Flyers center Morgan Frost skates with the puck against Boston Bruins center Karson Kuhlman in a preseason game on Thursday, September 19, 2019 in Philadelphia.
Photo Credit: YONG KIM / Staff Photographer
As the Philadelphia Flyers approach their regular season they have already been bitten by the injury bug. Depth wins championships and the Flyers’ depth will already be tested. Dominative center, Kevin Hayes, will be out for six to eight weeks with an additional surgery on his lingering abdominal core injury sustained in the previous season. It is a big loss considering the Flyers already had already lost top prospect Nolan Patrick in an offseason trade for Ryan Ellis. It will now be up to promising young center, Morgan Frost, to grab the bull by the horns and show he’s finally ready for a full time NHL role. The Flyers were already willing to test Frost at the number three center position this offseason, but now they’ll have no choice to but to play him in a more offensively focused role in the top six. It can be assumed that Frost is up to the task, adding more muscle in offseason, but he will have to show that his overall game is polished enough to play in the NHL on a nightly basis. Frost has shown some early promise offensively, but has yet to prove that his overall two-way game is ready for the big show. Having said that, with a more mature head on his shoulders, Frost seems primed to impress early in the season.
Towering defenseman Samuel Morin has also sustained an injury or at least requiring surgery to repair his already fragile knees. He will be out six to eight weeks. Morin was slated to be the Flyers number seven defenseman that would step in with injuries or for a physical presence, but it seems that he will have to play catch up again as he returns one month into the season. Luckily the Flyers have two very talented young players in the minors who are close to making it to the NHL level. Start prospect, Cam York, has already shown signs of being NHL ready in his young career and Yegor Zamula doesn’t seem to be too far behind. If the Flyers do sustain an injury to any one of the NHL regulars on the back-end, the team is comfortable being able to call up either of the two players to fill the spot in the short term. Cam York might even show that the AHL is too easy for him and could force a veteran down the depth chart earlier than scheduled.
Lastly, promising young power forward, Wade Allison, sustained a high ankle sprain after a very successful rookie camp showing. He is currently listed as out indefinitely. Allison already showed last season that he was NHL ready and the team was prepared to pencil him into a top twelve role with the club. Allison will miss significant time with a tricky injury, but will most likely return to the AHL until he can prove to stay healthy. Allison has had issues with injuries in the past, but he does have a skillset well suited for the physical NHL game and can provide a big shot and scoring prowess, a combination that is invaluable in today’s modern game. The Flyers have plenty of wing depth in the organization to adjust to the this injury, but Allison is an early fan favorite and it’s a shame to watch a roadblock so early into the career.
On this episode of Getting Gritty Wit It, I welcome previous guest, Pearlo Wisdom, to the show to talk about the Flyers current camp situation and the roster implications leading up to training camp. Pearlo covers all of the NHL teams, so he is well versed in situation around the league. With some tentative optimism, we talk about how the Flyers appear to be primed to compete in the parody driven Metro division.
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