Flyers roster breakdown: Who won jobs and 3 questions that still need answers (2024)

The 2022-23 Philadelphia Flyers opening-night roster is set.

Well, mostly. Probably.

The Flyers held off on officially announcing their final roster in the immediate aftermath of the 5 p.m. ET Monday deadline, because the 20-man roster they initially filed with the league was not going to match their actual Thursday roster. Due to salary cap complications, general manager Chuck Fletcher and his staff needed to submit a list that maximized their usage of long-term injured reserve (LTIR) allowance, which meant that multiple players who had “made” the team — namely, Wade Allison, Tanner Laczynski and Egor Zamula — had to temporarily be sent to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms in a paper transaction.

All three returned Tuesday, as Fletcher announced a cap-compliant 23-man roster.

🚨 OFFICIAL 🚨

Our 23-man season opening roster has been set! The puck drops on Thursday at @WellsFargoCtr. https://t.co/0d51vF8YXv

— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) October 11, 2022

The roster has its fair share of new faces, surprises and unanswered questions. Time to dive into them all, starting with the bubble players who appear to have unquestionably earned their way onto the roster and lineup.

Who won jobs at camp

Morgan Frost and Owen Tippett

In truth, both were virtual locks entering camp because neither is waiver-exempt anymore, meaning that the Flyers would have risked losing them for nothing had they tried to send them down to the AHL. Given the team’s lack of depth down the middle with Sean Couturier still week to week with his back injury, Morgan Frost would have had to completely flop to end up back in Lehigh Valley. As for Owen Tippett, his status as the centerpiece of the Claude Giroux trade certainly gives him a degree of roster security, in addition to the fact that the front office clearly thinks highly of him and his upside.

Both cleared the necessary bar. Frost quietly delivered an impressive camp, flashing his playmaking ability and an increased compete level in physical battles. He was a no-brainer to make the club, even if he didn’t exactly light up the scoreboard (in fairness, no one on the Flyers did). As for Tippett, his issue throughout the preseason, again, was finishing on his numerous scoring chances, but he did finally score a goal in the finale, and he showed enough to cruise to a roster spot.

Frost and Tippett should begin the season in the Flyers’ top nine. They have their opportunity — now it’s on them to take full advantage and prove they deserve to be viewed as clear-cut NHLers.

Noah Cates

Unlike Frost and Tippett, Noah Cates didn’t enter camp with the protection of waiver status. Sure, he had finished the 2021-22 season strong with the Flyers, but as proven by Cam York’s early demotion, youngsters weren’t going to be allowed to simply rest on their laurels at camp. They were going to have to earn their spots in front of a new coaching staff relatively unfamiliar with them.

Cates quickly made it clear to John Tortorella and the staff that he needed to be a roster and lineup lock.

“He probably had the best camp, for me at least, getting to know a guy … I didn’t even know who he was,” Tortorella said. “He’s right there at the top, as far as the camp he had, versus all 60 whatever we had here. He’s here, he deserves to be here, and he deserves the attention that we’re giving him, as far as the spots that we’ll probably put him in.”

Surprisingly, he’ll begin the season at center, despite skating at wing with the club during his late-season audition. Apparently, that won’t just be temporary, either. The Flyers are going to try to develop Cates as a center — the position he played at times at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, though he had his best scoring seasons on the wing — at least for now.

“I think we need a center that can not only play well defensively, but bring some good offensive numbers, and we have a chance to develop him there,” Tortorella said Monday. “This isn’t a short-term look. This is long term also.”

It remains to be seen if Cates will stick in the middle or ultimately be forced back to the wing. But one thing is for sure: Noah Cates cruised to a roster spot. He didn’t even have to sweat out final cutdown day. He was that impressive.

Tanner Laczynski

As camp wound down, it became clear that the fourth-line center battle was down to two players: Laczynski and Jackson Cates.

Laczynski ultimately came out on top.

Cates, by Tortorella’s own admission, had a strong camp and will likely be back with the Flyers in the relatively near future. They didn’t want him serving as an extra forward when he could try to build off his successful offseason and camp in regular games in the AHL. But Laczynski has always been the higher upside player, a potential Swiss Army knife in the Michael Raffl mold. In retrospect, it was telling that Laczynski largely played with traditional fourth-liners like Nicolas Deslauriers and Zack MacEwen in preseason games; the coaching staff wanted to see if he could remain effective in that role without scoring help on his wings. Especially in the preseason finale, he did just that.

“Just looking, I kind of knew that I was playing for the fourth-line center role, but happy with that,” Lacyznski said. “Whatever’s thrown my way, or whatever position I need to fill, or role, I’m happy to do. At the end of the day, I saw that there was a gap in the fourth-line center role, and that’s what I wanted.”

Laczynski has the potential to play higher in the lineup, and he could certainly get looks up there as the season progresses. But for now, he’ll be the starting 4C, playing limited minutes and looking to anchor what Tortorella said he hopes will become something of an “identity line.”

Wade Allison

Allison’s problem has never been impressing when he plays. It’s simply been his ability to play period.

So it really should come as little surprise that he earned a spot on the club after staying healthy throughout camp. Simply put, he’s one of the 12 best forwards in the organization right now.

“I feel good, man,” Allison said Monday prior to the roster being finalized. “I put in the work. I worked my ass off.”

Allison helped his case by playing a particularly physical style in preseason games, a style that would work just as well on an “identity” fourth line as in the top nine. Assistant GM Brent Flahr noted prior to the start of camp that Allison was no longer a “top-nine-or-bust” type of prospect, and that he could potentially make the club as a fourth-liner. It’s possible that could still happen — if Cam Atkinson is indeed ready for Game 1, one of the right wingers will need to vacate his spot in the top nine to accommodate him. Could Allison end up with Laczynski and Deslauriers? It’s certainly an option.

But given his performance at camp, it looks like he’ll stick with the big club. It’s only his specific spot that remains in question.

Hayden Hodgson

Hayden Hodgson stands alone among the winners of jobs at camp, in large part because, in comparison to the other bubble players that secured spots, well, he just didn’t do all that much.

Tortorella acknowledged as much Sunday.

“Yeah, I’ve heard a lot about him. He’s had an OK camp,” Tortorella said, delivering tellingly lukewarm praise. “I’m not going to base everything on a camp. He’s a big body, he’s a willing guy. He’s certainly someone that there’s a lot of people in the organization that think very highly of him. I need to see more of him. He didn’t have a camp like (Noah) Cates. Kind of a different player. But I didn’t notice him as much. But that may work itself out.”

This seems like a situation where the Flyers kept Hodgson — who would have needed to clear waivers to be sent down — largely because of the front office’s view of him, not that of the NHL coaching staff. Phantoms head coach Ian Laperriere is a big-time believer in Hodgson’s upside, and Tortorella certainly listened to Lappy’s pre-camp input on the prospects that he had coached. Hodgson also has champions in the front office as well, who believed they’ve unearthed a late-bloomer in the Tanner Jeannot mold, a player who can bring size and physicality with a bit of a power forward scoring touch as well.

Hodgson is a great story, an undrafted 26-year-old who as recently as 2020-21 looked like he might top out as an ECHL regular. But at this camp, it appears he made the roster more due to organizational reputation and concerns that he might not clear waivers. He still needs to convince Tortorella that he deserves to be an all-season NHLer.

Questions that need to be answered

1. Will Atkinson be ready for Game 1? And if so, who comes out of the lineup for him?

When the preseason slate came to an end last week, the Flyers were particularly nicked up. All of Travis Konecny, Joel Farabee, Carter Hart, Ivan Provorov, Rasmus Ristolainen and Atkinson missed the finale with various bumps and bruises. But in the days since, all of them have returned to full practice, and appear on track to be in the lineup Thursday against the New Jersey Devils.

All except Atkinson, that is.

“I’m still optimistic,” Tortorella said Monday regarding Atkinson’s status for Thursday.

According to Tortorella, Atkinson was away from the team for a few days, first dealing with a personal matter, and then seeing “someone that has worked with him and his body throughout the time in Columbus.” He returned to Philadelphia on Monday and is expected to practice with the club Wednesday when they return to the ice (Tuesday was an off day).

Still, Atkinson has barely practiced over the past few weeks, and didn’t appear in a single preseason contest. It’s reasonable to wonder if the Flyers are presenting an overly optimistic public face regarding Atkinson’s status.

If Atkinson cannot play, the Flyers very well could stick with the line combinations they ran in practice on Sunday and Monday:

Lines at practice today:

Laughton-Hayes-Konecny
JvR-Frost-Allison
Farabee-Cates-Tippett
Deslauriers-Laczynski-Hodgson

Provorov-DeAngelo
Sanheim-Ristolainen
Seeler-Braun
Zamula-Attard

— Charlie O'Connor (@charlieo_conn) October 10, 2022

But if Atkinson can return, someone on the right side needs to give way for the veteran, who Tortorella called “probably the team’s best player” last season. Konecny is likely set at first-line RW, given that the coaching staff seems to really like the Scott Laughton, Kevin Hayes and Konecny trio as a first line right now. But both Tippett and Allison are options to be moved out of the top nine.

One option would be to slide Allison down to the fourth line, use Hodgson as the extra forward and put Atkinson with Frost and James van Riemsdyk, giving the young playmaking center two veteran goal scorers as support. But there are other options, especially if Tortorella wants to keep the fourth line together, namely a scratching of one of Allison or Tippett or a full-scale shakeup of the lines. It’s definitely something to watch for Wednesday, assuming Atkinson is indeed back at practice.

2. Is the backup goalie competition settled or still ongoing?

In the final 23-man roster released by the Flyers, Samuel Ersson was listed as the backup netminder to Hart, while Felix Sandström will begin the season on injured reserve.

So case closed, right? Ersson won the battle for the No. 2 NHL goalie spot.

Well, maybe. Sort of. Not really.

My understanding of Sandström’s situation is that he was placed on season-opening injured reserve largely for precautionary reasons. Ersson saw his entire 2021-22 campaign ruined by recurring groin issues, and my guess is that the Flyers don’t want to see Sandström’s season become a repeat of that. However, Sandström was healthy enough to practice in full Sunday and Monday with the team, and I’m told that he didn’t suffer a setback. So it’s very possible that Sandström is ready to be removed from IR in the relatively near future.

That’s when the Flyers will have to make their final decision on which Swedish goalie they want as Hart’s full-time backup.

Sandström’s injury status, in short, gives them the opportunity to kick the can down the road a bit. Ersson, who was the best goalie in camp given that Hart received minimal reps due to his own injury issues, certainly did enough to win the job. But the organization ideally wants him to play far more games this season than he would receive as a 20-25 game backup NHL netminder, especially after he appeared in just five contests in 2021-22 due to his groin issues. Sandström, on the other hand, would need to pass through waivers (exposing him to the rest of the league) if the Flyers ultimately choose to stick with Ersson and send Sandström down to the AHL once he is ready to leave IR. It’s not highly likely that Sandström would be claimed, but it is possible. That’s just another factor that the front office and coaching staff will have to consider.

My guess? When Sandström is healthy, he’ll stay in Philadelphia as the “winner” of the backup competition, and Ersson will head to Lehigh Valley to receive a significant portion of the starts. But that could change if Ersson gets in a game or two at the NHL level while Sandström recuperates, or (of course) if Sandström deals with an actual setback.

In other words, Ersson might be the backup goalie for now. But the competition is still far from settled.

3. Why are Zamula and Attard still here?

It appeared to be a foregone conclusion based on Tortorella’s comments over the past week — and the defensive pairing combinations that were run Sunday and Monday — that Zamula and Ronnie Attard had come up just short in their bids to make the big club. The duo of Nick Seeler and Justin Braun appeared to be emerging as the most likely third pair for Game 1, and the organization had made it clear that neither Zamula nor Attard would stick around just to serve as healthy scratches.

But they both were on the final 23-man roster, part of an eight-man defense corps that also included Seeler and Braun.

So what’s going on here? Might Zamula or Attard (or both) actually be in the lineup Thursday? Is it possible that Zamula-Attard and not Seeler-Braun was actually the third pair in practice?

Wednesday will go a long way toward clarifying the situation. My understanding is that Zamula in particular very well could be in the lineup for Game 1, presumably over Seeler. Tortorella was very happy with his camp and likes his skill set. Attard, on the other hand, probably isn’t long for the roster, unless a right-side defenseman gets banged up and he needs to jump in. He won’t stick around for long if he’s going to be a regular press box patron.

Regardless, Tortorella and the front office believed that both deserved the reward of making the initial roster. But it doesn’t seem likely, at least at this juncture, that they’d be willing to roll with an all-rookie third pair.

Still, give the Flyers this much credit — Fletcher wasn’t exaggerating when he said the Flyers could potentially break camp with as many as 10 players on the roster aged 25 or younger. In fact, he ultimately proved to be selling the situation short. Not counting those on IR, Philadelphia’s current 23-man roster includes 12 players that fall into that bucket: Hart, Konecny, Farabee, Frost, Allison, Cates, Tippett, Laczynski, Provorov, Zamula, Attard and Ersson. And that doesn’t even count Hodgson, who is 26 but is certainly a new face. Even without York in the mix, the Flyers won’t be lacking for youngsters.

Now, it’s just a matter of whether they can impress.

(Photo: Brad Rempel / USA Today)