He is day-to-day with an upper-body injury.
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The team will leave for Newark later on Thursday and hold a morning skate at the Prudential Center prior to Friday night’s preseason finale against the Devils.
The Flyers hoped to cut their roster to 23 by the time they visit the Devils on Friday, but the Couturier and Raffl injuries have forced them to reconsider. Hextall has depth on his side and would like to get a few salary cap relief and clear up a spot before opening night rosters are due Tuesday evening.
The Flyers waived the forward on Wednesday and had previously hoped to sign him to the Phantoms. McDonald cleared on Thursday but Porter did not.
“You don’t expect it, but it happens”, said Hextall. Hextall had to know other teams have had injuries and need depth, and to send down one of your higher performing forwards through waivers would be risky. The only two that hit the ice were Michael Raffl and Sean Couturier.
As Hextall said after the game, there are always tough decisions when a roster is being finalized, even for a team in the Flyers’ position.
Hakstol wants to save players’ energy for game time. “Scotty has done everything that we have asked of him, coming to camp in really good shape…” Hextall said it was doubtful either player would play at this point. “So there’s no plan to rest him”.
“It’s a regular game day”.
“I think that makes the most sense, ” Hakstol said.
The Flyers will hold a practice on Saturday in Voorhees and then a complete off-day on Sunday.
“It’s not a day off. We’re getting work done”.
Last season, Porter finished with the best dCorsi of his career with a 26.98 mark. “And I’m happy for him that he gets to come back here and play….” “We feel good about our depth”. He knows that he’s supposed to go out there and be tough to play against. We will have more as the story develops. “I could go through a laundry list of things but it comes down to bringing all of the different parts together”, said Hakstol.
“It’s definitely one of the biggest weeks for sure in this camp”, Laughton said in a Monday interview.
“Obviously those two guys have both been up the middle”, he added.
“If there’s eight guys and you’re the eighth guy, you’re still not playing, right?”
“We’ve got options”, Hextall said, speaking of what can be done without waivers.
The irony is that sending Laughton, who is not subject to waivers, to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms may be the best move in terms of asset management.
The waiver claim isn’t just about reuniting Parise with his BFF, of course.
“I like what we’ve done on the PK”.
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“But I think at this point that might not be Scott’s biggest consideration”. “I think it was a good look to see Chris there, and that’s what our thinking was”. We’re doing stuff off the ice. I think on zone entry, we’ve defended pretty well. “I can’t wait to get started and I’m really looking forward to the opportunity”. I think we’ve had an aggressive penalty there.
