October nears, the preseason schedule is narrowing down, and so is the Flyers' roster picture for opening night.
With a 3-2 shootout win over the Bruins Monday night in Boston, the team completed a home-and-home series of exhibitions that had their standouts, followed by another wave of cuts.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Flyers announced the assignments of 10 players to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms down in the AHL: Forwards Denver Barkey, Alex Bump, Alexis Gendron, and Devin Kaplan; Defensemen Emil Andrae, Helge Grans, Hunter McDonald, and Ty Murchison; and goaltenders Carson Bjarnason and Aleksei Kolosov.
Some of those names are coming in as expected. Bjarnason and Kolosov were always set to be the Phantoms' goaltending tandem, while Sam Ersson and Dan Vladar would start as the NHL duo. Others, like Andrae and Bump, are maybe not surprising, but a bit disappointing as the former made headway with NHL experience last year and the latter came in looking ready to grab a roster spot.
Tuesday's cuts, however, do clearly point to who's left and gunning for the NHL roster now.
Here are some thoughts on a few of them, plus a couple of other quick aspects about the Flyers…
Nikita Grebenkin
Grebenkin and Matvei Michkov were an interesting and somewhat regular duo to be seen skating together during camp over in Voorhees.
In theory, that's the Flyers' rising, highly-skilled star winger and another young, creative skater (with both of them speaking Russian) moving the puck together.
It can be effective, and during the first leg of the preseason home-and-home with Boston at the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday, Grebenkin stood out not just with skating and skill, but physicality, too.
Here was his goal in the second period that tied the Flyers up with the Bruins, 2-2, where he battled for positioning at the net front before the puck popped over to his stick blade on his spin around:
🚨 TIED UP! 🚨
The Russian connection comes through. 🔥#BOSvsPHI | https://t.co/qu7Cj9oPPa pic.twitter.com/oU7NDhUeZb— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) September 27, 2025
Who flipped it over to him? Michkov at the opposite post. The center that worked the puck down? Trevor Zegras.
There might be something there.
Grebenkin was the prospect return from Toronto for Scott Laughton at the deadline last season, and upon acquiring him, general manager Danny Brière said he did see the now 22-year-old as an NHL player.
His breakthrough, at least to start maybe, could be as the winger opposite Michkov.
Jett Luchanko
Luchanko is still here and seemingly between a rock and a hard place development-wise.
He's fast, he can pass, and that was all good enough on its own to at least earn him the nine-game junior prospect trial run out of the gate last season.
However, he did need more time to grow, particularly in developing his shot, which factored into why he was sent back to his Ontario Hockey League team in Guelph for the rest of last year.
The speed and vision were both back Monday night in Boston, but head coach Rick Tocchet was looking for him to shoot a bit more, he said postgame.
The 19-year-old still needs work. It's just a matter of where he's going to get it.
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There isn't exactly much for Luchanko to gain from going back to juniors anymore, it's too late to consider college, and the AHL/CHL exception rule won't be here for another year.
Maybe he's not fully NHL-ready, but at the same time, maybe it's the best course of action now to try him on the roster again and see if he can brunt it.
Remember, part of the initial logic behind sending Luchanko back to juniors was the risk of overwhelming him as a pro with the Flyers having such thin center depth at the time.
Their depth up the middle still isn't great yet, but with Sean Couturier, Trevor Zegras, Christian Dvorak, and Noah Cates, it is better.
Luchanko theoretically wouldn't be leaned on for as much.
"We'll talk to Danny and [president of hockey ops Keith Jones] about it and our coaching staff," Tocchet said Monday night. "It's hard to find centermen. He's got elite speed. The puckhandling and scoring will come. I'm more worried with his hockey IQ. Just wanna get him a little more aggressive when he has the puck to shoot the puck. I think he passes too much, but overall, I think that when you got the tools that he has, there's a lot to work with."
Maybe they end up choosing to just work with all of it directly.
Rodrigo Ābols
It seems like he's going to make the team, or at least has the strongest argument for – as Jacob Gaucher still seems to be in the mix, too.
Ābols has skated in all five of the Flyers' preseason games so far, and on Monday night, he came streaking down the wall to pinpoint a laser of a goal to the far-side post past Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman.
Rodrigo Ābols goes far side to put the Flyers back on top 🔝 pic.twitter.com/kRt9hqgq6p
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) September 30, 2025
"He's hanging in there for us," Tocchet said. "He knows there's spots that could be open. He's supplied that offense, he's a smart guy, and keeps working on that consistency."
Ābols, a natvie of Latvia, joined the Flyers from overseas ahead of last season on a two-way deal and did end up skating in 22 games with them, notching two goals and three assists.
He has the size (at 6'4" and 206 pounds), the mind, and the playstyle to fit as a bottom-six forward, and maybe the benefit of a full year in North America and the Flyers' system was what he needed to realize where he can fit.
We'll find out in this last stretch before the season.
"For my case, I can't be complacent every day," Ābols said. "I gotta come in and kinda battle for my spot."
Okay, the two quick hits to wrap up…
Full force Foerster
Tyson Foerster got into a preseason game Monday night, and looks just fine coming back from his elbow infection.
His line with Noah Cates and Bobby Brink picked right up from where it left off, too.
Noah Cates gets the Flyers on the board first 😎 pic.twitter.com/fTBfUwMvcP
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) September 30, 2025
Power play progress
The Flyers' power play has notoriously been awful the past two years.
Saturday night, they rolled out Michkov and Zegras together on the man-advantage, and it looked…sharp…they scored…
MATVEI MICHKOV TO TREVOR ZEGRAS FOR THE FIRST TIME AND IT'S 3-2!!! WHAT A BEAUTIFUL GOAL!!!#LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/2FzzZNK9YX
— Flyers Clips (@Flyers_Clips) September 27, 2025
The power play might actually function this year.
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