By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 
In less than one month, the Flyers return to the ice for the start of training camp and the preseason. Once the eight preseason games are over, the Flyers will need to narrow the roster down to 23 players, at most, with 20 getting the chance to suit up for the season opener in Los Angeles on Oct. 14.
With one month to go before the players return for the tryout period with their chance to make the team, here's an early projection of the 23 players that seem most likely to make the roster for the Flyers.
Forwards: Claude Giroux, Jake Voracek, Wayne Simmonds, Brayden Schenn, Sean Couturier, Michael Raffl, Matt Read, Dale Weise, Nick Cousins, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Chris VandeVelde, Boyd Gordon, Scott Laughton
Needing 12 forwards to dress per game, the Flyers are heavy with lower-six depth. Boyd Gordon, Scott Laughton and Chris VandeVelde really all seem interchangeable into fourth-line spots. The top nine of Giroux, Voracek, Simmonds, Schenn, Couturier, Raffl, Read, Weise and Cousins all should be safe bets to make the team.
Defensemen: Mark Streit, Michael Del Zotto, Shayne Gostisbehere, Radko Gudas, Nick Schultz, Andrew MacDonald, Ivan Provorov, Brandon Manning
The x-factor of this group is Provorov. The Flyers could open up a spot for the rookie or end up having to return him to juniors and trudge forward. But the Flyers do have the option to keep Provorov on the roster for 10 games and still return him to juniors, so that's a route I could see the team taking. The 10-game period could give Ron Hextall a little extra time to free up some cap space if Provorov does win a spot on the roster.
The dilemma Hextall faces before then is finding the cap space before the season starts. If he can't, then the Flyers may not even have the luxury of the 10-game trial and be left to use the seven defensemen that they have.
Goaltender: Steve Mason, Michal Neuvirth
There really is no mystery here. The Flyers have both Mason and Neuvirth for the 2016-17 season. But this is a big year for both. Mason and Neuvirth are in the final year of their contracts and the Flyers will have to choose one at the end of the season to keep for the long-term.
There is a lot of time for things to change, but based on the way the offseason has progressed, it looks like the Flyers will have a roster very similar to the end of last season. That said, one injury could open the door for a prospect out of camp, and there will be a number of Flyers off competing in the World Cup of Hockey while prospects and hopefuls compete in the preseason.
Whatever happens to fill out the roster, the core is set. That much is certain as the Flyers prepare to embark on the preseason and start the quest to get the roster down to the select players who will wear the Orange and Black on opening night.
