At long last, Flyers hockey is almost here, and Wednesday’s training camp roster brought a couple of names that stand out immediately.
The club released its official camp roster and schedule ahead of next week’s camp, which begins Thursday after rookie camp wraps up. Most of the list looks familiar, but there are a few notable additions that give this camp a little extra intrigue.
Up front, the Flyers’ forwards include Garrett Wilson, Travis Konecny, Devin Kaplan, Sean Couturier, Nikita Grebenkin, Danila Klimovich, Alex Bump, Zach Aston-Reese, Christian Dvorak, Jack Studnicka, Nolan Foote, Noah Cates, Riley Thompson, Matvei Michkov, Trevor Zegras, Zayde Wisdom, Noah Powell, Noel Acciari, Cole Knuble, Tyson Foerster, Owen Tippett, Jett Luchanko, Jacob Gaucher, Denver Barkey, Carl Grundstrom, and Porter Martone.
In goal, there aren’t any surprises. Dan Vladar is back as the lead name, with Joseph Woll behind him, and the group also includes prospects Aleksei Kolosov and Carson Bjarnason.
The defense list is where the roster gets a little more interesting. Helge Grans, David Jiricek, and Oliver Bonk are among the players who should be battling for a spot, while Travis Sanheim, Jamie Drysdale, Cam York, Nick Seeler, Rasmus Ristolainen, Simon Benoit, Hunter McDonald, and Ty Murchison are also on the roster.
There are also a few newer faces who look more likely to spend their time with Lehigh Valley. Jackson Edward and Cam Dineen fit that bill, and they’ll apparently be joined by Andrew Perrott, who signed an AHL deal with Lehigh Valley in July.
Perrott, 25, is a formerly undrafted 6-foot defenseman who has built his career as an AHL-ECHL tweener. Last season with the Rockford IceHogs, he played 51 AHL games and posted one goal, three assists, four points, a -6 rating, and 117 penalty minutes.
His inclusion means he’ll be in NHL training camp ahead of someone like Cooper Wylie, who has attended Flyers camps before and is about to begin his first pro season after four years at St. Cloud State University.
Wisdom is another name that jumps off the page. He returned to the Flyers organization last year on an AHL deal, and now the 24-year-old gets another chance to push for a bottom-six role.
He’ll be competing with players such as Kaplan, Klimovich, Grebenkin, Aston-Reese, Foote, Grundstrom, and Wilson for that type of spot. After a rough 2023-24 season that produced just three points in 49 games, Wisdom is back in the conversation thanks to 27 goals and 59 points over his last two seasons. He also wore the ‘A’ for the Phantoms for the first time last year.
The Flyers giving Wisdom a camp look ahead of younger players like Alex Ciernik and Owen McLaughlin says plenty about where he stands right now. Between Wisdom and Perrott, there should be no shortage of energy or physical play once camp and the preseason get rolling.
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Hughes addressed the situation on a podcast and made it sound less like a standoff than a measured wait, suggesting he expects a new deal with the Wild to eventually come together. The timing is still unclear, though, and with camp approaching, his careful approach leaves enough uncertainty to keep the rumor mill turning for anyone following the ripple effects across the conference. [Read more 🡒]