"The Flyers, getting ready to defend their Eastern Conference title, made eight roster moves Monday - including the release of veteran winger Bill Guerin - in preparation for Thursday's opener in Pittsburgh.

Guerin's release means that 23-year-old winger Andreas Nodl figures to start the season on the roster.

The 39-year-old Guerin, who was in camp on a tryout, had one goal and was minus-2 in five preseason games. The owner of 429 career goals and two Stanley Cup rings, Guerin was bothered by an infected elbow during the preseason. He was minus-4 in Sunday's 9-3 exhibition loss in Buffalo.

"It had just gotten to the point where it didn't look like it was going to work for us," general manager Paul Holmgren said in a conference call with reporters. "I think we were all hoping he would add something, and it was a tough situation for Bill to be in, and we all thank him for coming in on a tryout like he did. He's a class guy and he's obviously had a tremendous career in the NHL, and we just didn't see him helping us moving forward."

In addition, the Flyers assigned seven players to the AHL's Adirondack Phantoms: goaltender Johan Backlund, defensemen Marc-Andre Bourdon and Erik Gustafsson, and forwards David Laliberte, Jon Kalinski, Mike Testwuide, and Ben Holmstrom.

Backlund, trying to come back after hip surgery, played half the game and allowed seven goals in his preseason debut Sunday. The Flyers are hoping no one claims him off waivers.

Brian Boucher and rookie Sergei "Bob" Bobrovsky will start the season as the Flyers' goalies. In the preseason, Boucher had a 1.90 goals-against average and Bobrovsky had a 1.76 GAA. Each had a .939 save percentage.

The decision to part ways with Guerin - who scored 21 goals, including 11 on the power play, for Pittsburgh last season - had nothing to do with salary-cap issues, Holmgren said. "If we thought he could help our team over the course of the season, then we would have done what we needed to do. . . . We just made a decision today that we didn't know if he could help us enough over other guys that we could use."

One of those guys is Nodl, who provides little offense but is a solid penalty killer and defensive player. Nodl had no points and was minus-1 in seven preseason games."