October 11, 2022
The Flyers have locked in their roster for Thursday night's season opener against the Devils.
New head coach John Tortorella emphasized throughout camp that his mission is to get the franchise "back on the rails" and will do so with a group headlined by names like Kevin Hayes, Travis Konecny, and Ivan Provorov, who are all looking for bounce-back years.
"Stabilizing" was also a word thrown around when camp opened in Voorhees, but if the team looks to do so after a year where nearly everything fell apart, it'll be doing so on already shaky ground.
Sean Couturier, who was long considered to be next in line as captain after Claude Giroux's departure, re-injured his back; defenseman Ryan Ellis, who was supposed to partner with Provorov on the top defensive pairing, hasn't even begun skating in his rehab from a "multi-faceted" series of lower-body injuries and is at risk of never playing again; And recently Cam Atkinson, who was one of the few bright spots last season after coming over in the Jake Voracek trade with Columbus, hasn't practiced lately with an upper-body injury, though Tortorella seems optimistic about his availability for Thursday night at the Wells Fargo Center.
Unsurprisingly, Couturier and Ellis have been placed on long-term injured reserve to get their cap off the books for the time being.
Winger Wade Allison, who's been on the bubble of cracking the Flyers' roster the past couple of years and center Tanner Laczynski and defenseman Egor Zamula, who were both up with the team at the end of last season, were recalled to fill the open roster spots.
The Flyers' opening night roster:
Forwards: Cam Atkinson, Noah Cates, Nicolas Deslauriers, Joel Farabee, Morgan Frost, Kevin Hayes, Hayden Hodgson, Travis Konecny, Scott Laughton, Owen Tippett, James van Riemsdyk
Defensemen: Ronnie Attard, Justin Braun, Tony DeAngelo, Ivan Provorov, Rasmus Ristolainen, Travis Sanheim, Nick Seeler
Goaltenders: Samuel Ersson, Carter Hart
Long-term Injured Reserve: C Sean Couturier, D Ryan Ellis
Non-roster Injured List: RW Bobby Brink, C Patrick Brown, G Felix Sandstrom
Recalls: RW Wade Allison, C Tanner Laczynski, D Egor Zamula.
According to CapFriendly, the roster carries a projected cap hit of $83,191,816 with no additional space.
No captaincy group has been named yet either, although Tortorella has said repeatedly that he is in no rush to name a new captain. Still, they will need a handful of players to serve as alternates.
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