Ryan Ellis Re-Injured, Out on Week-to-Week Basis

The Philadelphia Flyers announced on Monday afternoon that defenseman Ryan Ellis suffered a re-injury after he was previously out of the lineup for nine games with an ailment. Ellis was not on the ice today at practice. Head coach Alain Vigneault said after practice that Ellis suffered the injury in Saturday’s 5-2 road loss to the Dallas Stars and he is now listed as week-to-week.

Ellis skated 18:45 in the game against Dallas on Saturday, registering two blocked shots, two shots on goal, and an assist on Ivan Provorov’s power play goal in the third period. With Ellis’ injury, Nick Seeler be called up before tomorrow’s game at home against the Calgary Flames and he’ll likely slot in his usual spot alongside Keith Yandle on the third pairing.

Ellis, who has 5 points in 4 games as a Flyer so far, has been plagued by injury troubles in the past as well when he was a member of the Nashville Predators. He has only played a full 82-game slate once in nine full seasons at the NHL level, and that came back in 2018-19. Ellis missed 21 games last year for Nashville, and missed 20 games the season before in 2019-20. Before his 82-game season in 2018-19, he only skated in 44 games in 2017-18 as well.

While the Flyers have played well defensively in spite of Ellis’ absences this season, losing a key player of his caliber still sorely hurts on the blueline. The Flyers will have to trudge on in the midst of a grueling schedule without their top right-side defenseman.