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Flyers Announce 2023-24 Opening Roster

October 9, 2023, 11:12 PM ET [226 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The Philadelphia Flyers announced their opening roster for the 2023-24, which was filed earlier today with the National Hockey League. The roster has 13 forwards, seven defensemen and three goaltenders.

Defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen, who battled an undisclosed injury late in training camp -- head coach John Tortorella said only that Ristolainen was "nicked" but said that the injury was not serious --will open the season on IR. Ristolainen was a late scratch from Thursday preseason finale against the New York Islanders and missed practice on Friday. However, he practiced on Saturday before the team departed on a two-day players-only trip.

With Ristolainen on injured reserve, the veteran Finnish blueline is ineligible to play during at least the first seven days of the 2023-24 NHL season. Additionally, as expected, the Flyers placed defenseman Ryan Ellis -- who is unlikely to ever be able to resume his playing career -- on injured reserve. At some point, he could be moved to long-term injured reserve.

The opening roster the Flyers filed with the NHL is as follows:

Goaltenders: Carter Hart, Samuel Ersson, Felix Sandström.

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

Forwards: Sean Couturier, Joel Farabee, Travis Konecny, Noah Cates, Scott Laughton, Morgan Frost, Owen Tippett, Cam Atkinson, Tyson Foerster, Bobby Brink (switching uniform number from No. 46 to No. 10), Ryan Poehling, Garnet Hathaway, Nic Deslauriers.

Injured Reserve: Rasmus Ristolainen, Ryan Ellis.

Per Capfriendly, the Flyers will open the season with $ 877,905 of cap space. This includes Ryan Ellis currently being on regular IR. If he's transferred to long-term injured reserve, the Flyers will have a non-bankable allowance to exceed the salary cap ceiing by the difference between their available (and bankable) cap space and the $6.25 million average annual value on Ellis' contract.

Lastly, the Flyers have placed Phantoms rookie JR Avon on season-opening injured reserve (SOIR). There is no cap hit on his contract, as he was in junior hockey last season.
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