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Flyers practice day in Florida
Rick Tocchet’s Philadelphia Flyers have a tough task ahead on Thursday. The team faces the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers in their home rink. On Tuesday, the back-to-back champs raised their 2024-25 championship banner. Thereafter, Paul Maurice’s squad went on to defeat the Chicago Blackhawks by a 3-2 score. The Panthers are without Aleksander Barkov or Matthew Tkachuk in their lineup. Nevertheless, they remain a very dangerous opponent.
The Flyers traveled to Florida on Tuesday. They will practice at Amerant Bank Arena in Wednesday. At Monday’s practice in Voorhees, Tocchet cautioned not to read too much into the day’s line combinations and defense pairs. Nevertheless, it’s interesting that rookies Nikita Grebenkin and Jett Luchanko were the two extra skaters during line rushes. However, Wednesday’s combos and pairings will be more telling about the opening night lineup.
Blueline conundrum
Cam York (IR, lower-body injury) is a major opening-night absence for the Flyers. Both he and Travis Sanheim had stellar training camp showings. Meanwhile, the Flyers’ third pairing is best described as “patchwork” (or a “committee” as Tocchet called it).Before York sustained an injury in Saturday’s preseason finale, the two two defensive pairing shaped up as York with Sanheim and Nick Seeler with Jamie Drysdale.
Who plays alongside Sanheim on opening night? Sanheim has experience playing either side of a defense pairing. However, he’s primarily played the right side the last couple years.
Let’s assume the Flyers keep Sanheim on right defense. We’ll also assume the Seeler (LD) and Drysdale (RD) pair stays together. Tocchet and assistant coach Todd Reirden have several options at their disposal. That’s the good news. The bad news is that none inspire much confidence right now.
If I had to venture an early Wednesday morning guess, I’d say the Flyers cross their fingers on Egor Zamula. The Russian blueliner has been extremely inconsistent during his NHL career to date. He also had a poor preseason. Tocchet himself acknowledged that Zamula needs to pick up his play considerably. However, general manager Daniel Briere said that, for now, Zamula is still part of the roster’s top six on the defense depth chart.
Ginning, Juulsen or Gilbert
The current Zamula alternatives: rookie Adam Ginning, right-shot defenseman Noah Juulsen, or veteran depth blue liner Dennis Gilbert.
Last year, Ginning seemed to regress in his development after showing some promise in 2023-24. He had a decent camp this part month. However, he earned a roster spot largely because no one else stood out positively. Helge Grans had a rough camp. First-year pro Oliver Bonk suffered an injury in rookie camp and opens the year on INR (Injured Non-Roster). Meanwhile, Hunter McDonald had a just-OK camp and offensive defenseman Ethan Samson (INR) sustained a multi-month injury during NHL camp.
Julsen, coming off a season-ending sports hernia last year, got off to a very rough start in training camp. He played a bit better as camp moved along. Additionally, Gilbert recently cleared waivers. He stayed in Philadelphia due to York’s injury. Gilbert is physical and a pretty good skater, but is strictly a depth defenseman at the NHL level.
Finally veteran Rasmus Ristolainen (IR) is out until mid-November. He skates on his own daily but is not yet close to playing. Ristolainen has undergone triceps surgeries on the same side (although in different locations) the past two years. The confluence of these factors — on top of his own adequate play in camp — earned Ginning an opening-night roster place.
Between the pipes
Right now, it looks like the Flyers will go with a 1A/1B tandem arrangement in goal rather than with a primary starter and a backup. Both Samuel Ersson and Dan Vladar have NHL-caliber talent. Both have had multi-week stretches of fine play. However, both have also been quite streaky so far in their careers. Meanwhile, both have dealt with prolonged injury absences a couple times in their pro careers.
Vladar had a somewhat better preseason than Ersson, but it was not a major difference. My hunch is that Ersson gets the start on Thursday. Perhaps Vladar starts against the Hurricanes on Saturday.in Raleigh. Thereafter, it’s anyone’s guess as to which netminder gets the call for the home opener against the Panthers on Monday. Game 1 and 2 performances play a big part in that upcoming decision.
Who plays left wing if Zegras and Michkov are a duo?
Tocchet wants to give newcomer Trevor Zegras leeway to adapt again to being a full-time center. Meanwhile, he hopes to keep second-year winger Matvei Michkov together with Zegras as a forward duo. Therefore, the third member of the line has to be someone who can balance off the others’ defensive limitations while being able to contribute some supporting offensive.
Christian Dvorak played left wing and center at different junctures of camp. He also moved all around the lineup. However, Tocchet may opt to give Dvorak the first crack at being the F3 on the Michov and Zegras line. He also tried Owen Tippett (one practice and one game) and Grebenkin (early camp).
At Monday’s practice, Michkov played right wing on captain Sean Couturier’s line. Dvorak played the left wing. Meanwhile, Zegras centered Tippett and Travis Konecny (another defensively challenged but offensively talented combo). However, once again, Wednesday’s fourth line combo may be more telling.
Deslauriers games: Over/Under
Nicolas Deslauriers skated as the primary fourth line left wing at Monday’s practice. Rodrigo Abols centered the line (Luchanko rotated in periodically). Garnet Hathaway played his customary RW4 spot. Old-school tough winger Deslauriers, 34, played in 31 games last season after missing time with injuries and coach’s decision scratches from the lineup.
Deslauriers enters the fourth and final season of his current contract with the Flyers. When the team elected to take 14 forwards into the opening night roster, it became clear that Deslauriers would be part of the club. He has 677 NHL games (53 goals, 104 points, 761 penalty minutes) to his credit over the last 12 seasons.
How many games with Deslauriers play for the Flyers in 2025-26? I’ll set the over/under (if healthy) at 30 games. However, Tocchet dressed the veteran policeman when the Flyers went to Montreal for the second game of the preseason. He served as a protector for linemates Luchanko and Alex Bump. Deslauriers fought Florian Xhekaj. Later, he was very willing to go with Florian’s older brother, Arber. No fight materialized.
Like it or not, Tocchet certainly noticed that no one came near Luchanko or Bump (who is a chirper on the ice) in that game. He also noticed that the “DeLo vs. Florian” fight seemed to give the Flyers second period energy after a dead-legged first period. It’s a bit easier to carry Deslauriers on a 14-forward roster than a 13-forward squad.
Broadcaster Roundtable: Start of the season edition
In the first Broadcasters Roundtable of the 2025-26 season, Tim Saunders, Jim Jackson, Todd Fedoruk and Brian Boucher preview what to expect from the Flyers under Rick Tocchet and the rest of the entirely overhauled coaching staff.
Mike Boland (1949-2025)
Condolences go out to the friends and family of Flyers Alumni player Mike Boland. The former NHL and WHA player was 75. He passed away on Sunday. The University of Toronto graduate played in two games for Fred Shero’s Flyers during the 1974-75 season. However, Boland was better known as a mainstay on the Flyers’ Richmond Robins (AHL) and Philadelphia Firebirds (NAHL) farm teams in the early-to-mid 1970s.
While a member of the Firebirds, Boland played right wing on a dynamic offensive line centered by Bob Collyard. In 1974-75, Collyard racked up 103 points (third in the league) while Boland had 86 points (9th). The same year, big rookie winger Willie Friesen notched 25 goals. Tom Young scored 30 goals.
Boland loved to travel across the world, both on and off the ice. He was one of the first North Americans to play pro hockey in Europe, spending the 1976-77 season in Finland with HIFK Helsinki. Later, he lived for a time in Australia. During his time Down Under, he also served as a player-coach for Demons IHC. The team won the Victorian League championship.
However, Boland soon discovered that hockey was not his true calling in life. He turned his former hobbies — photography and cinematography — in an illustrious career behind the camera lens. He won several awards for his cinematography work, including an Emmy Award, a Gemini Award. Additionally, he was behind the camera for the 1987 hockey documentary, The Boys on the Bus.
As a director, Boland received a Canadian Screen Award nomination for a 2014 science documentary (“Gorilla Doctors). He was a published book author, penning “Through the Lens of My Eye: Adventures of a Documentary Cameraman” in 2012.
Smitty stayed busy
Brian Smith pulled down double duty on Monday. First, he was behind the camera for Jason Myrtetus’ Flyers Daily interviews with Bobby Brink and Garnet Hathaway. Later, he co-hosted the first 2025-26 edition of Prospect Pipeline with me. Look for these on Wednesday on the Flyers’ YouTube channel. Meanwhile. as an article companion to Prospect Pipeline, see the current Flyers Farm Report on the team’s official website.
