More veteran experience has been the theme of the Flyers’ offseason/preseason and that trend continued on Monday when 29-year-old veteran forward Patrick Brown was claimed off waivers from the Vegas Golden Knights.
Also on Monday, the Flyers announced several roster moves before submitting their 21-man roster to the National Hockey League for the 2021-22 season.
According to general manager Chuck Fletcher, forward Jackson Cates and defensemen Nick Seeler and Cam York were loaned to the Flyers’ American Hockey League affiliate, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. In addition, forward Garrett Wilson was assigned to the Phantoms.
None of those four transactions really came as a surprise. On Saturday, coach Alain Vigneault disclosed he probably will go with a bare minimum 20-man roster for the Flyers’ season opener on Friday against the Vancouver Canucks at the Wells Fargo Center. Currently, the Flyers are close to the salary cap limit, thus a short lineup for the time being.
The roster moves opens up a space for Brown, who has appeared in five regular-season games for the Golden Knights over the past two seasons. The Bloomfield Hills, Michigan native also competed in 14 Stanley Cup games for the Golden Knights, recording one goal in two games in 2020 and two goals in 12 games in 2021.
He played part of the 2020-21 season for Vegas’ AHL affiliate, the Henderson Silver Knights, where he posted eight points in nine games.
Brown spent parts of five seasons in the Carolina Hurricanes organization where he appeared in 28 regular season games and eight Stanley Cup playoff games from 2014-15 to 2018-19. He also spent five seasons with the Hurricanes’ AHL affiliate, the Charlotte Checkers, including the last three seasons as team captain. He helped lead the Checkers to the 2019 Calder Cup Championship.
There is a connection between Brown and current Flyers Kevin Hayes and Cam Atkinson. Brown played four seasons of collegiate hockey at Boston College, where he was teammates with Hayes and Atkinson. He helped the Eagles win two Hockey East championships and the 2012 NCAA Division I championship.
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The Flyers’ 21-man roster submitted to the NHL:
>FORWARDS
Travis Konecny, No. 11; Kevin Hayes, 13; Sean Couturier, 14; Derick Brassard, 19; Scott Laughton, 21; Oskar Lindblom, 23; James van Riemsdyk, 25; Claude Giroux, 28; Patrick Brown, 38; Nate Thompson, 44; Nicolas Aube-Kubel, 62; Joel Farabee, 86; Cam Atkinson, 89.
>DEFENSEMEN
Keith Yandle, 3; Travis Sanheim, 6; Ivan Provorov, 9; Justin Braun, 61; Rasmus Ristolainen, 70; Ryan Ellis, 94.
>GOALTENDERS
Martin Jones, 35; Carter Hart, 79.
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The following players were placed on injured reserve or injured non-roster:
Ryan Fitzgerald, Egor Zamula, Samuel Morin, Wade Allison, Tanner Laczynski, Zayde Wisdom, Cooper Zech.
