The “fun” part of the 2023 NHL offseason has come to an end, and the dog days of summer are about to kick in. The Flyers, led by new GM Danny Briere, had a very mixed bag of moves this summer. He got off on a strong foot by trading Ivan Provorov, then wrapped it up with a mind boggling signing of Garnet Hatahway and some interesting choices in between. Nonetheless, the roster looks remarkably similar to last season despite a few subtractions, so let’s predict what the opening night Philadelphia Flyers roster will look like.
Joel Farabee – Morgan Frost – Travis Konecny
This is pretty much the best the Flyers can muster to qualify as a top line these days. Only one player has touched 50 points in their career. Legion of Doom this is not.
Scott Laughton – Noah Cates – Owen Tippett
Cates and Tippett were a fun duo during parts of the 2022-23 season, so no reason to break them up (also the Flyers failed to address their right wing depth so he won’t get the proper chance to breakout like he earned with his play last season.)
Wade Allison- Sean Couturier – Cam Atkinson
Allison is technically a right wing, but considering 3LW appears to be the only real roster spot with any wiggle room, he may just have to adapt to playing on the left if he wants to play every night. If not him, one of the dozen RW’s in the system will have to move to the left side. Couturier may play higher in the lineup, but if they were smart they’d give a bulk of the time to the two younger players with upside, and limit Couturier’s minutes to help his longevity. Atkinson’s also back to take part in the right wing revelry.
Nic Deslauriers – Ryan Poehling – Garnet Hathaway
Their new-look fourth line features their “big fish” free agents Ryan Poehling and Garnet Hathaway along with sophomore year meathead Nic Deslauriers. The trio combined for 213 penalty minutes last season, which is ironic because they’re probably going to be relied upon heavily on the penalty kill.
Cam York – Rasmus Ristolainen
Remember when they brought Ristolainen to Philly determined to cut his minutes to make him more successful then completly failed to address their RHD depth for years and now he’s the top guy playing alongside Cam York? Me neither.
Travis Sanheim – Ronnie Attard
With any luck the Flyers deal with Carolina to take back Tony DeAngelo is still on and it opens a spot for Ronnie Attard to make the jump to the NHL. Who’d’a thunk, making roster subtractions and filling the holes with the NHL-ready prospects. Crazy concept.
Egor Zamula – Sean Walker
John Tortorella relied heavily upon Nick Seeler last season, ultimately stifling Egor Zamula’s chances in the NHL, so will he do it again this year? Again, they’re rebuilding and the kids should take priority, but, ya know, Nick Seeler. Also Sean Walker’s here now. Yeehaw.
Extras: Tanner Laczynski, Nick Seeler
Update: Marc Staal is here now, for some reason
Tortorella has systematically removed all the players he dislikes, and even though Laczynski may still be apart of the main roster, Ryan Poehling is going to see a bulk of the ice time. Give it a whole three games before Seeler reclaims the everyday minutes and Zamula’s career gets stalled too. Wouldn’t be surprised to see Allison sitting more often then not as well.
Carter Hart
The Flyers did not trade Carter Hart, so he’ll still be the starter. His contract’s up at the end of the season, and his play could go a long way to determining what kind of value his extension will hold, so expect an uptick in his numbers, but it’s a huge mountain to climb with the atrocity of a roster in front of him.
Felix Sandstrom
It’ll be a three-way battle for the backup role, but Peterson isn’t very good and it makes more sense for Ersson to get the lion’s share of starts in Lehigh than play once every two weeks in the NHL. So Sandstrom remains the backup for another year.
Forwards
I don’t know if it’s possible to dream up a more underwhelming and un-intimidating unit that this collective 12-man group. If everyone’s healthy (which is a big if these days) every spot is accounted for, possibly with the exception of a middle-six left wing spot. Notice the lack of AHL prospects making the roster? Well that’s almost entirely because they didn’t sell any players and open spots for smooth transitions. Chances are they deploy a similar tactic that they did last season, keep one roster spot open and use it as a revolving door for every prospects to get a handful of games before moving on to the next one. Not quite the ideal rebuild, but it’s what they’ve opted to do. With any luck they clear the vets at the trade deadline, but that’s a fantasy unlikely to come true.
Defense
The defense listed above feels generous. There’s just as a good a chance that Zamula and Attard aren’t playing every night in favor of Nick Seeler and Tony DeAngelo, who may or may not get traded next week. Every time it feels like the defense can’t possibly get worse, they find a way to ice a lesser quality group. If Zamula and Attard actually get regular minutes against all odds, expect rookie mistakes and hiccups to happen, but it’s all part of the process. Can’t throw in the towel after a bad game or two.
Goaltending
Sam Ersson is knocking on the door, but at this point in time with Hart and Sandstrom still here, it makes the most sense for him to hold down the starter role with the Phantoms and continue to groom himself for heavy minutes rather than barely playing in the NHL. Cal Peterson’s $5 million contract will get sent to the AHL to back him up. The Flyers will need to figure out what to do with Carter Hart next season, but in the short term, if he’s here he’s going to be playing every night. Sandstrom riding the bench makes far more sense than Ersson. Yet another underwhelming chapter in the saga, but at least this one makes a bit of sense.
Questions
Where are the kids?
Nothing like kicking off a rebuild with a bunch of 30-year-olds and depth dullards earning roster spots over the half dozen prospects in the AHL that could be incorporated in the main roster. Hopefully a few end up making the roster and even more show up at the trade deadline, but the fact that they boxed all of them out in the short term is baffling. It’s a classic Hextallism in all of this- preach a rebuild, hype up the prospects and then stumble when it comes to transitioning them to the NHL level. Some things never change.
Is it a tank?
Based on how things shake out, there a real chance there may be zero new prospects making the roster next season. Best case, it’s possible three do. Reality is probably somewhere in between. Not really an enticing way to start a rebuild. They’ll never admit to it, but this roster certainly isn’t built to win, but the more likely outcome is similar to 2022-23: not bad enough to get that coveted top three pick, but no where near good enough to even threaten to make the playoffs. Expect a pick in the 7-12 range, and there’s no way they’ll have someone like Michkov fall into their laps for a second time.
By: Dan Esche (@DanTheFlyeraFan)
photo credit: Getty Images
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