Meeting The Flyers Taxi Squad: What Do All Six Players Bring To The Table?

What does each member of the Flyers taxi squad add to the group?

What’s up Flyers Fans? The puck drops tonight and Game Number One of 56 begins for the orange and black in the first meeting of eight against the Pittsburgh Penguins this season. The Broad Street Bullies will play a meaningful hockey game that will count towards the standings since September 5th 2020.

That was four months ago when the New York Islanders defeated Philadelphia in Game 7 of the second round of the Stanley Cup Finals in the bubble in Toronto. It’s been 132 days, four months and 10 days since the last Flyers goal in a double overtime thriller from Ivan Provorov. I think I can speak for almost every Flyer fan we’ve missed hockey so much.

We’ve missed the voice of NBCSNP; Jim Jackson, we’ve missed DJ Reed Streets warmup mixes that the players skate to. But most importantly we’ve missed Kevin Hayes yelling “Coots, There It Is” to Sean Couturier before very single game.

Of course we will miss a lot of things with the pandemic still going on such as not seeing all the black and orange bleeding through the seats with a packed Wells Fargo crow of Flyers fans. We will miss Bill Clement who announced his retirement just a little before the season began.

Plus the pre, post and intermissions shows will look a little different with the absence of Colby Cohen and Katie Emmer after they were taken off the network after lay off’s hit pretty hard amid of COVID-19. But finally we will miss Gritty messing with the fans.

One thing I hope that the Flyers, fans, management and the entire NHL completely swing and miss this year is the newly added only for this year: NHL Taxi Squad’s. For those who aren’t exactly familiar with this rule, For starters: It’s only for this year.

• You must have a minimum of four skaters but no more than the maximum allowed which is six.
• Waivers are required for those who require them. (2-Way Contracts are fine).
• Recalls for the NHL must occur before 5PM of a game-day. (Which is very similar to the ECHL’s added skater rule).
• One goalie must be added unless there are 3 goalies on the active roster at the time of the game.
• On the last day of training camp for that NHL Club is the first day that a player can be added to the Taxi Squad list.
• Members can practice with their respected NHL Club, join in on team activities and travel with the team (However this is not required).
•  Members can’t practice or join in any AHL activities at any time with their respected AHL Club.
• If any or all six players are deemed what the NHL is calling “unfit” to play they can request that the player or players not count towards one of the six skaters.
• If a player is on a two way contract such as Nate Prosser he will receive Minor League Salary.

At first glance looking at this Taxi Squad roster three words came to mind: Depth, Experience and Chemistry. Let’s take a deep dive into the four forwards and one defenseman on the Flyers Taxi Squad to start the season.