Flyers Depth Chart 1.0: Calm Before the Storm

On Thursday, the Philadelphia Flyers will kick off their on-ice portion of their 2026 training camp, and with a shorter overall camp and preseason this year, the roster battles and jostling for ice time will be as fierce as ever.

But, before anywhere, we have to establish the present to give context to the future. After all, the NHL roster is already looking considerably different than it did this time last year.

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Rookies Porter Martone, Alex Bump, and Denver Barkey are all primed to stick out of the gate this year, while players like Noah Juulsen, Egor Zamula, Sam Ersson, Garnet Hathaway, Nick Deslauriers, Rodrigo Abols, and Bobby Brink are all out of the picture entirely.

Until we see how things stack up, it’ll be nearly impossible to predict how the Flyers will line up and who will play with who, which is why an assessment of the overall depth chart will be our most useful tool in the meantime.

As a reminder, these aren’t line combinations or predictions, but more of a representation of a given player’s role and usage in the lineup.

Forwards

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Tyson Foerster – Trevor Zegras – Travis Konecny

Owen Tippett – Christian Dvorak – Matvei Michkov

Denver Barkey – Noah Cates – Porter Martone

Nikita Grebenkin (inj.) – Sean Couturier – Noel Acciari

Alex Bump – Jett Luchanko – Carl Grundstrom

Zach Aston-Reese – Jacob Gaucher – Danila Klimovich

Nolan Foote – Jack Studnicka – Cole Knuble

Noah Powell – Riley Thompson – Devin Kaplan

Rationale

The placements of players like Matvei Michkov, Martone, Barkey, and Bump is going to depend largely on how head coach Rick Tocchet wants to deploy them.

If Michkov is really in much better shape than he was this time last year, he should be squarely ahead of the less experienced Martone.

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Barkey and Nikita Grebenkin, who is currently dealing with a setback, have skills that lend themselves better to a bottom-six role than what Bump has, though I expect all three to make the NHL roster.

The Flyers only want Jett Luchanko in the lineup if he’s going to play and one of the 12 best forwards on the team, but in the event of injury (particularly long-term), he should be the first man up for them.

Cole Knuble has been impressive throughout rookie camp, but some of the journeymen are going to be ahead of him in the pecking order for now having considerably more NHL and AHL experience.

With their penalty-killing skills, I expect Tyson Foerster and Travis Konecny to be the two wingers deployed the most, with Trevor Zegras reprising his role as the go-to guy for this Flyers team.

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Defense

Travis Sanheim – Jamie Drysdale

Cam York – Rasmus Ristolainen

Nick Seeler – David Jiricek

Simon Benoit – Oliver Bonk

Ty Murchison – Helge Grans

Hunter McDonald – Cam Dineen

Jackson Edward – Spencer Gill

Rationale

When it comes down to it, defense should be the most polarizing group on the Flyers’ roster. Although trade rumors persist and on an expiring contract, Rasmus Ristolainen remains with the Flyers, while Jamie Drysdale continues to trend towards becoming one of the better two-way defenders in the NHL.

Cam York is a fine second-pair guy, and everything after those four is a bit murky.

Veteran Nick Seeler regressed last year and turned 33 years old three months ago, while David Jiricek, still just 22 years old, must prove himself at the NHL level or risk being exposed to waivers for the first time in his young career.

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Newcomer Simon Benoit is the likeliest to take up Juulsen’s mantle as the meat-and-potatoes No. 7 guy, though Flyers GM Danny Briere left the door open to carrying eight defenders when doing his press conference on Tuesday.

That means opportunity for someone like Ty Murchison, who could very well grow into an option superior to Benoit or Seeler at a lower price, or Oliver Bonk, who has continued to impress after earning an NHL debut and Stanley Cup playoff debut late last season.

For now, Hunter McDonald and Helge Grans remain on the outside looking in, though they could jump up the depth chart quickly with tidy preseason performances. The numbers game just doesn’t work in their favor, and especially not for Grans.

I could see McDonald and Murchison replacing Seeler and Benoit by season’s end, particularly if the Flyers are sellers at the trade deadline.

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You all know how much I like Spencer Gill, but with the considerable amount of time he’s missed due to injury since being drafted in 2024, I think the Flyers are committed to letting him spend the full year in the AHL to gain experience and continue developing.