The Flyers have officially announced their roster with training camp starting up on-ice on Jan. 4th.

Forwards

Wade Allison RW

Andy Andreoff C/LW

Nicolas Aube-Kubel RW

Connor Bunnaman C

Sean Couturier C

Joel Farabee LW

Tyson Foerster RW

Morgan Frost C

Claude Giroux C

Kevin Hayes C

Travis Konecny RW

Tanner Laczynski C

Scott Laughton C

Oskar Lindblom LW

Samuel Morin LW

Nolan Patrick C

Michael Raffl LW

Linus Sandin RW

Carsen Twarynski LW

James Van Riemsdyk LW

Jakub Voracek RW

Zayde Wisdown LW

Not many surprises here with the forwards, unless you want to count the crazy news of Samuel Morin making the change from defense to left wing. Two picks from the 2020 draft, Tyson Foerster (23rd overall) and Zayde Wisdom (94th overall), get a camp spot. Foerster was sent home before the world juniors started, it’ll be nice to see him get some reps in at an NHL training camp. Zayde Wisdom is also in his first NHL training camp looking to leave a good first impression with his new team. I’m putting nothing behind this kid, he’s determined and ready to go, rooting for Zayde all the way. Both don’t have any realistic shot to make the team this year unless one of them completely blow the doors off at camp. Still, giving them the reps while they’re here can’t hurt. Wade Allison, Linus Sandin, Tanner Laczynski are all guys looking to push for a roster spot or taxi squad spot. The amount of depth this team has is a breath of fresh air from previous years. Issac Ratcliffe is out four weeks after suffering a fractured rib while training in the off-season.

Joel Farabee will make the team out of camp barring injury, that’s a given. Him entering the 2020-2021 season with #49, is not. Beezer has made the number change to #86.

Spicy. I love it.

Nolan Patrick, one of the teams biggest storylines coming into the season is on the training camp roster. He’s been scrimmaging in Manitoba for the last couple months with former Flyer Ryan White, trying to get ready for camp. I’m not fully ready to write Patrick in at 3C just yet, not playing in an NHL game in years, how ready is he really to jump right in at 3C? He was scrimmaging with the team late last season and you can argue that with the circumstances the NHL (and the world) has had to deal with, might make bringing a player back into the fold a little easier than previous years. Every team around the league, especially the ones who didn’t make the playoff and have been sitting at home since the Covid-19 stoppage in March, are all in the same boat. He certainly has the skill, this isn’t me knocking Nolan Patrick. He can definitely be this teams 3C this year if he’s able to stay healthy, but right out of training camp? We’ll see how he responds and if he can stay on the ice.

Defense

Chris Bigras

Justin Braun

Mark Friedman

Shayne Gostisbehere

Erik Gustafsson

Robert Hagg

Philippe Myers

Derrick Pouliot

Nate Prosser

Ivan Provorov

Travis Samheim

Tyler Wotherspoon

Wyatt Wylie

Egor Zamula

No surprises here either. 20 year old, Egor Zamula gets a roster spot after being apart of the teams roster back in the bubble playoffs, playing one game vs Penguins in the round-robin. Mark Friedman played 6 games last year for the Flyers, scoring one point, looks to make the team as the #7 straight out of camp. Prospect Wyatt Wylie makes the roster, defenseman from the Everett Silvertips of the WHL. Don’t expect him to make the roster or taxi squad but he’s a player to look at once the AHL season (hopefully) gets going in Feb. The two biggest storylines for me coming into this camp on the defensive side are:

1) Can we find someone who can play next to Ivan Provorov?

With Matt Niskanen recently retiring, that leaves a huge hole next to Provorov. Can it be Myers who will be the first man up to try and replace Niskanen? He’s the only other right handed shot on the team that I’m willing to put in a top 2 role. Justin Braun just isn’t good enough to play those kind of minutes and while Mark Friedman looked good and held his own in the games he did play last year, I’m not running to the line-up board to pencil him next to Provorov. Something to keep an eye on with the first game vs Penguins 11 days away.

2) Where does Shayne Gostisbehere fit in?

I talked about this when the Morin news broke. Where does Ghost fit in on this team? If you pair Provorov – Myers, Sanheim – Gustafsson, Braun – Hagg, then that leaves Ghost out. Now, some people will argue that Ghost is better than Hagg. But the role that Hagg is in, that bottom pairing #6 defenseman, I disagree. Hagg is what you want in that kind of defenseman. He clears the puck, he led the team in blocked shots, he clears the crease, takes the body and jumps up in the play when it’s presented. Nothing fancy, just do your job and make things easy for yourself. I thought Hagg played that role to a tee last year. I admittedly, might not be the biggest fan of Hagg’s overall skill but the boys love him and the team seems to play better with him in there. Ghost is not that kind of defenseman and he never will be. Ghost is kind of like JVR in the way where you have to put him in a position to succeed or you will be on the timeline calling for them to be on the next bus out of town. I’m very interested to see where Shayne Gostisbehere factors in on this team (or another) this year.

Goalies

Brian Elliott

Carter Hart

Alex Lyon

Felix Sandstrom

Roddy Ross

Carter Hart comes into Year 3 ready to go. Prospect Kirill Ustimenko (G) will miss this camp after undergoing surgery on his left hip to fix a torn labrum, such a shame. Brian Elliott comes back again on a 1-year deal after being a great back-up for Hart last year. Excited to see what Felix Sandstrom can do as well. If a team has fewer than three goalies on the roster then must have at least one on the 4 to 6 man “Taxi Squad”.

Carter Hart

Brian Elliott

Alex Lyon

Hockey is in the air, LETS GO FLYERS!

MANDATORY CREDIT: NHL.com, Flyers twitter