Author: Jackie Spiegel

After a second-round appearance in the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs, the Flyers will aim to continue their upward trajectory, fielding a similar roster to last season.

Still one of the youngest squads in the NHL, the second year of the Rick Tocchet era will begin with high expectations as youngsters Porter Martone, Alex Bump, Denver Barkey, and David Jiříček look to make their mark, while Matvei Michkov has his sights set on a bounce-back season in the last year of his entry-level contract.

Here’s everything you need to know about the Flyers’ 2026-27 training camp and preseason.

When does Flyers training camp start?

The Flyers will hit the ice for the first time bright and early next Thursday at their training center in Voorhees.

It is a new era with the preseason shortened and the NHL kick-starting things on Sept. 29. Training camp will run through the final preseason game on Sept. 26, when the Flyers host the Washington Capitals at Xfinity Mobile Arena. They lift the lid on the season on Sept. 30 at home, hosting the Pittsburgh Penguins (7:30 p.m., TNT, truTV, HBO Max) in a rematch of their first-round series, which the Flyers won in six games.

What is the training camp schedule in Voorhees?

The Flyers will be broken into three groups: Groups A, B, and C to start camp, with groupings expected to be disclosed next week. They will not skate on Sept. 20, 25, or 28, and the timing for practice on Sept. 27 will be announced at a later date. No morning skate is scheduled for Sept. 26, with the game at 5 p.m., and there is not a nongame group listed, which suggests that the last preseason game will feature most of the final roster.

All on-ice sessions are free and open to the public.

^Groups A and B will skate on opposite rinks at 10:20 a.m. and then scrimmage on the Flyers rink at 10:40 a.m.

Which Flyers will be at training camp?

With a shortened camp, the number of invitees has been trimmed. Last season, 33 forwards, 18 defensemen and seven goalies were in camp. This year it will be 26 forwards, 16 defensemen, and four goalies, with Dan Vladař and Joseph Woll expected to suit up for the Flyers and Aleksei Kolosov and Carson Bjarnason slated to be the tandem for Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League.

Usually, the main camp sees some junior players stick around; however, as of Wednesday, everyone but Maksim Sokolovskii, the Flyers’ first-rounder from June, will be sent back after rookie camp. Because the 6-foot-7 defenseman, who has looked impressive in preseason games for London of the Ontario Hockey League, is an unsigned Canadian Hockey League player selected in the first three rounds, he can remain with the Flyers until the start of their season. It will not impact his NCAA eligibility with the University of Maine for the 2027-28 season.

Forwards (26): Noel Acciari, Zach Aston-Reese, Denver Barkey, Alex Bump, Noah Cates, Sean Couturier, Christian Dvorak, Tyson Foerster, Nolan Foote, Jacob Gaucher, Nikita Grebenkin, Carl Grundström, Devin Kaplan, Danila Klimovich, Cole Knuble, Travis Konecny, Jett Luchanko, Porter Martone, Matvei Michkov, Noah Powell, Jack Studnicka, Riley Thompson, Owen Tippett, Garrett Wilson*, Zayde Wisdom*, Trevor Zegras

Defensemen (16): Simon Benoît, Oliver Bonk, Cam Dineen, Jamie Drysdale, Jackson Edward, Spencer Gill, Helge Grans, David Jiříček, Hunter McDonald, Ty Murchison, Andrew Perrott*, Rasmus Ristolainen, Travis Sanheim, Nick Seeler, Maksim Sokolovskii, Cam York

Goalies (4): Carson Bjarnason, Aleksei Kolosov, Dan Vladař, Joseph Woll

*Signed to AHL deal

When are the Flyers’ preseason games?

A shortened preseason also brings fewer games. The Flyers will play four preseason games, including a game against Washington at the home of the Capitals’ American Hockey League affiliate, the Hershey Bears, on Sept. 21.

According to assistant general manager Brent Flahr, Brek Liske, the Flyers’ first of two second-round picks in the 2026 NHL draft, has some “swagger.”

Maybe that swagger rubbed off on Luke Vlooswyk because, as the defenseman spoke to The Inquirer in late June at development camp, he made a bit of a guarantee.

“I think we’ll be the best D pair in the league next year,” the Flyers’ 2025 fifth-rounder confidently told The Inquirer at development camp.

Acquired by Everett of the Western Hockey League from Red Deer last January, Vlooswyk, 19, linked up with Liske until the first round of the WHL playoffs when Liske was bumped up to the top pair. Liske, 18, impressed there while slotted alongside projected 2027 No. 1 pick Landon Dupont as the Silvertips made a run to the Memorial Cup final.

With Dupont now teammates with Flyers center prospect Jack Nesbitt at the University of Michigan, Vlooswyk and Liske, who both will participate in Flyers rookie camp this week, are expected to be Everett’s top defensive duo.

“Really well,” Everett coach Steve Hamilton said when asked how they played together after Vlooswyk was traded to the Washington State-based team.

“We’re very fast [in] the way we play, in the way we pressure, the way we transition, defend,” he added. “We expect our guys to close quickly, and just try to apply the pressure to get the puck back right away, and both of those guys just have an aggressive mindset, and they move pucks well. … We want to transition right away, and anytime we get a change of possession, we want our defensemen to be involved, and both of those guys appreciate that style of play.”

The pairing is prototypical. At 6-foot-5, Vlooswyk is the big, stay-at-home, shutdown defenseman with a long reach. The smaller Liske, at 6-1, likes to have the puck on his stick and has a little more offensive pop in his game — he had seven goals and 24 points in 52 games last season.

But the pairing is also unorthodox. It is not a righty-lefty combination, which is what Flyers coach Rick Tocchet typically likes.

Liske and Vlooswyk are akin to Travis Sanheim and Cam York, two lefties who played together under ex-coach John Tortorella, except Liske and Vlooswyk are both righties. Liske is the one playing the off-side, increasing his versatility à la Sanheim.

“Yeah, it is a big difference, right?” he said at development camp. “A lot of stuff on the backhand. The biggest thing was I just had to learn how to place the puck better, if that makes sense, have it at my hip more. You’re ready to open up instead of being able to just snap it. It’s a little harder, but probably took a couple of games of adjustment and [I] figured it out.”

“I think his defensive identity is helpful,” noted Hamilton about Liske during a phone interview in late June. “He’s very subtle. He’s physical in his own way, but very effective, great stick. And I think ultimately, going forward as an NHL player, that’s probably more going to be his strength. … But, I think he’s got a really good understanding that he can bring things in all areas.

“So, honestly, self-assessment is a skill in itself these days, and he’s got a very good handle on who he is. In terms of growth, as a young player … he’s going to need to continue to work on his skating, and the NHL is the best of the best. I feel like he really moves well at our level, and I know with time and training, and continuing to get stronger, that his skating will be NHL caliber.”

Hamilton sees Liske as a middle-pair blueliner in the NHL, and the kid from Manitoba has a lot of motivation to reach that level — especially with the Flyers. His father, Lonnie, is a massive fan of the Orange and Black, and when the 18-year-old spoke to the media via Zoom after hearing his name called, he was already donning a Flyers jersey.

“First time I ever met his dad, Lonnie, he said to me, ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t believe my son is D partners with a future Philadelphia Flyer. Like, this is unbelievable,’” Vlooswyk recalled. “And for him to be drafted here now, I can’t even imagine what emotions are running through that family. It’s pretty cool.”

Hunter McDonald is sticking around Philly.

The hulking 6-foot-4, 238-pound defenseman and the Flyers agreed to a two-year, $1.825 million contract with an average annual value of $912,500 on Tuesday.

The first year is designated as a two-way deal, which means McDonald will be paid at a minor league rate for games he plays with Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League. The second season of the contract is one-way, which means McDonald will be paid at the NHL rate no matter what.

McDonald, who was a restricted free agent, was the final piece of business the Flyers had on the table. They also re-signed restricted free agents Trevor Zegras, Jamie Drysdale, and Nikita Grebenkin earlier in the offseason.

A sixth-round pick in 2022, McDonald, 24, made his NHL debut in the season finale of the 2025-26 season after the Flyers clinched the third seed in the Metropolitan Division the previous night at Xfinity Mobile Arena. He registered an assist on a goal by his defensive partner Oliver Bonk, who was also making his NHL debut.

“Hunter took a big step last year in his development, and that’s why he played that game late in the season,” Flyers general manager Danny Brière told The Inquirer in early June.

“I think our coaching staff was really impressed on how he took a step forward this year. He put in the work and really elevated his game, earned that NHL game at the end, and he was around the team when we played in the playoffs as well.

“Really exciting to see him have growth to his development. It’s a big summer for him, but we’re excited about him. A big, physical defenseman like that is not easy to find, and we hope he’s going to be one of those guys, eventually. But he’s going to have to beat someone at some point to earn those minutes.”

Described as a “throwback” to the Broad Street Bullies by Jerry Keefe, his coach at Northeastern, he had three assists in 11 regular-season games and one goal in six playoff games with Lehigh Valley after his 2023-24 season ended with the Huskies.

Two seasons ago, his first as a full-time pro, he had four goals, 18 points, and 99 penalty minutes in 71 regular-season games. He led the team in games played and was tied for second in plus-minus (plus-12). The Western New York native added another goal in seven playoff games.

McDonald registered six assists and 92 penalty minutes in 65 regular-season games in his second full season. Out of the eight players who played in at least 60 games with the Phantoms, he was one of three (Zayde Wisdom and Tucker Robertson) who had at least an even plus-minus (even).

“He’s still learning the game and learning the type of player that he’s going to have to be to be an NHL player every day,” Phantoms coach John Snowden said.

“I thought he did a really good job with that. And maturing too and handling the ups and downs of the season, and knowing that you’re knocking on the door, and maybe you’re not the guy called up, and then you get your call-up, and what do you do with it? We saw his one game, and he was very good.”

McDonald was also recalled by the Flyers in January for the three-game swing through Colorado, Las Vegas, and Utah, due to an injury to defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen. He did not play in any of the games.

The expectation is McDonald will push for a spot on the Flyers’ defensive corps when training camp opens Sept. 17. While he said in January that he had been working at not getting sent to the penalty box as often, he said he’s still a physical blueliner.

“I think a bit. Kind of, hitting people,” McDonald said with a chuckle when asked if he considered himself a “throwback.”

“I want to get a stick on you, ending plays. I think that’s a super important part of the game. If I can end these plays in the D zone, be a pain to play against, and then we can go play offense.”

Nikita Grebenkin is always smiling. He’s probably got a big grin right now after he and the Flyers agreed to a new deal. The restricted free agent signed a two-year, $2.2 million contract with an average annual value of $1.1 million on Thursday.

The Flyers have one more restricted free agent to sign in defenseman Hunter McDonald.

Acquired from the Toronto Maple Leafs in a trade at the 2025 NHL deadline that sent Scott Laughton home, Grebenkin was a sparkplug this past season when he was in the lineup.

The 23-year-old Russian, who played in seven NHL games with the Leafs, made the Flyers out of camp after a strong preseason. He had four goals and 10 assists in 55 regular-season games, notching his first NHL tally Nov. 4 against the Montreal Canadiens. The goal came at a critical time as the Flyers, who entered the game on a two-game losing streak, took a 3-0 lead in the first period before Montreal scored four times in the second. Grebenkin tied the game in the third, and the Flyers won in a shootout.

Although he was in and out of the lineup until late March, when he suffered an upper-body injury and missed the rest of the season, he had some memorable moments.

In October, and playing in just his fourth game as a Flyer, he instigated a fight with Seattle Kraken defenseman Cale Fleury, body-slamming him to the ice, after Garnet Hathaway was awkwardly hit.

“It was awesome. Didn’t see it coming,” defenseman Cam York said after the Flyers’ win. “But he’s a feisty guy, I think, and any time one of our guys gets hit like that, you want to stick up for him. It’s who we are here; we’re a family, and just part of what we do.”

He gestured to the hometown faithful to get them amped on his way to the penalty box and played just 7 minutes, 38 seconds in the game, after earning 17 minutes’ worth of penalty time for his fight.

In January, he also mucked it up all night against the Tampa Bay Lightning, eventually dropping the gloves with Max Crozier in the third period. “Really feisty, finishing the body, getting into the corner, going to the net,” coach Rick Tocchet said after the game. “ … He was just engaged. It’s really nice to see. He’s an identity player for us there tonight.”

With his contract renewed, the question is whether Grebenkin will be ready to go. The winger missed the final 13 games and the playoffs. “Initially, we thought it was going to be something short, and it just never got better,” general manager Danny Brière said at his end-of-season availability. “Now we’re looking at different options for him. So he’s the only one that I would say ‘maybe,’ if it doesn’t improve.”

Grebenkin skated during development camp, participating in drills and showing off that grin. A team source told The Inquirer in late July that Grebenkin is progressing well and the hope is he will be ready for training camp, which starts on Sept. 17.

If he is indeed good to go, the Flyers would love to have him in the lineup.

“He’s another young winger. He brings us a different flavor, a little bit of flair, a little bit of getting under the skin of the opponent with the big smile,” Brière told The Inquirer in June. “We hope that he can recover and be there. He could be a different type of player for us that we could use.”

There was a 12-second moment in Game 4 of the Flyers’ first-round series against the Pittsburgh Penguins that perfectly encapsulated who Jamie Drysdale, the hockey player, has become.

In the offensive zone, he got the puck from his good buddy Trevor Zegras at the top of the right circle and snapped a shot on goal. Penguins goalie Artūrs Šilovs made the save, and the puck popped out to Erik Karlsson, who put it down on the ice before springing Rickard Rakell.

Drysdale, using his footwork and quick steps, was able to get back and keep the Penguins veteran forward to the outside before taking him out behind the net. He killed the play and allowed his partner, Cam York, to get the puck.

This is who Drysdale is now.

Although he entered the NHL as an offensive defenseman, he is now strong on both sides of the puck — creating offense, as seen by his career high in goals (eight) and tying his previous best in points (32), and building his defensive game. According to Natural Stat Trick, the Flyers had a 50.5% goal share with Drysdale on the ice.

That is why the Flyers locked up the 24-year-old blueliner with a four-year, $26 million extension on Friday. His $6.5 million average annual value is the highest among the defensemen.

“Philly’s a place that I love to play, and there’s no secret there,” he said on a Zoom call Monday. “I’ll continuously say it. I’m happy with four years [and] would want to continue that after the fact, obviously, and just really excited to show what I can do and keep it going.”

Part of the surge is from his growing confidence. The other part is the work he puts in during the dog days of summer.

Still learning to skate

Skating has always been Drysdale’s best tool. He has relied on it since he was a tyke in Toronto, and continues to do so thanks to the work he puts in. At 7 or 8 years old, he started taking figure skating classes to help his edge work, and then once hockey got serious, around 12 or 13, he started working with a skating coach.

For the last few years, including this summer, he’s headed home and gotten in touch with Dawn Braid, a renowned coach who has consulted with several NHL teams. She was the first woman in NHL history to coach full-time when she joined the Arizona Coyotes in 2016, and currently works for the New York Rangers.

“I always thought, at least in my head, I thought I was a pretty good skater. And then, the first time I worked with Dawn, it was a lot of corrections,” Drysdale told The Inquirer in May. “It makes you feel not so good as a skater and realize that there’s a lot to work on.”

Despite it all, he loves working on his skating, calling it his favorite thing to do in the summer.

“Because when I feel good on my feet, I think that’s when I feel just best on the ice as a whole,” he said. “So, especially to start the summer and to end the summer, I try to get as many sessions as I can to, obviously, set myself up in a good spot for the summer and then set myself up in a good spot for the season.”

It starts standardly, getting his feet wet again and his technique back after being off the ice for a short time; this season was the first time Drysdale made the postseason in his NHL career. As the summer days roll on, the drills progress — he said it’s frustrating because Braid will demo her drills with ease, when the drills are anything but easy — and they become more tailored to what he specifically wants to work on.

For Drysdale, the focus is on being able to cut back or explode out, or cut back with speed. He works on being evasive at the blue line, skating with forwards coming at him, retrievals — “a lot of retrieval stuff we do in terms of footwork, on how to use deception with your feet, things like that” — and transitions.

It has paid off, as seen by that play on Rakell.

“He’s not the biggest guy, maybe, like physically, but he uses his feet to defend,” York said of Drysdale in April. “I think you look across the league, there’s a lot of smaller defensemen who use their feet, and obviously he’s a great skater and can keep up with anybody. So he uses that to his advantage, for sure.

“But I think just confidence for him. He’s starting to figure out what works best for him. And he knows that when his feet are moving like that [in general], he’s effective.”

There’s a good chance that Drysdale will be working on his play with the puck, too. He said at his end-of-season availability that he wanted to work on his puck play, hanging on to pucks, making more plays in the offensive zone, and his shot. He mentioned on Monday that some of his focus is on getting the power play out of the NHL’s basement, specifically with his shot.

“Been pretty continuously working on my shot over the last year and throughout this summer,” he said Monday. “Something that I’m going to come in confident with and use as a weapon, and kind of take it from there.”

Those are offensive elements. But there is no denying that his defensive game has, no pun intended, taken the biggest stride. Across his 24 games in his first season with the Anaheim Ducks, Drysdale had a plus-minus of minus-12. The following year, he played 81 games and was minus-26, and in his first 24 games with the Flyers after being acquired in the Cutter Gauthier trade, he was minus-18.

But that is all behind him. What’s more promising was what he did this past year, going from minus-32 in 2024-25 to minus-3 this past season. It’s not in the positives yet, but it feels like that’s the next step.

“I wouldn’t say it’s too much technical-wise,” he said when asked if he did anything differently with his skating to become stronger defensively in April.

“I think it’s more so just being super comfortable with it, knowing that it’s a strong suit and using it. Like fully believing that it’s my best way to defend because I think I trust my gaps. I can trust my feet to get back. … Yeah, so I think that’s kind of the main thing, is just being more confident in what I can do with my feet.”

From strength to strength

The work Drysdale is doing isn’t just on the ice. He’s also doing it in the gym. Drysdale has worked with Bryan Marshall, program director and founder of Milo Athletics based in Ontario, and a high-performance coach who has worked with several NHL teams, since he was 14 or 15 years old.

He thinks Marshall knows him better than himself when it comes to his work in the gym. And Marshall has seen the blueliner’s growth and development in his on-ice game come from the work he has done off the ice, calling it “inevitable.”

“I think Jamie always had the talent. He always had those natural abilities in his skating. But, at the next level, the real separator is, how efficiently can you repeat that,” Marshall told The Inquirer in April.

“What I’ve noticed over the years is, he has one successful month after another in the summer, and then one successful summer after another,” he added, “and the next thing you know, he’s developed so much more strength and so much more power, and he’s now got the capacity, I think, to sort of really showcase his talents, right, because the rigors of an NHL season are pretty grueling.”

According to Drysdale, the schedule is rigorous, with Mondays and Wednesdays being power days, Tuesdays and Thursdays for strength, and Friday for conditioning. He focuses on power, aerobic capacity on the bike or VersaClimber, ladder work, hip mobility with bands, and explosiveness, like with box jumps. Working with bands and box jumps are his two favorites.

And all the work is done focusing on single-leg work with a priority in preparing Drysdale’s body to receive force.

This summer, he’s also working on his first few steps. Marshall puts his athletes — he also trains former Flyers forward Scott Laughton, now with the Los Angeles Kings — through a comprehensive power assessment via force plates and other pieces of technology. It helps him understand how a player produces power, including force and velocity, and for Drysdale, he saw that as he got stronger, he got faster.

“He’s obviously playing with confidence, and he’s got those reserves — that’s what I like to call it — he’s got a strength reserve, he’s got a power reserve, he’s got a conditioning reserve, an aerobic reserve right now, where he can push it on a play, and maybe there is a turnover, but he’s fine,” Marshall said when the play against Rakell was mentioned.

“He’s not spent; he’s not running on empty, and he can come back and do his thing. And I think his body is allowing him to play with that confidence that he’s obviously shown this year.”

Confidence has become a big word for Drysdale this past year.

In the Elite Prospects 2020 NHL draft guide, Drysdale’s scouting report called him a “brilliant skater” but someone who “doesn’t seem to know he is by far the best skater on the ice.”

It feels like he knows that now.

“The biggest step, I think, was just confidence level,” he said in May. “That might not be like an actual hockey thing, but I think just coming to the rink and believing that I was a good player and could make an impact, that was probably the biggest kind of shift for me. And I guess that kind of carries all over the ice. …

“I think there’s a lot of things that I want to work on, and I think I can bring a lot more to the table as well in certain areas. So I think overall, pretty happy with it, but I think, yeah, a lot of work will be done.”