By Jesse Larch, Sports Talk Philly editor 
Flyers GM Ron Hextall met with the Philadelphia media prior to Wednesday night's rookie showcase against the New York Islanders at Wells Fargo Center and made an interesting comment about the status of the roster.
"I don't know if these guys are on edge, but they should be," Hextall said.
Seemingly directed at the veterans on the team, Hextall has thrown down the gauntlet as camp looms. There are the obvious rookies that will push for a spot on the roster like Nolan Patrick, Oskar Lindblom, and Sam Morin, but which veterans are on the bubble?
The first one who may be approaching a battle in camp is Matt Read. Read quickly became a fan favorite after the undrafted winger signed with the Flyers following his time at Bemidji State University. Read scored 20 goals in his first two full seasons, and 11 goals in the lockout-shortened 2012 season.
Since then, Read has hardly been the same player and has struggled to find the net at the same rate. Read scored 57 goals in his first 196 regular season games, and has only netted 29 goals in the ensuing 222 regular season games. Read is not in the penalty kill group, and has likely lost his footing to be treated as a scoring winger with his dramatic dropoff in production.
Read is in the final year of a four-year, $14.5 million contract and the Flyers could buy out his final year to make room for a prospect that the team feels is ready to make the leap to the NHL.
Dale Weise is the next name that may want to start looking over his shoulder. Weise flashed late last season, but for much of the year he failed to meet the expectation he set for himself of being a 20-goal scorer. Weise is a physical two-way player that played his way into coach Dave Hakstol's good graces after being in the doghouse for much of the year.
Weise is safer than Read because he offers more value as a checker while producing offensively at the same level as Read.
A final player who could be trying to fend off a prospect in camp is defenseman Andrew MacDonald. MacDonald came to the Flyers during the Paul Holmgren era when the Flyers were needy for NHL-caliber defensemen. MacDonald was a shot blocking specialist who got paid like a top-four defenseman out of necessity.
While the cost of buying out MacDonald is a compelling case for him to stay, the team's organizational depth is its greatest on defense. With Morin, Travis Sanheim, Philippe Myers and Robert Hagg all close to if not NHL ready. If MacDonald does find himself out of a roster spot it will likely be because the team has decided to allot NHL minutes to developing more prospects, rather than deeming MacDonald unsuitable to play in the NHL.
Ron Hextall has surrounded the team with "band-aids" as Howie Roseman would call it — players who are only here to bridge the gap during the rebuild. At this point, it would be a real surprise to see any of the players listed still on the roster after the dust settles and the rebuild is over.
Hextall outlined his plan to get younger and invest in prospects when he took the reigns of the franchise, and now that he is on the cusp of his plan coming to fruition, he may be willing to make space for his coveted prospects at the expense of the team's veterans.
