Expanded Roster: Who Will Flyers Call Upon From AHL's Phantoms?

If and when the NHL returns to play this summer, rosters will undoubtedly be expanded to allow teams to bring up extra players similar to the 'Black Aces' or 'taxi squads' assembled by teams heading into the playoffs in any other year.

While the exact names of those will be joining the Philadelphia Flyers from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms aren't set in stone, head coach Scott Gordon spoke on the parameters of a short list and has been in regular discussions with Flyers assistant GM Brent Flahr on a weekly basis.

"He hasn't given me anything solid as far as who might go," Gordon said of his discussions about the expanded roster candidates with Flahr, adding that they have conversations on a regular basis about such things during the course of a season. "I'm sure they already know - if it is going to be five players, seven players, three players - I'm sure they have it narrowed down to who it's going to be and it'll probably be a quick decision."

Currently, the Flyers have 21 players on their active roster. It will be 22 when James Van Riemsdyk is activated off of injured reserve.

The final number of the roster expansion will ultimately help shape the list of players that will be called upon to round out the depth of the team for their playoff run, but for the sake if this article being able to include the most possibilities we'll settle on if the rosters are expanded to a maximum of 30.

"Obviously there's going to be limitations with the numbers to some extent, which we don't know. Is it going to be 30 players, is it going to be 28 players?," Gordon asked rhetorically.

How Are Flyers Determining Who Is On Their Short List?

"You would think that - whoever it was going to be - would be players that had been called up at some point during the year that would be under consideration," the Phantoms' bench boss added, later saying nothing had been set in stone on the final list as far as he knew.

Going by that metric alone wouldn't necessarily trim the list down considering seven forwards that ended the season on the Phantoms' AHL roster - Andy Andreoff, Connor Bunnaman, Morgan Frost, David Kase, German Rubtsov, Carsen Twarynski and Mikhail Vorobyev - have all been called up to the Flyers this season at least once while defenseman Mark Friedman and goaltender Alex Lyon also saw NHL game action during the 2019-20 season.

Under a 30-man roster limit, the Flyers would be able to add a max of eight total players so theoretically at least one of the aforementioned players would be left off the Flyers' expanded roster. You'd also be inclined to think in a situation where they could add eight players that the Flyers would add more than one defenseman as well.

Another thing to consider is the availability of some of the players who have returned home overseas during the pandemic. While the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued an exemption that will allow professional athletes to return to the U.S. from other countries, knowing exactly what the border closures in other countries currently housing hockey players will be like when the NHL moves to returning to play remains unclear.

"Well the only idea that I have is who i think has played well who would be the guy that'd be called up. Obviously at the end of the year, Mark Friedman was called up so I would imagine he would be under consideration," Gordon said when asked about Friedman specifically being a potential candidate, in addition to the obvious that a third goaltender in Alex Lyon will be needed.