The Philadelphia Flyers will kick off the first leg of an away back-to-back on Monday night, traveling to Long Island, N.Y., to face the New York Islanders before Tuesday’s preseason matchup with the Boston Bruins.

The Flyers’ roster for Monday night’s game is a far cry from some of the star-studded ones that played on Thursday and Saturday, but for some of the players on the roster bubble, this game against the Islanders is an important one.

Preseason standout Olle Lycksell, who knows this is an important year for him and his NHL career, is arguably the second-most offensively skilled forward in the lineup for Philadelphia. As for the Islanders? Well… they’re fielding a lineup that is more or less going to be the opening night roster for the start of the 2024-25 regular season, with the exception of a few players.

There’s still plenty at stake with three preseason games, so let’s talk about it:

Flyers Lines

Olle Lycksell – Scott Laughton – Anthony Richard

Joel Farabee – Noah Cates – Garnet Hathaway

Rodrigo Abols – Ryan Poehling – Oscar Eklind

Brendan Furry (AHL) – Rhett Gardner (AHL) – Sawyer Boulton (AHL)

Egor Zamula – Rasmus Ristolainen

Emil Andrae – Erik Johnson

Adam Ginning – Helge Grans

Ivan Fedotov, Alexei Kolosov

Islanders Lines

Anthony Duclair – Bo Horvat – Mat Barzal

Maxim Tsyplakov – Brock Nelson – Kyle Palmieri

Anders Lee – Jean-Gabriel Pageau – Simon Holmstrom

Kyle MacLean – Casey Cizikas – Julien Gauthier

Alexander Romanov – Noah Dobson

Adam Pelech – Scott Mayfield

Mike Reilly – Grant Hutton

Magnus Hogberg, Jakub Skarek

What I’m Watching

The obvious and most important storyline for Monday night’s game is Alexei Kolosov, who will make his unofficial NHL debut as well as his Flyers debut. Flyers assistant coach Darryl Williams disclosed that the 22-year-old Belarusian goalie will play against the Islanders, but to what extent remains to be seen.

That, of course, paves the way for the hulking Russian Ivan Fedotov to make his second consecutive start in goal for Philadelphia. Fedotov played the full 60 minutes plus 3:52 in the extra frame in the Flyers’ 3-2 overtime win over Boston on Saturday, making 25 saves on 27 shots and earning a very solid .926 save percentage.

Fedotov was only beaten by Hampus Lindholm’s heavily deflected shot and Matt Poitras’s shorthanded breakaway, so he’ll look to get even more comfortable and face some more live reps after very limited game action at the end of the 2023-24 season.

Further up the ice, the Flyers continue to entertain a two-horse race between Olle Lycksell and Anthony Richard for the 14th forward spot. It’s too early to declare a winner in this roster battle, though.

Lycksell has had the greater share of offensive production, whereas Richard has flashed with his speed and defense but has yet to translate it into anything more. If it comes down to a tie, my belief is the Flyers will prioritize Lycksell as the homegrown prospect, but Richard will make it a difficult choice due to his versatility (he can play center) and speed.

Conversely, it looks doubtful that Rodrigo Abols and Oscar Eklind are serious contenders for an NHL roster spot at this time. Abols has looked substantially better than Eklind, but it would be a stretch to say that either player has put something meaningful on tape so far.

On defense, it’s less likely that the Flyers keep eight defensemen on the roster instead of a 14th forward, but the team was fortunate on the injury front last season and starts the year with a long road trip in Canada.

Given his power play exploits, Emil Andrae is the early frontrunner for the eighth defenseman spot, but keep in mind that he would be the Flyers’ fifth left-shot defender out of the eight.

Adam Ginning is in the mix, too, but his inconsistent passing and gaffes with the puck are starting to quickly add up as the pressure builds.

Fellow Swede Helge Grans is an adept puck-mover and, at 6-foot-4, is substantially larger than the 5-foot-9 Andrae. The coaches and management would like to see Grans become harder to play against and incorporate some penalty-killing elements in his game.

With over 150 AHL regular season games under his belt, Grans is only 22 and has as good a shot at making the NHL roster as anybody, but he needs to put some plays on tape that wow the Flyers in order to stick beyond the end of this week.