After a very tense couple days with the final roster cut lingering over the Philadelphia Flyers, the opening night roster was finally announced on Monday. The team will run with 13 forwards, seven defensemen and three goaltenders in the interim, as Rasmus Ristolainen will start the season on IR. That means all four of Egor Zamula, Tyson Foerster, Bobby Brink and Emil Andrae have made the team… for now.
But staying on the 23 man roster was only half the battle; now it’s about whether or not they actually get playing time when the puck drops. In the short term, At least one of Brink or Foerster will play up front, and at least one of Zamula or Andrae will play on defense.
In the practices leading up to opening night, the lineups seem to indicate the Brink and Zamula will be playing while Andrae and Foerster will be watching from the press box.
On Tuesday, GM Danny Briere hinted that the vets will hold down the fort on opening night and as the season goes on, the idea is to slowly swap out the vets with the kids. In theory, it’s a fine strategy, but at face value, it’s another movement of the goalposts that delay the supposed “rebuild” the organization was supposed to undergo under his watch.
After a summer where the organization leaned hard into their rebuilding stance despite making many questionable moves that directly went against the idea along the way, they lucked into a scenario where they didn’t have to cut one of the rookies right before the season started, catching a bit of a break with the Ristolainen injury to avoid making a last cut. If Ristolainen was healthy there’s a chance only one of the four of the kids with both of the defenseman on the outside looking in.
Considering both Briere and Tortorella weren’t afraid to use the word rebuild, they shouldn’t be afraid to play the kids. But it’s no secret John Tortorella loves his vets, and Briere mentioned the vets will get the start out of respect for them. The kids have to show up and bust their asses and play the best hockey of their lives to even be considered for the opening night roster, and this years a handful of them did, and they still take a back seat to the veterans out of “respect.” It’s probably not the best message to send that no matter how hard you work, you still don’t get a spot on the roster because it went to a washed up player that doesn’t provide any on-ice value.
Don’t know what it is about the Flyers that makes it absolutely impossible for them to follow even their own basic plan, but for one night, opening night, one of the very few opportunities they’ll have this season to sell their product to a weary fanbase, play all four of the young guys on the roster and sell the rebuild like it actually means something.
It’s odd to sell a youth movement with a roster that doesn’t feature much youth. And playing the long game during the season is fine, but waiting until March to *hopefully* move a couple of the vets and recall the kids with only sporadic appearances during the season is a bold strategy. The trade deadline is a long time from now. The fanbase will give up long before that if you sell them more of the same old nonsense that the two previous regimes did.
At the end of the day, the 2023-24 season needs to be about forward progress from the organization. Something that hasn’t been seen in well over a decade. So just play all four of the rookies on opening night. It’s only a matter of time before they revert to playing the vets anyway, but for one night, just put aside the love affair with the 30-somethings and sell your rebuild to the fans. It shouldn’t be rocket science. Get the new era of orange off on a feel-good foot rather than a product that feels like an era all too similar to the last one.
By: Dan Esche (@DanTheFlyeraFan)
photo credit: nhl.com
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