The Philadelphia Flyers have improved mightily after their 6-0 drubbing at the hands of the New Jersey Devils that kickstarted their preseason. Since then, they have posted a record of 2-1-1, where they lost to the New York Islanders by a score of 2-1, then defeated the Boston Bruins in a shootout by a score of 4-3, fell 3-2 to the Devils in overtime, and then beat the Bruins in regulation, 3-1.
With the preseason coming to a close and the Flyers’ roster nearly compliant – with just 26 players remaining – they will be featuring a nearly NHL-ready lineup tonight. Bobby Brink, Wade Allison, Emil Andrae, and Yegor Zamula will not play, but Tyson Foerster and the entire fourth line of Nicolas Deslauriers, Ryan Poehling, and Garnet Hathaway will be given a shot.
The Flyers have a few options at their disposal if they choose to go with a full 23-man roster heading into the regular season opener on the 12th of October. They can choose to have 13 forwards, 8 defensemen, and 2 goaltenders or 14 forwards, 7 defensemen, and 2 goaltenders on the roster. They also have the choice of going with 22 or 21 skaters, which is something that could come to pass with players like Brink and Andrae getting more experience in the minors than they would in the NHL by either sitting in the press box or playing minimal minutes.
Samuel Ersson was given the thumbs up from John Tortorella as the backup goaltender this season, Cal Petersen was placed on waivers and has cleared, and Felix Sandström – who is not waiver exempt – is still with the club as they need to make a decision on his status in the coming days.
Tortorella also mentioned how Marc Staal will used sparingly and in a rotation this season, perhaps making way for the younger cast and crew to get more ice-time.
When: 7:00pm ET
Where: Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, PA
PHI Goalie: Carter Hart (2022-23: 22-23-10, .907 SV%, 2.94 GAA, 2 SO)
NYI Goalie: Ilya Sorokin (2022-23: 31-22-7, .924 SV%, 2.34 GAA, 6 SO w/New York)
PHI Projected Lineup
#86 Joel Farabee – #14 Sean Couturier – #71 Tyson Foerster
#21 Scott Laughton – #27 Noah Cates – #11 Travis Konecny
#74 Owen Tippett – #48 Morgan Frost – #89 Cam Atkinson
#44 Nicolas Deslauriers – #25 Ryan Poehling – #19 Garnet Hathaway
#8 Cam York – #55 Rasmus Ristolainen
#18 Marc Staal – #6 Travis Sanheim
#24 Nick Seeler – #26 Sean Walker
#79 Carter Hart
#33 Samuel Ersson
NYI Projected Lineup
#10 Simon Holmström – #14 Bo Horvat – #13 Mathew Barzal
#18 Pierre Engvall – #29 Brock Nelson – #16 Julien Gauthier
#27 Anders Lee – #44 Jean-Gabriel Pageau – #26 Oliver Wahlstrom
#17 Matt Martin – #53 Casey Cizikas – #15 Cal Clutterbuck
#3 Adam Pelech – #8 Noah Dobson
#28 Alexander Romanov – #6 Ryan Pulock
#25 Sebastian Aho – #24 Scott Mayfield
#30 Ilya Sorokin
#40 Semyon Varlamov
News and Notes
– Carter Hart will start tonight’s contest and is expected to play the entire game.
– Tyson Foerster is getting an opportunity to shine in the final preseason game as he will be on the top line with Sean Couturier and Joel Farabee in his last chance to impress for a roster spot.
Broadcast Info: TV – NBC Sports Philadelphia, Radio – 97.5 The Fanatic
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