Flyers announce 23-man NHL roster, place Rasmus Ristolainen on injured reserve

And then there were 23.

The Flyers announced their 23-man roster on Monday a couple hours after the NHL’s 5 p.m. roster deadline. With the season officially starting on Tuesday, all teams had to be down to a maximum of 23 players by Monday evening.

While the Flyers’ initial roster might be set, the team will likely make a move or two before Thursday’s season’s opener against the Columbus Blue Jackets. One of those figures to involve third-string goaltender Felix Sandström, who is not waiver-exempt and thus was kept on the roster Monday.

Heading into Monday, the Flyers needed to go from 25 players to 23, although with forward prospect Jon-Randall Avon rehabbing and eligible to stay with the team without occupying a roster spot, in reality, they needed to cut down by only one more player. It turned out that they didn’t need to make a cut at all, as they instead placed defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen (undisclosed) on injured reserve to start the season. Ristolainen will miss a minimum of seven days because of the IR designation. Unsurprisingly, Ryan Ellis (pelvic injury) was also placed on injured reserve. Ellis has not played since the beginning of the 2021-22 season.

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If the Flyers don’t continue to carry three goalies, they could call up another player ahead of Thursday’s game. The Flyers would likely need to sneak the 26-year-old Sandström through waivers between now and then to do so. The thinking here would be that he would be less likely to be claimed by another team after rosters were “finalized“ on Monday. With Ristolainen on IR, the Flyers could also kick the Sandström decision down the road for a bit. Coach John Tortorella announced last Wednesday that fellow Swede Sam Ersson had beaten out Sandström for the backup goalie job behind Carter Hart.

The Flyers have successfully passed veterans Cal Petersen, Victor Mete, Tanner Laczynski, and Wade Allison through waivers in recent weeks. Allison was the most surprising of the players waived, although the former second-rounder cleared on Saturday and has since been sent to Lehigh Valley of the AHL.

Outside of the goalie logistics and Ristolainen’s being placed on IR, the roster didn’t bring too many other surprises. The forward group is headlined by leading scorer Travis Konecny (31 goals, 61 points in 60 games) and the returns of veterans Sean Couturier and Cam Atkinson, both of whom missed last season with injuries. Then there are youngsters Owen Tippett, Morgan Frost, and Noah Cates, all of whom will be looking to build on career seasons in 2022-23.

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Highly ranked prospects Tyson Foerster and Bobby Brink, who entered training camp competing for one spot, both made the team, a testament to how good each looked in the preseason. Brink was especially impressive, scoring a goal and adding three assists in four preseason games after starting as a roster long shot.

On defense, Cam York and Travis Sanheim will be expected to take on added loads after the departures of Ivan Provorov and Tony DeAngelo in the offseason. York, 22, looks poised for a breakout season, while Sanheim, who is beginning an eight-year, $50 million contract, will look to bounce back from a disappointing 2022-23 campaign.

Hart, 25, will again be the team’s No. 1 goaltender and will look to build on a solid season (.907 save percentage, 2.94 goals against average). Behind him will be the aforementioned Ersson, who was good in limited opportunities last season and gives the Flyers a nice young 1-2 punch between the pipes

The Flyers will be hoping to get off to a fast start as they embark on a self-proclaimed “new era of orange” under first-year general manager Danny Brière and rookie president of hockey operations Keith Jones. While the team has made no secret that it is rebuilding, Brière has been adamant that the Flyers are not tanking.

“We’re going to do things, obviously, for the future, but at the same time we expect these guys to go out and win every game and I hope they know that,” Brière said recently. That task begins Thursday in Columbus.

Forwards (13): Cam Atkinson, Bobby Brink, Noah Cates, Sean Couturier, Nic Deslauriers, Joel Farabee, Tyson Foerster, Morgan Frost, Garnet Hathaway, Travis Konecny, Scott Laughton, Ryan Poehling, Owen Tippett

Defensemen (7): Emil Andrae, Travis Sanheim, Nick Seeler, Marc Staal, Sean Walker, Cam York, Egor Zamula

Goaltenders (3): Sam Ersson, Carter Hart, Felix Sandström