Roster calls loom, goalie battle settled and more on Flyers

Roster calls loom, goalie battle settled and more on Flyers originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

VOORHEES, N.J. — The Flyers are down to their final decisions.

The club’s roster was trimmed to 25 healthy players Wednesday when prospects Ronnie Attard, Adam Ginning and Samu Tuomaala were sent to AHL affiliate Lehigh Valley.

The Flyers play their last exhibition game Thursday against the Islanders at the Wells Fargo Center (7 p.m. ET/NBCSP). They must submit their season-opening roster, which can have a max of 23 players, by Monday at 5 p.m. ET.

They open the regular season next Thursday when they visit the Blue Jackets (7 p.m. ET/NBCSP).

With a healthy Sean Couturier and Cam Atkinson, the offseason additions of Garnet Hathaway, Ryan Poehling, Marc Staal and Sean Walker, and a rebuilding team stressing the importance of developing its younger players, the Flyers have a difficult balance to strike.

“It kind of confuses you,” head coach John Tortorella said of the competition between veterans and youngsters. “Confusion is good when you’re in a process. We’ve just got to unconfuse it sometime by Monday.”

Before the Flyers suit up for one final exhibition contest, let’s get into three observations from the sixth non-game day of camp.

Here’s what we saw in Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4 and Day 5 of camp, as well as Game 1, Game 2, Game 3, Game 4 and Game 5 of the preseason.

The final forwards

The Flyers have 14 healthy forwards left on their roster. The club seemingly has to decide who will be its 12th and final forward in the season-opening lineup and who will be the extra.

The two spots have come down to wingers Wade Allison, Bobby Brink and Tyson Foerster.

Brink has been one of the Flyers’ best players in camp and the preseason. The 2019 second-round pick forced his way into the discussion by showing the Flyers his ability to create offense, something the organization has really needed. He’s very good on the power play and can be trusted on a second or third line.

“My goal in the camp was to make the team,” Brink said Wednesday. “It’s not my decision to make, but that was my goal.”

The 22-year-old has led the Flyers in preseason scoring with three points (one goal, two assists) over four games. He also scored a shootout marker in Boston, had a pair of goals in the scrimmage portion of camp and played in both rookie games. The Flyers have pushed him and he has responded well.

“The puck follows him around,” Tortorella said Monday. “You can see he’s looking for that next play, I think he has that innate ability that you can’t teach to see the next play.”

Allison has scored one of the Flyers’ nine preseason goals. More importantly, in fourth-line type of minutes, he has provided the style of play Tortorella wants to see from him.

Foerster, arguably the top prospect in camp with his advanced shot, hasn’t stood out from an offensive standpoint. The 2020 first-round pick has one assist and two shots through three exhibition showings after going scoreless in the two rookie games. There’s a good chance Foerster could play in the preseason finale, giving him one more opportunity to make a mark on the Flyers’ decision-makers.

Whatever decision the Flyers make with Foerster, he’ll be playing games with the big club this season. The Flyers’ belief in his potential to fill a glaring need will not change. He’s only 21 years old and made a strong impression last season. If he starts with the Phantoms, he should build plenty of confidence for when the Flyers call him again.

Considering how the preseason has played out, it wouldn’t be surprising if the Flyers gave Brink the nod on opening night and start with Allison as a reliable extra pushing for games. But there’s still time left.

The defensive pairs

After sending prospects Attard and Ginning to Lehigh Valley, the Flyers were down to eight blueliners in practice Wednesday.

“I think it’s another year in the process for them,” Tortorella said of Attard and Ginning. “It makes our decisions, not only now but going forward, more interesting in that position, defense. But right now, in their process, they need to go and play.

“Does that stop them from coming back here? No. You know that position, defense, is going to be looked at all year long as far as, ‘Is he ready or not? Maybe bring another guy?’ They’re in that equation, for sure. I think Lehigh’s going to have a very good defense this year.”

Two prospects remain in the Flyers’ immediate picture on the back end: Egor Zamula and Emil Andrae. Tortorella said he doesn’t know yet if the Flyers will carry eight defensemen to open the season.

The club doesn’t want prospects sitting for too many games, so if it keeps only seven, Zamula might be the favorite to stay for various reasons. He’s older at 23 years old, he has more AHL experience and he’s no longer waivers exempt.

He’d likely battle with Walker to be the sixth and final defenseman in the lineup. This could be a season in which the Flyers want to get a long read on Zamula at the NHL level, which would require sitting different veterans at times.

“We don’t just want a practice player at that age,” Tortorella said. “Those are the decisions that management and coach have to talk about, where we think he’s going to be as far as minutes. You can’t hide it, waivers plays a part in some of it because you don’t want to lose your asset, either.

“I believe in playing the kids, it’s the part of the process that we’re at right now with our team. I don’t think there are going to be many situations that we run into where we’re not playing him enough, let’s try to sneak him down.”

If Andrae doesn’t start with the Flyers, he’s seriously knocking on the door. Many believe the 21-year-old can be an answer on the back end.

“He’s got some feistiness to him,” Tortorella said. “I thought he played well in spots in the exhibition games. … He’s one of those guys that is going to play a role in this somewhere along the way. But right now, we feel him and Z will stay and we’ll see what happens.”

The tandem in net

Carter Hart will play the full game Thursday, giving him a second tune-up for the regular-season opener.

Meanwhile, his backup has been decided. Tortorella announced that Samuel Ersson will open the season as the Flyers’ No. 2 goalie, which means Felix Sandstrom, at some point, will have to clear waivers to go to the Phantoms.

“We’ve come to that decision,” Tortorella said. “Now, Sandy stays here with us. The mandate to [goaltending coach Kim Dillabaugh] is get our 1 and 2 ready to go for opening night and that will be Hartsy and Ers. And we’ll see happens from there.”

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