Update (4:00 PM)

Chuck Fletcher held a 2:20 PM media conference call on Tuesday to discuss the seven roster cuts made on Tuesday, among other matters. Courtesy of the Flyers, below is a transcript of the conference call.

Did you anticipate this many tough decisions to make? I think you have four roster spots that need to be trimmed at this point. You have some young guy pushing and the guys you have on the roster right now.

It’s been a real competitive camp. We had some tough decisions to make the last few days. We’ve moved seven players today in terms of our opening night roster. All seven of those players had a very good training camp. We still have several players in camp competing for spots. It’s been great. The competition’s been great. The young players are pushing. We brought in some players, the veteran type of players this summer that are pushing as well. It’s been a real competitive camp. Our team performance continues to get better. All in all, I think we’re happy where we are at.

Do you anticipate carrying 22 players or 23 players when the season starts?

We could even carry 20 or 21. We’ll just have to see the cap situation and how the math works out. I anticipate an awful lot of roster changes the first six weeks of the year. Our goal right now is get a roster to play Chicago in Prague. When we get back, I am sure there will be things we need to do as we move forward. Right now it’s just about getting ready for Prague.

Speaking of Prague, how many players are you taking over there? AV said you may take a few extra. Is there a number you have in mind to take there?

Well, we’re going to bring three goalies. We’ll bring Alex Lyon as our third goaltender. After that, it will depend on the health of our team and where the competition may be. We can bring players over. Prior to the opening night roster submission, still make changes up until that point. We’ll see how the game goes Thursday night against the Rangers and where we are at coming out of that Friday morning. I’d anticipate somewhere between 23 and maybe 25 players.

Do you have an update on Nolan Patrick and his health?

Not today.

Is there any hope he’s going to get on the ice for a practice before you guys leave for Europe?

I can’t speculate. When we have an update, hopefully it will be in the next day or two. Then I will be able in a position to speak to that.

How much has Nolan been injured altered your plan throughout this camp?

I don’t think it’s altered our plans at all. We’re evaluating the players that are here and making the decisions we have to make. Again, just trying to get a roster together to play Chicago a week from Friday. I think we fully understand there’s going to be probably a steady flow of players moving between Philadelphia and Lehigh Valley, particularly in the early part of the season.

What does the Morgan Frost injury mean for the center race? Right now, it looks like Connor Bunnaman might be one of the centers kind of by default because there aren’t that many guys that naturally play center left in camp. Could Frost come back and grab the spot for Game 1?

I’m not sure about that. We’ll see how his health is. There’s other players that can play center on our roster too. Giroux can play center. Raffl has played some center before. Bunnaman obviously plays center. Laughton plays center. We have a lot of roster flexibility. Again, the whole focus right now is getting our roster ready to play Chicago. There will be a lot of movement between the two teams as the year goes on. We’ll see how the injuries and everyone’s health and where we are at on Friday morning.

Chuck, what are the expectations now compared to before camp started?

The expectations are still the same. It’s just a process. I think AV’s spoken about that. I’ve spoken about that. I think as a group, we’ve had a much better week this week than we did last week. I think we’ve worked hard through practice. There’s been a lot of great practices and teaching going on. The last two games to me, we’ve played with much more structure and much better details than we did last week. That’s a good sign of progression. I certainly believe we’re going to need to get to a much higher level if we’re going to compete once the regular season starts. Right now, the expectations are same. Last year was unacceptable. We’re changing the structures. We’re changing the systems. We’re trying to work on details and habits of the players. It’s going to take time. It’s a process. The quicker we can get there, then the quicker we’ll be where we want to be. Our focus is just getting better day-by-day, week-by-week. Again, I think the last two games showed we’ve certainly played better than we did in the first few games. That’s a good sign but there’s still a long way to go.

Do you think you have a playoff team?

If we buy in and play the right way, certainly. Before we can even start talking that language, we have to work on becoming a team and getting on the same page. I think there’s been signs of progress but we have a lot of work to do yet.

Chuck, right now there are only eight healthy defensemen left in camp at this point, do you envision keeping all of them for the final roster?

I’m not sure yet. We’ll see how Thursday goes and where the health of our team is at on Friday morning. Then we’ll make those decisions. Again, we could carry seven at times. Maybe we’ll carry eight at times. Maybe we even carry six at times. We’ll see how things play out and what we are trying to accomplish with the overall group.

Chuck, what have you liked about Farabee that has him still here at camp ahead of the final cuts?

I don’t like the term final cuts. I don’t know that there are ever final cuts. Again, I can’t keep stressing that we are going to put a roster together to play against Chicago. We certainly reserve the right to immediately make changes for the New Jersey game or the Vancouver game. There’s not going to be any final roster or final cuts. There’s going to be a flow of players between Philadelphia and Lehigh Valley for the early part of the season in my opinion, depending who we’re playing, the health of our team, whether we need right-shots or left-shots, wingers or centermen. I’m not as concerned about Joel in the short-term as much as in the long term. He’s going to be a really good player in this league for a long time. What that means for a week from Friday, we’ll see. We have another game to play. We’ll get together with the coaches and we’ll talk about what the lineup will look like for that game against Chicago. He’s a real smart player. For a 19-year-old player, I think he’s ahead of the curve with a respect to awareness of the game away from the puck, his defensive understanding of the game. He’s obviously a highly competitive kid. Very intelligent kid. But it’s a tough league for a 19-year old player. What we do with Joel will be what’s right for the team, but also what’s right for him in the long run.

The team has had problems with early starts to the season over several years running. Do you have any concerns about the travel impacting that, going over to Europe and going to Western Canada after a couple of games?

I don’t think so. I think it may actually help us. I think it gives us an opportunity to spend a lot of time together as a group. The way training camps are these days, most of your road trips are up and back on the same day. The players are in for two or three hours every day and then they leave. This year with the new coaching staff and we have some new players, I think it’s actually going to be an advantage to get overseas and get together with our group. Have everybody get to know each other and spend time with each other. That Western Canadian swing is never an easy trip. The fact that we are doing it earlier in the season when we still have fresh legs, I think is advantageous versus maybe having to that in the middle of the season when you’re in a tough stretch. Again, I think there’s a lot of positives to traveling early in the season. Time will tell. I think it’s an opportunity for our group to come together quickly.

Do you have an updates on Frost and Pitlick?

Frost has a groin strain. He’s day-to-day. He’ll continue to rehab and follow the rehab protocol that he has to follow. Hopefully it’s only a few days until we can get him back going. Pitlick is skating, he’s still non-contact. I would suggest he’s going to be ready pretty soon. Whether he’s ready for that Chicago game, I’m not sure. He’s getting close. I would say his strength is about 75% in the one wrist compared to the other. He’s improving quickly. We’ll have to see how much progress he makes over the next week or so.

**********

The Philadelphia Flyers made seven roster cuts on Monday, per general manager Chuck Fletcher. The cuts are as follows:

Three players on entry-level contracts -- centers Mikhail Vorobyev and German Rubtsov and defensemen Mark Friedman -- have been assigned to the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Additionally, four waiver-eligible players -- forwards Nicolas Aube-Kubel, Andy Andreoff and Kurtis Gabriel as well as defenseman Chris Bigras -- have been placed on waivers for purposes of AHL assignment.

There is a chance but not a certainty that fourth-season pro Aube-Kubel, who had a rather strong training camp and spent a brief stint in the NHL last season with the Flyers, could be claimed off waivers on Wedneday. The more veteran contingent seems more probable to clear.

However, it must be added that these things are somewhat unpredictable.

Three years ago, veteran winger Chris Porter was an unexpected waiver claim from the Flyers by then-GM of the Minnesota Wild, Chuck Fletcher. Last year, the Flyers were surprised to lose Danick Martel on waivers to Tampa Bay, and the Bolts only dressed Martel in nine games all season. On the flip side, in 2016, Jordan Weal was considered a risky player on whom to get through waivers but he was unclaimed.

Including injured players, there are now 27 players left in Flyers camp. By rule, the team will have to get down to 23 by opening night but plans to take two extra bodies (likely a third goalie and 14th forward) along to Europe. Here's the bigger picture of what Tuesday's cuts mean:

1) Unless Nolan Patrick (still officially week-to-week with an upper-body issue) or Morgan Frost (out five to seven days with a recurrent groin pull that kept him out three days last week) are ready for opening night, it appears that Scott Laughton and Connor Bunnaman currently slot as the team's third-line and fourth-line centers to open the season. There are no other players left in camp who primarily play center apart from first-liner Sean Couturier and second-liner Kevin Hayes. However, there is also the possibility that Claude Giroux moves temporarily back to center, which could alter that outlook.

2) Alain Vigneault said on Sunday that there were depth chart battles on the roster ongoing for for sixth, seventh, and eighth defense slots. Andy Welinski is still injured and on a week-to-week status. Friedman and Bigras were cut today. That means the top eight are Ivan Provorov, Matt Niskanen, Shayne Gostisbehere, Justin Braun, Travis Sanheim, Phil Myers, Robert Hägg and Sam Morin. Considering that Morin hasn't practiced or played in preseason game action with any of the top five locks as his partner, he appears to be the number eight on the depth chart. That leaves Myers and Hägg battling for the final (i.e., sixth) starting spot with the other as the number seven on the season-opening depth chart.

3) Rubtsov played well early in camp and in his first two appearances of the preseason, but Vigneault said he saw a dropoff when Rubtsov played for the third time in four nights. Rubtsov didn't have a bad game in Boston on Monday -- particularly on the penalty kill in the first period and over several third period shifts -- but he also didn't stand out overall. I am still a bit surprised that he didn't make it until at least after Thursday's game in New York.

4) I am not too surprised that Vorobyev was a cut on Monday. When I asked Vigneault about him on Sunday, while the coach took a positive tone, the extent of the praise was that he's had some "very good moments". Considering the knock on Vorobyev is one of inconsistency, "moments" was not a ringing endorsement of him playing consistently to the level of being on the roster cusp.

5) Joel Farabee remains in the hunt for making the team's opening night roster; there is still a third-line wing spot available. Clearly, Carsen Twarynski's statement game on Saturday and second goal of the preseason on Monday boosted his candidacy for at least a fourth-line spot on the opening roster. If those two players make the team -- which is still not a lock -- that pretty much rounds out the starting 12 up front, at least until Tyler Pitlick (wrist surgery, cleared for non-contact practice but no full practices yet) is ready to join the lineup.

6) Where does that leave PTO veteran Chris Stewart? Even with his direct veteran competitors for the physical 4th liner/ 13th NHL forward spot -- Andreoff and Gabriel -- being cut on Tuesday, Stewart's status remains somewhat shaky depending on rookie forwards making the team and on Pitlick's timetable to play in a game.

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