With NHL training camp officially slated to begin on the Flyers Training Center ice on Thursday morning, Flyers General Manager Daniel Briere met with the media on Tuesday to discuss where things stand heading into camp.
Here are five takeaways from the session.
1. Most of roster enters camp healthy
It's inevitable at any training camp that some players will get banged up before the start of the season. That's especially true given the grueling and highly competitive nature of camps run by head coach John Tortorella.
Fortunately, the Flyers enter their 2024 camp with a mostly healthy roster, according to Briere. That includes several players who are coming off surgery during the offseason, such as Sean Couturier, Jamie Drysdale and Rasmus Ristolainen. All three are able to participate fully from the start of camp.
There are three young players who are dealing with injuries or health issues but the prognosis for all three are positive in the bigger picture.
Lehigh Valley Phantoms winger Samu Tuomaala, who scored the overtime winning goal in Saturday's Rookie Game vs. the New York Rangers prospects, is now dealing with a day-to-day injury. It is not considered serious.
Wing prospect Denver Barkey is still on the mend from a summertime bout of mononucleosis. He lost weight but is feeling better and starting to regain some of the weight he'd added during earlier offseason workouts. Defensive prospect Carter Sotheran is rehabbing after being diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat condition known as WPW (Wolff-Parkinson-White) syndrome.
"As of now, our guys look strong and look healthy. But you know how it goes," Briere said.
2. Different combos for Mickov in camp
The Flyers will look at highly touted prospect Matvei Michkov during camp with multiple different linemates and line combinations, Briere stated. Sometimes, a line might sound very good in theory but struggle to click once on the ice together.
The opposite can also be true: a seemingly mismatched combination -- perhap too seemingly alike in playing styles, too dissimilar in offensive instincts, too small, lacking sufficient speed, etc. -- can prove to be a pleasant surprise.
For those reasons, Michkov will play with a variety of linemates in camp. Whether he'll click best with, say, Sean Couturier or Morgan Frost as his center will play out over camp.
"You can't force chemistry between players. First of all, Torts will decide on what he sees as the best fit for the team. We'll discuss it [in Hockey Ops]. We'll all have exchanges about what we think but it's up to Torts to decide what his personnel will be," Briere said.
3. Expectation of further improvement
After posting 87 points and narrowly missing the playoffs on the final day of the 2023-24 regular season, the Flyers are at something of a crossroads in terms of where the next step in their rebuilding process will take them in 2024-25.
From Briere's standpoint, the fact that the Flyers hold multiple first-round and second-round selections (including their own) in the 2025 NHL Entry Draft, is a separate matter from trying to build off last season at the NHL level. The goal is one of continued improvement in several facets: NHL team performance, prospect development, and establishing greater depth.
"Our goal is to compete. Hopefully, some of our players can take what they did last year and continue to improve," he said.
Whether the Flyers are able to return to the playoffs for the first time since 2019-20 is not the be-all and end-all basis by which Briere will judge the upcoming season. Last season, in fact, the lower wildcard playoff cutoff of 91 points was south of the normal level in the Eastern Conference.
As such, Briere's aim is to see the Flyers play well enough to finish with more points than last year. Whether that will be enough for a playoff spot is secondary in his mind to preparing the club to restore itself as a regular playoff team as the rebuild enters phases beyond 2024-25.
That goes for rookies, too, including Michkov.
"I want to see him get better [over the course of the year], and take the first step as an NHL player as the season goes on," Briere said.
4. Big season for Farabee
Joel Farabee played with remarkable consistency in the pre All-Star break portion of last season. Unfortunately it didn't carry through after the break. Farabee's ice time and lineup role decreased a bit down the stretch.
Briere said on Tuesday that this season presents a golden chance for Farabee to shine over a full season. At 24, he's still young but he's now got a fair amount of NHL experience under his belt since his rookie year in 2019-20. He's also shown an eagerness to be more of a leader within the group of players ages 25 and younger.
5. Clarifying Kolosov situation
Goaltending prospect Alexei Kolosov did not attend Development Camp or Rookie Camp. He is also not expected to report for NHL camp, although he is under entry-level contract to the Flyers. Briere said on Tuesday that the Flyers organization has no interest in loaning Kolosov to a KHL team for a second straight season and burning a second year off his three-year entry level contract. Last season, for the duration of the KHL season, Kolosov played for Dinamo Minsk while on loan from the Flyers.
"We can still hope he changes his mind and decides to come back, if he wants to play hockey. It's not looking like it at this point. It is what it is. We have to move on. We'd hope that he'd want to compete for a job," Briere said.
"When you look at the way we're built right now, there's an opportunity there for him as we saw it, to start out in the American League. Most teams around the league use their third goalie, [even] fourth goalie. He'd be in a competition with the guys we have to play some games this year. On his end, he wants to be guaranteed a spot in the NHL, otherwise he prefers to stay over there. That's not the way we see it."
The Flyers' general manager insisted that the player was well-treated and all efforts were made to make him feel welcomed and included while getting his feet wet with Lehigh Valley.
"Some of our coaches and players -- [Garrett] Wilson, [Louie] Belpedio -- went above and beyond to try to make him feel comfortable. Always asked him to go to dinner. They said he was great around the rink. He had people like [coaches] Jason Smith and Ian Laperriere. He might have been homesick, I get it. But that's the life of a professional hockey player," Briere said.
"When you look at the way we're built right now, there's an opportunity there for him as we saw it, to start out in the American League. Most teams around the league use their third goalie, [even] fourth goalie. He'd be in a competition with the guys we have to play some games this year," Briere said.
