At long last, the Philadelphia Flyers will finally wrap up their 2024 preseason on Thursday night when they host the New Jersey Devils… er, Utica Comets, at 7 p.m. at the Wells Fargo Center.

So, Thursday night’s matchup will be an unusual one, to be certain.

After originally planning to be behind the bench for the final two exhibition games, Flyers head coach John Tortorella will be watching this one from the press box while assistant coach Darryl Williams takes charge at ice level.

As for the Devils, they’re playing in the 2024 Global Series in Prague on Friday, and because opening night rosters are not due until Oct. 7, every player and prospect of immediate value has traveled with the team to kick off the 2024-25 regular season.

Therefore, this one is mostly going to be an AHL vs. AHL contest.

Flyers Game Roster

Olle Lycksell – Noah Cates – Anthony Richard

Oscar Eklind – Rodrigo Abols – Garnet Hathaway

Elliot Desnoyers – J.R. Avon – Brendan Furry

Garrett Wilson – Jacob Gaucher – Sawyer Boulton

Emil Andrae – Erik Johnson

Adam Ginning – Helge Grans

Hunter McDonald – Oliver Bonk

Ivan Fedotov (S), Alexei Kolosov

Devils Game Roster

Justin Dowling – Chase Stillman – Kevin Labanc

Brian Halonen – Max Graham – Ryan Schmelzer

Mike Hardman – Filip Engaras – Cam Squires

Sam Laberge – Jack Malone – Nathan Legare

Jakub Zboril – Mikael Diotte

Daniil Misyul – Will MacKinnon

Jackson van de Leest – Andy Welinski

Isaac Poulter (S), Jeremy Brodeur

For the Flyers, the last of the roster battles will be settled against New Jersey.

Olle Lycksell and Anthony Richard are still vying for the right to be the team’s 14th forward, though 2024 first-round pick Jett Luchanko practiced with the NHL group on Thursday morning and the others did not.

After sitting out for most of the preseason, veteran grinder Garnet Hathaway gets his last warmup in before the start of the 2024-25 regular season.

On defense, the Flyers are icing a prospect-heavy lineup with a potential opening for an eighth player on the blueline. Disappointing training camp performances from Adam Ginning have opened the door for fellow Swede Emil Andrae, who started last season on the Flyers, to take control.

As such, Andrae is likely to feature on a pair with Erik Johnson, who will be on the NHL roster this year.

There is very little else of note from the Flyers’ side of things, though it was eye-opening to see that backup goaltender Ivan Fedotov would be starting a second game in a row after already seeing some preseason action previously.

Williams revealed that the plan is for Fedotov to start against the Devils and make way for Alexei Kolosov roughly halfway through.

If Fedotov was ready for the regular season, he would not need the extra minutes in a meaningless game against minor-leaguers. Conversely, Kolosov is the more likely of the two to play AHL minutes this season, so he needs the minutes the most.

The Flyers really like Kolosov as a prospect and are prepared to give him every opportunity to earn an NHL job–one of which is apparently coming as soon as Thursday night. Nothing is imminent here, of course, but we may already have a goalie controversy brewing.