With training camp and pre season in the books, the Flyers made the final few tough decisions to get their roster down to the 24 player limit for opening night. Some exciting rookies made their cases for a roster spot, but ultimately being able to be assigned to the AHL without requiring waivers was the deciding factor for Aleksandr Shaulov, Kevin Pettersson & Yuri Mikhailov. Expect to see these players as the first call ups in the event of injuries this season. The Flyers also made the unusual move of carrying 3 goalies on the roster to begin the season. All 3 of our goalies impressed during the pre season, so we want to make sure we are keeping our options open and giving our team the best chance to win each night with who we put between the pipes.

Opening night roster -

Dirk Fischer (A) - Clayton Gustafson (A) - Calum Abbott
Nolan Bodie - Jaxon Billard - Matthew Cirella
Dmitry Tyulkin - Adam Nagelvoort - Nick Mainot
Aleksandr Kabanov - Aleksey Mavlevich - Igor Rozinov

Gary Fox (C) - Brennan Leitch
Anton Hansson - Peter Lindkvist
Joona Paavola - Chris Bridges

Ryan Petersen - Kirill Fomich

Scratches - Marc-Antoine Plante, Dustin Bradford, Andrey Pavlov, Vladimir Luchkin

Winning the Presidents trophy in the final week of the season wasn't enough to prevent a major roster overhaul this offseason. Despite the successful regular season, the Flyers again fell well short of there true goal, winning the Cup. Losing to their rival and eventual Cup champion didn't make things any better. So after the champions were crowned, the Flyers got to work to change over what was a good roster, but ultimately not good enough. Watching some really good players (Brant McCormick, Olle Vallin), including some home grown talent (Berkley Adams, Max Norris, Aleksey Lugobov) walk away in free agency was tough, but we believe we will be a better team for it this season. Luke McNamara was bought out as well to create some more cap room for the extensions of the teams young stars.
Nolan Bodie, via trade with Buffalo, adds a young top 6 forward to the group. Bodie has proven he can score 20+ goals in this league, and will slot in on the 2nd line with budding young stars Jaxon Billard & Matthew Cirella.
Joona Paavola, via trade with New Jersey, is a veteran defensive defenseman who will reunite with for Jersey teammate Chris Bridges and form what should be an excellent shutdown pair for us this season.
Dustin Bradford, via trade with Milwaukee, is a highly regarded do everything defenseman. He will help replace some of the offense from the blueline, and is also a very capable shut down player.
Peter Lindkvist, via trade with Prince George, is a unique player who can play defense & winger. His versatility is what attracted us to him. Expect to see him used in many different ways in our line up this season.
Kirill Fomich, via free agency, was signed to a 5 year deal to compete with last seasons break out goalie Ryan Petersen. As it was last season, the goalie who is on his game will get the starts, and we expect a healthy competition for playing time every night.
Aleksandr Shaulov, via draft 3rd overall, was the top D man in this years draft class. He has signed his entry level contract and will see some ice time in the preseason, but his likely path is to start in the AHL this year and build his game from there.
Dmitry Tyulkin & Yury Mikhailov, signed from the KHL, are two young Flyers draft picks who tore up the KHL last season. They will both have a strong chance to earn a spot on the Flyers opening night roster.
On the eve of the preseason the Flyers completed one more deal with the Devil(s), sending promising prospect Roman Honcharenko across the state line in exchange for a 1st round pick and prospect Samuli Inkeroinen. Inkeroinen projects to be a shutdown center with some offensive upside still possibly to be discovered. He is signed in the KHL for the next 2 seasons, where he will get lots of playing time against great competition, which should greatly help him develop.
The 38/39 season is nearly upon us, so only time will tell now if all this roster turnover can help the Flyers get over their playoff failures and complete the misson!