The Philadelphia Flyers’ 23-man roster for Opening Night is officially set—and it carries the look of a team that means what it says when it preaches earning your spot.
Youth and hunger headline the final group, with Jett Luchanko, Rodrigo Ābols, and Adam Ginning—three players who began training camp on the roster bubble—each forcing their way into the mix.
Jett Luchanko: A Teenager with a Job to Keep
Few stories out of camp are as compelling as Jett Luchanko’s.
The 19-year-old center made the NHL team out of camp last year, when he was still a fresh-faced rookie that had been drafted mere months before his Opening Night debut.
A quieter camp this year fueled a debate of whether the Flyers should keep him in the NHL squad or send him back to his OHL team (the Guelph Storm) to continue developing. As of the roster submission deadline on Monday, he’s sticking around—at least for now.
The Flyers have made clear that his spot is a reward for what he’s done, not a guarantee of what comes next.
“Nothing is set in stone,” Flyers general manager Danny Briere said. “He has to keep earning it. He has to keep playing well; he’s not the only one. It applies with everyone. I know we make a big deal of the Opening Night roster, but that doesn’t mean you’re on the team forever. You’ve gotta keep earning your ice time and your spot on the team. That’s the message to him and every other player on the team.”
The expectations are simple: no complacency, no shortcuts. Luchanko’s maturity and work rate are some of his best qualities, especially for a player his age. He’s quick, thinks the game well beyond his years, and plays with the kind of structure coaches can trust. Whether he’s here for five games or 50, he’s made an impression.
Adam Ginning: The Quiet Surprise
In a camp where many Flyers defensemen weren’t exactly popping, Adam Ginning managed to get himself a place in the NHL group.
When camp began, Ginning wasn’t even considered a serious contender for the Flyers’ blueline. But as preseason rolled along, he played himself into the conversation—and eventually, onto the roster.
“There’s a couple guys that actually stepped up,” Briere explained. “A guy like Ginning, who, to be honest, we didn’t think he was even in the mix going into camp. But he played so well that he earned his way onto the team.”
For Ginning, it wasn’t about flash—it was about reliability. He simplified the game, closed gaps effectively, and leaned on his physical edge to win battles. On a defense corps that features smaller, more offensive players like Cam York and Jamie Drysdale, Ginning’s steady, defensive-minded style fills a key need—especially in the absence of Rasmus Ristolainen.
He may not have the highlight-reel plays, but he brings a certain level of balance. Ginning, like Luchanko, will have to continuously .
Rodrigo Ābols: The Unexpected Workhorse
Perhaps no player personified “earning it” more than Rodrigo Ābols. The 29-year-old Latvian forward was the only player to appear in all five of the Flyers’ preseason games—five games in nine nights—and not once did he look out of place.
Ābols didn’t just hold up under the workload; he thrived in it, playing with a consistency and physicality that caught the eye of the coaching staff from day one.
“He earned it,” Danny Briere said on Monday. “He’s been a big physical presence. I think Rick Tocchet and his staff didn’t know much about him and were really impressed.
“I laughed because, early in camp, we had him playing in game one, and we were looking at lineups for games two and three and four, and at first, we didn’t have him in any of those games. And after game one, Tocchet came back and he says, ‘I want to see him again.’ And so we put him in game two, and then after game two, he said, ‘I need to see him one more time,’ and put him in game three and then game four and game five. At the end, we were trying to give him a break! …But Rod has had a great camp and earned the start on the roster for game one. And I wouldn’t be surprised if he starts in game one either.”
Ābols has carved out a niche as a bottom-six forward who brings energy, size, and a smart defensive stick. He kills plays, wins puck battles, and makes simple but effective reads in all three zones. In short, he does the little things right—and that’s often what wins coaches over.
A Roster Shaped by Effort
For all three players, making the Opening Night roster is validation of the Flyers’ new approach under Tocchet: accountability, competition, and a demand for consistency.
No one got a free pass because of potential or pedigree. Luchanko, Ginning, and Ābols earned their spots by doing the work—day after day, game after game—until the coaching staff had no choice but to notice.
And that, more than anything, says something about where the Flyers are headed. The roster may not be a finished product. It may evolve, change, and shift as the season begins. But it’s being built on the kind of foundation that winning teams grow from—honesty, effort, and the refusal to assume anything.
As Briere put it, it’s not about who starts on the roster. It’s about who earns the right to stay there.
