With Rosehill on waivers, no bullies left for Flyers

The Flyers, once known as the Broad Street Bullies, put winger Jay Rosehill on waivers Thursday and will start the season without a heavyweight enforcer for the first time since the early 1970s.

What in the name of Dave Schultz is going on here?

Enforcers, Flyers coach Craig Berube said after Friday's practice in Voorhees, are needed less today than in the past.

"I think everybody knows that," he said. "You look at the rules, look at the game, look at everything."

Over the years, the Flyers have had more than 30 enforcers, including Dave Schultz, Paul Holmgren, Ed Hospodar, Glen Cochrane, Dave Brown, Donald Brashear, Berube, Riley Cote, and Jody Shelley.

If Rosehill clears waivers, he will go to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Ditto forward Chris VandeVelde and goalie Rob Zepp, who were also placed on waivers as the Flyers trimmed their roster to 22 players.

General manager Ron Hextall said demoting Rosehill was difficult.

"He does maybe the hardest job in pro sports and he did it very well," Hextall said. "So that was a tough one for me. He works hard and does everything for the team; he fights for the team and when he sits out, he has a good attitude. So that was a hard one, but given our cap - there are cap ramifications with keeping 23 players - we felt this was the right way to go for now."

Without Rosehill ($675,000 cap hit), the Flyers will be about $55,000 under the $69 million cap when Chris Pronger goes on the long-term injured list before the season.

Moving forward, the Flyers know they have the option of adding a player - whether it's Rosehill or someone else - by putting Kimmo Timonen ($2 million) on the LTIR. For now, they like the balance of their fourth line: Pierre-Edouard Bellemare centering Zac Rinaldo and Jason Akeson.

Rosehill, who won the Flyers' speed-skating contest in camp, played in just 34 games and collected two points and 90 penalty minutes last season, when he was dressed primarily for games that figured to be physical.

"We've got some toughness on our team. Don't forget that," said Hextall, referring to players like Zac Rinaldo, Wayne Simmonds, and Blair Jones. "There never are any fights in the playoffs. And then in-between, it's getting less and less. We've got people in Allentown. It's a short drive away. If we need that at some point, we'll adjust."

Morin to juniors. After Sam Morin's impressive training camp, the Flyers considered keeping the 19-year-old defenseman on the roster before "reality" hit and they sent him back to juniors Friday.

"It gets a little tempting, and then you kind of hit 'refresh' and think about reality, which is these are preseason games and there's a lot of young players in the lineups and a lot of the older players in the league aren't necessarily brining the good stuff," general manager Ron Hextall said.

The 6-foot-7, 224-pound Morin will play for Rimouski in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

Simmonds update. Right winger Wayne Simmonds, who suffered an unspecified lower-body injury against the Rangers Tuesday, did not practice Friday and his status for Wednesday's opener is "up in the air," Berube said. Simmonds traveled with the team to Cape Cod.

@BroadStBull