Flyers Quietly Have 23

The Flyers are either being very sneaky or they just aren't quite finished their roster changes yet. According to their roster online, they have pared themselves down to 23 players, including the recently called up, Jonas Backlund, who is up to look after the back-up role, as Brian Boucher is currently out with a lower body injury.

There were a few players left on my roster sheet that I had taken off, just for the sake that the online roster was in all likelihood correct. The roster below looks to be pretty solid.

Forwards	Defense	Goaltenders
Jeff Carter	Chris Pronger	Brian Boucher
Mike Richards	Kimmo Timonen	Ray Emery
Simon Gagne	Braydon Coburn	Jonas Backlund
Scott Hartnell	Matt Carle
Claude Giroux	Ryan Parent
Daniel Briere	Ole-Kristian Tollefsen
Arron Asham	Danny Syvret
Ian Laperriere
Daniel Carcillo
Darroll Powe
Riley Cote
Mika Pyorala
James Van Riemsdyk

The Flyers have a few new names and faces that will be key to their success this year, including Chris Pronger (pictured), who will take over as general of the blueline, Ray Emery, the new starting goalie and James Van Riemsdyk, the rookie phenom. All three should be looked at seriously as good pick-ups in your fantasy pool this year, especially since the Flyers are going to be a strong force in the Eastern Conference. They had a pretty strong finish to the year and will look to build on that for a long run this year.

Thanks to waiving Randy Jones, the Flyers do find themselves below the cap ceiling with 23 players on their roster. With the 23 men listed above, the Flyers now stand just a touch over $56 million, leaving plenty of space between themselves and the ceiling. I wouldn't be completely surprised if the Flyers also elected to send down one more forward from their ranks, just to make sure they are well underneath the cap ceiling.

It's fairly obvious to conclude that the Flyers did upgrade themselves on the blueline and another year of experience to their young forwards isn't going to hurt them at all. The biggest question now will be whether or not Ray Emery is ready for the rigors of the everyday NHL schedule again. The Flyers are going to score and they'll likely score in bunches this season, so it would be a good idea to invest some of your fantasy spots in a Flyer or two.