Philly Leader

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 is 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 it back 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 Michkov 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—perhaps too seemingly alike in playing styles, too dissimilar in offensive instincts, too small, lacking sufficient speed—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 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 their rebuilding process will take them in 2024-25.

From Briere's standpoint, holding multiple first-round and second-round selections (including their own) in the 2025 NHL Entry Draft is separate from trying to build off last season at the NHL level. The goal is one of continued improvement: 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 returning to playoffs for first time since 2019-20 becomes reality isn't primary basis by which Briere judges upcoming season; last season’s lower wildcard playoff cutoff was south normal Eastern Conference level at 91 points anyway.

As such aim remains seeing Flyers play well enough finishing more points than last year whether securing playoff spot secondary preparing club restoring itself regular playoff team rebuild entering phases beyond 2024-25 applies rookies including Michkov "I want see him get better [over course year] taking first step NHL player season goes" stated Briere

4 Big Season Farabee Joel Farabee played remarkable consistency pre All-Star break portion last unfortunately didn't carry through post-break decreased bit down stretch presents golden chance shine full At still young fair amount experience under belt since rookie eagerness leader within group ages younger

5 Clarifying Kolosov situation Goaltending Alexei Kolosov attended Development Rookie expected report although under entry-level contract organization interest loaning KHL burning second straight three-year contract duration played Dinamo Minsk loan hope changes mind decides come back wants looking point move we'd hope compete job insisted player well-treated efforts made feel welcomed included getting feet wet Lehigh Valley "Some coaches players -- [Garrett] Wilson [Louie] Belpedio -- went above beyond try make comfortable always asked dinner great around rink people like [coaches] Jason Smith Ian Laperriere homesick life professional hockey"

"When you look at way built opportunity there saw start American League Most teams use third goalie even fourth competition guys play games end guaranteed prefers stay over there that's way see" reiterated