staal, Sean Walker, Cam York, Egor Zamula.
Goaltenders (3): Samuel Ersson, Carter Hart, Felix Sandstrom.
It's a New Era of Orange on Broad Street.
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) October 9, 2023
Meet the 2023-24 Philadelphia Flyers: https://t.co/IziimSITCw pic.twitter.com/Ieo0dye331
Of immediate note here is that they'll be running with seven defensemen and three goalies.
At the start of training camp, head coach John Tortorella stressed that the Flyers were going to be working with a younger blueline, so carrying Andrae (21), Cam York (22), and Egor Zamula (23) on the roster supports that – even if some "horror show" nights are to follow.
That the Flyers have opted to carry three goalies, at least for now, is interesting because Tortorella also outright said recently that Ersson won the backup job behind Carter Hart, and NHL teams can only dress two goalies at a time. Sandstrom isn't waiver-exempt, however, so perhaps this is the front office trying to protect themselves from losing a goaltender for nothing when maybe there's a possible deal to be struck with a team in need of help between the pipes.
Andrae, who's been heralded for his fluid passing and puck-moving ability, definitely brought that skill set to camp and the preseason, which made it hard to deny him a spot in favor of more development time down with the Phantoms in the AHL.
Same goes for Brink, who was a major standout in the preseason now that he's fully healthy after a year of working his way back from hip surgery.
Foerster didn't impress to the same degree this camp, but his sample size from last season did have him with a leg up and a part of the team's picture going forward.
Ryan Ellis, unsurprisingly, went on injured reserve, but so did Rasmus Ristolainen in a move that we should expect to know more about in the next couple of days.
Forward prospect J.R. Avon was placed on the non-roster injured list, while Wade Allison, who was on the roster bubble, cleared waivers after being placed on them a couple of days earlier and will begin the season in Lehigh Valley.
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