3 questions facing Philadelphia Flyers

NHL.com is providing in-depth roster, prospect and fantasy analysis for each of its 32 teams from Aug. 1-Sept. 1. Today, three important questions facing the Philadelphia Flyers.

1. Can Sean Couturier and Cam Atkinson be depended on?

Couturier (back) and Atkinson (neck) each missed last season; Couturier has had back surgery twice since last playing Dec. 18, 2021.

If healthy, each forward will be a key piece in all situations on the ice and part of the off-ice leadership group.

General manager Daniel Briere said the medical reports on them have been positive but admits nothing will be known for sure until training camp starts.

"All we can do and rely on at this point is what we hear from their trainers and what they're able to do in the gym and on the ice in a not-as-intense situation," Briere said. "And so far all of that checks in really nicely. It's positive at the moment. But we won't really know until they're in those really high-end situations and see how it goes."

2. How will the defense shake out?

Ivan Provorov led the Flyers in ice time for the seventh straight season last season (23:01) and played in 532 of a possible 535 games during that stretch. But his trade to the Columbus Blue Jackets, along with the buyout of Tony DeAngelo, opens space on defense.

Cam York, who earned the trust of the coaching staff after starting the season with Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League, likely will be part of a top-four group that will include Travis Sanheim, Rasmus Ristolainen and Marc Staal. But the Flyers are counting on some of their defensemen prospects to earn NHL ice time.

"'Torts' (Coach John Tortorella) did a good job last year with our young forwards and now we want to see also on defense what's there, what do we have in some of our young guys, York, (Egor) Zamula, (Ronnie) Attard, (Emil) Andrae, (Adam) Ginning, (Helge) Grans," Briere said. "… There's a lot of young defensemen and we want to see where they fit in in the next few years."

3. Can Foerster be a full-time NHL player?

Tyson Foerster, a first-round pick (No. 23) in the 2020 NHL Draft, made his NHL debut last season with seven points (three goals, four assists) in eight games before being returned to the AHL. The hope is the 21-year-old can build on that and become a fixture among the top-nine forwards in Philadelphia.

"Training camp will be a big opportunity for him to see if he's at the same level as he was last year," Briere said. "But there's no doubt that he's really shown that that there's something special there. I don't want to pencil him in yet. I want him to be hungry and I want him to come in with the idea of making the team and not assuming that he's on the team. With Torts nobody is given anything, he'll have to earn everything. So he's got to come in with that mindset."