Cates and Tippett Are Coming Back. Grebenkin Isn't.

The Flyers made 15 roster cuts on September 19, the first formal trimming of the training camp roster ahead of their preseason opener. It's a routine procedural step, but the injury picture around it is anything but routine.

The good news is real: Cates and Tippett both reached day-to-day status by mid-September after weeks of uncertainty. Cates was one of Philadelphia's better stories last season — 27 points and a plus-13, the kind of two-way reliability that doesn't show up in highlight reels but matters on a depth chart. Tippett logged 30 points. Getting both of them back near opening night is meaningful.

The complication is Nikita Grebenkin. The organization re-signed him to a two-year extension in August specifically to shore up forward depth, and now he's out. That's the kind of move that looks fine on paper until it isn't. With Nolan Foote already gone overseas and Michkov still working his way back, the Flyers are thin at forward in a way that one day-to-day update doesn't fully fix.

The cuts are done. The preseason starts. Philadelphia gets its first look at whether the pieces that were healthy enough to make the roster can hold things together until everyone else catches up.