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Flyers Make (Semi) Final Preseason Roster Cuts |
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Flyers Make Semi-Final Preseason Roster Cuts
On Friday, the Flyers made 14 roster cuts. The opening night NHL roster is all but set but will most likely not be announced until Monday. It appears that head coach John Tortorella and the coaching staff's strong advocacy for 18-year-old Jett Luchanko to receive a spot on the opening roster has convinced Hockey Operations to incorporate their 2024 first-round pick onto the opening roster.
If so, Luchanko (who just turned 18 on August 21) will become the youngest player in franchise history to play for the team. I will discuss my views on Luchanko in depth on tomorrow's blog. For now, I will say that Hockey Ops appears to currently prefer that Luchanko have a short stay with the NHL roster (not exceeding the nine-game threshold that would burn the first year off his entry-level contract) and then to return to the Ontario Hockey League's Guelph Storm. The head coach believes the player is ready without a preset "return to OHL" timetable.
The Flyers practiced on Friday at the FTC in Voorhees. The team has complete off days on Saturday and Sunday. The team will practice on Monday before departing with their season-opening roster for Vancouver. The regular season opener against the Canucks is on Friday (10 p.m. ET), followed the next night by a match against the Flames in Calgary (same start time).
Based on practice lines the last two days, the current line combinations and depth chart with Luchanko slotting in has at least temporarily dropped Noah Cates -- who has never been a healthy scratch even once under Tortorella nor so much as benched in-game -- out of the projected starting lineup. The lines on Thursday and Friday (note Matvei Michov on the side) were as follows:
Matvei Michkov - Sean Couturier - Travis Konecny
Owen Tippett - Morgan Frost - Tyson Foerster
Joel Farabee - Jett Luchanko - Bobby Brink
Scott Laughton - Ryan Poehling - Garnet Hathaway
13th forward: Noah Cates
14th forward: Nicolas Deslauriers
On Friday, Cates and Deslauriers skated on a line with prospect Samu Tuomaala. Shortly thereafter, as expected, the Flyers announced that the now-healthy Tuomaala was among the roster cuts.
Tuomaala played in the American Hockey League All-Star Game last year as a rookie. He tailed off significantly in the second half and then was lost to an injury during the latter stretch drive and Calder Cup playoffs. Tuomaala had a very strong Rookie Camp last month and scored the game-winning goal in overtime during the second Rookie Series game against the New York Islanders' prospects.
Unfortunately, Tuomaala got injured late in Rookie Camp and missed all but the tail end of NHL training camp. He did not dress in any of the Flyers' seven preseason games. Now fully cleared to play, he received the consolation prize of closing out camp by practicing with the NHL group prior to being loaned back to the Phantoms among Friday's batch of cuts.
While that may not seem significant, there is actually meaning beyond a practice day grouping. It's an indication that Tuomaala is one of the players under consideration when make an NHL call-ups on wing as needed during the season. The Finn has yet to play in an NHL regular season game, and his usage this week was basically a way of telling him to keep plugging away because the organization feels he's close to attaining that close.
Tuomaala was one of eight players in camp who did require waivers and were loaned to the Phantoms on Friday. the other seven: defensemen Emil Andrae, Adam Ginning, Hunter McDonald, and Helge Grans, goaltender Alexei (or Aleksei as it is now being spelled) Kolosov, and forwards Rodrigo Abols and Oscar Eklind. Veteran goalie Cal Petersen, who required waivers but already cleared, made it nine players under NHL contract who were sent to join the Phantoms.
A 10th player, veteran forward Cooper Marody, is on an AHL-only contract this season. He, too, will join Lehigh Valley. Marody is an important piece of the Phantoms power play, especially on the playmaking side.
More notably, with 14 forwards projected to make the opening NHL roster, the Flyers were compelled by NHL rules to place waiver-eligible forwards Olle Lycksell and veteran Anthony Richard on waivers on Friday. The team will find out this afternoon if the players clear. If so, they'll be assigned to the AHL team's opening roster.
The odds favor both players clearing waivers. It's not a lock (such as when the unexpectedly lost Danick Martel to a waiver claim by Tampa Bay in 2018 and, before that, veteran Chris Porter to Minnesota in 2015). However, every NHL team has a numbers game of its own to sort through before their opening roste is set. Moreover, most organizations have some good AHL players fairly comparable to Lycksell and Richard who are on the NHL bubble. Organizations would gladly keep such players around for depth but are forced to get them through waivers first.
Last season, there was much hand-wringing by Flyers fans when they had to waive power forward Wade Allison and two-way forward Tanner Laczynski for roster numbers game reasons. Both had spent the previous season in the NHL. Both players cleared waivers. Laczynski went on to have a strong but injury-prone AHL season while Allison had a disappointing (and once again somewhat injury-shortened) season. Neither are in the Flyers organization any longer. Allison, in fact, is in the KHL this season.
Other times, a player may clear preseason waivers due to the league-wide numbers game considerations but later get claimed when back on waivers during the season. That is how Nicolas Aube-Kubel (via waiver claim by Colorado) and Mark Friedman (waiver claim by Pittsburgh) were eventually lost to other organizations after previously getting through waivers once they were no longer exempt.
Bottom line: Waivers are always a bit of a CBA-required depth gamble. It wouldn't be the end of the world if Lycksell and/or Richard are claimed but it'd be beneficial for the players themselves. If not claimed, it's a bit more call-up depth the Flyers can keep around. Both Lycksell and Richard had strong NHL camps this year and some NHL regular season experience on their resumes.
Yesterday, the Flyers also returned prospects Oliver Bonk (2023 first-round pick) and Denver Barkey to the OHL champion London Knights for their respective draft-plus-two seasons. Neither player is age-eligible yet for the American Hockey League and neither is NHL-ready at present.
Bonk had a so-so camp and preseason this year, while Barkey missed both Rookie and NHL camps while recovering from a summertime bout of mononucleosis. Both players are strong candidates for Team Canada's 2024-25 World Junior Championship roster, along with Flyers goalie prospect Carson Bjarnason (2023 second-round pick). Bonk played in the tourney last year.
With Bonk, Andrae, Ginning and McDonald among Friday's cuts, the NHL roster on defense appears set with the team going into the season with seven defensemen.
Cam York - Travis Sanheim
Nick Seeler - Jamie Drysdale
Egor Zamula - Rasmus Ristolainen
7th D: Erik Johnson
Note: Seeler is dealing with a day-to-day lower-body issue sustained in Boston on Tuesday. He appeared briefly at Friday's practice but soon headed off the ice. With a week until the regular season opener, there was no need to push it if he wasn't feeling quite right yesterday.
The goalies, as expected are Samuel Ersson and Ivan Fedotov. Ersson had an outstanding camp and preseason. Fedotov's camp was a bit uneven.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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