Flyers On-Paper vs. Actual Opening Night Roster

As required by the National Hockey League, the Philadelphia Flyers submitted an opening night roster today. However, for salary cap management purposes, the submitted roster differs somewhat from the actual roster the Flyers will take to Los Angeles for opening night.

In order to become salary cap ceiling compliant and stay within the 23-man roster limit,- the Flyers placed Scott Laughton on long-term injured reserve (LTIR), assigned Roman Lyubimov ($925,000 cap hit) to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, maintained Jordan Weal ($650,000) on the submitted roster to draw it as close to the ceiling as possible without exceeding it (beneficial for getting as much temporary cap relief from the Laughton LTIR designation as possible) and placed Michael Del Zotto on injured reserve (IR).

With that series of moves, the Flyers are cap compliant by roughly $113,000.

Come tomorrow, the Flyers will place Del Zotto ($3.875 million cap hit) on LTIR, which will enable the team to exceed the cap by up to his full hit. Under the salary cap's convoluted rules, this was the benefit of waiting until after the rosters were submitted to put Del Zotto on LTIR rather than doing it on the day of submission.

With Del Zotto going on LTIR, the Flyers will then recall Lyubimov and assign Weal (who cleared waivers on Monday) to the Phantoms. The team will go into opening night with 13 forwards, six available defensemen and two goalies. If an injury were to occur to a defenseman on Friday, the Flyers would have to hurriedly recall a defenseman from the Phantoms to play in Arizona on Saturday.

This will be the Flyers' actual roster and probable lines come Friday night:

12 Michael Raffl - 28 Claude Giroux - 17 Wayne Simmonds
11 Travis Konecny - 14 Sean Couturier - 93 Jakub Voracek
25 Nick Cousins -76 P-E Bellemare - 22 Dale Weise
76 Chris VandeVelde - 27 Boyd Gordon - 24 Matt Read or 60 Roman Lyubimov

47 Andrew MacDonald - 53 Shayne Gostisbehere
9 Ivan Provorov - 32 Mark Streit
55 Nick Schultz - 23 Brandon Manning

35 Steve Mason / 30 Michal Neuvirth

Scratches: Brayden Schenn (suspended by NHL for first three games), Radko Gudas (suspended by NHL for first six games), Michael Del Zotto (LTIR), Scott Laughton (LTIR), one of Roman Lyubimov or Matt Read (healthy).

Power play: The first unit is likely to consist of Claude Giroux, Shayne Gostisbehere, Jakub Voracek and Wayne Simmonds in their familiar spots in the umbrella, with Nick Cousins substituting in the suspended Brayden Schenn's spot. The second unit, with a two point-men setup is likely to have Travis Konecny on the left half-wall, Sean Couturier at center, Dale Weise as the main netfront forward for screens/deflection forward, Ivan Provorov at left point and Mark Streit at the right point.

Penalty kill: Using a more puck-pressure oriented PK, one unit at 5-on-4 is likely to consist of Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Chris VandeVelde as the forwards and possibly Ivan Provorov and Nick Schultz as the defensemen. A second unit will have Sean Couturier and Matt Read (or Roman Lyubimov) as the forwards and Brandon Manning and Andrew MacDonald as the defensemen. Others will also contribute, such Boyd Gordon taking right side faceoffs or Claude Giroux as needed.

Uniform number changes: Provorov, Konecny and Cousins have selected new uniform numbers, more befitting of NHL roster players than youngster in training camp.

Starting goaltender: while Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol will no doubt decline to name a starting goaltender for opening night, Mason's outstanding training camp and preseason could earn him the start in Anaheim with Neuvirth getting his turn against the Coyotes on Saturday.

Phantoms Update

When Jordan Weal is sent to the Phantoms, he will further bolster a formidable lineup that, on paper, looks like that of a playoff-bound team and possibly even a Calder Cup contender. According to Phantoms play-by-play announcer Bob Rotruck, these were the Phantoms' practice lines on Tuesday:

10 Greg Carey - 21 Andy Miele - 22 Chris Conner
19 Radel Fazleev - 18 Danick Martel - 16 Nicolas Aube-Kubel
23 Taylor Leier - 7 Mark Zengerle - 13 Colin McDonald
14 Corban Knight - 9 Cole Bardreau - 24 Petr Straka
29 Derek Mathers, 12 Tyrell Goulbourne

43 T.J. Brennan - 44 Reece Willcox
4 Robert Hägg - 6 Travis Sanheim
3 Samuel Morin - 8 Will O'Neill
20 Maxim Lamarche - 38 Jesper Pettersson

41 Anthony Stolarz / 34 Alex Lyon

Injured: 2 Mark Alt

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