Philadelphia Flyers
Flyers Release Official 2025 Opening Night Roster
With the Philadelphia Flyers’ first game of the 2025-26 NHL season just a few days away, the team has officially submitted its roster to the NHL. All teams are required to submit their opening night rosters on the Monday before the start of the regular season.
So, after a few weeks of speculation, here is the official Flyers roster for the first game of the year.
Flyers Opening Night Roster
Forwards (14)
Rodrigo Abols
Bobby Brink
Noah Cates
Sean Couturier
Nic Deslauriers
Christian Dvorak
Tyson Foerster
Nikita Grebenkin
Garnet Hathaway
Travis Konecny
Jett Luchanko
Matvei Michkov
Owen Tippett
Trevor Zegras
Defensemen (7)
Jamie Drysdale
Dennis Gilbert
Adam Ginning
Noah Juulsen
Travis Sanheim
Nick Seeler
Egor Zamula
Goaltenders (2)
Sam Ersson
Dan Vladar
Oliver Bonk, Rasmus Ristolainen, and Ethan Samson are designated as injured non-rostered players.
Notable Features of 2025 Opening Night Rosters
The first thing to note is the addition of Dennis Gilbert to the opening night roster, rather than Cam York. That, of course, is because York is starting the season on IR due to a lower-body injury mentioned by Flyers’ GM Danny Briere earlier on Monday. Briere said that Gilbert would be with the Flyers in place of York until he could return.
Both Rodrigo Abols and Jett Luchanko made the opening night roster. Those two were considered to be the two forwards fighting for one final spot. Now, both forwards are on the final roster.
Notably, Nikita Grebenkin is on the opening night roster as well. The Flyers’ rookie will make his debut with the team at some point early in the season. He and Luchanko were odd forwards out during Monday’s practice. Head coach Rick Tocchet said nothing is set in stone. However, it seems like it will be Abols and Nic Deslauriers drawing into the lineup for the first game.
Lastly, Adam Ginning made the NHL roster out of training camp for the first time in his career. The Swedish defenseman has had a few stints with the Flyers throughout his career. This is the first time he will start the year in Philadelphia. Given the current state of the Flyers’ defense, he has a chance to stick.
What’s Next for the Flyers
Now that the roster is set, focus shifts to the first game of the season. The Flyers will head down to Sunrise, Florida, where they will take on the defending Stanley Cup Champion Florida Panthers, on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. EST.
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Looks like if Gilbert gets into a game, then York has to go on IR and miss the first seven games. If York makes it back before then, I’d assume that Gilbert is just sent to LHV and York takes his spot on the list of 23. With York and Risto both on the sidelines, we only have 3 NHL quality DMen playing (Sanheim, Drysdale, Seeler). The other four are all 7th and 8th quality players. If Bonk impresses in LHV early on, I’d hope he gets a quick call up.
York would have to miss 7 calendar days from day he gets placed on IR. It was officially announced today, so at the earliest York could come back for the home opener — possibly sooner if it’s retroactive.
JettLu will get his 9 games then off to the OHL
Ok, so the team is definitely playing around then, Grebenkin should be starting over Nic D! Their justification is probably, they want the big body veteran presence of Nic D, in case the Panthers play around? Grebenkin is a big kid and I know the fans would want to see what he can do and how he handles himself against a physical team. Nic D should sit all 82 games!