When the Philadelphia Flyers acquired Ryan Ellis from the Nashville Predators for Phil Myers and Nolan Patrick, it looked like they made out like gangbusters. The Flyers were able to land their prized number one defenseman to pair up with Ivan Provorov, and it only cost them a young defenseman who was in the doghouse of then-head coach Alain Vigneault and a disgruntled former 2nd overall pick who wanted out. No draft picks were exchanged, the Flyers took on all of Ellis’ money, and Nashville flipped Patrick to the Vegas Golden Knights for Cody Glass.
Fast forward to today and the entire trade looks like a dud for all teams involved, at least for this season. Ellis played four games and still hasn’t received surgery for his injury, Myers sporadically played in 27 games this season before being placed on waivers and is now playing in the AHL for the Toronto Marlies, Glass played in just four NHL games but has found success at the AHL level by scoring 60 points in 63 games, and Patrick has only managed to stay on the ice for 25 games this season.
As we near closer to the end of the season, the Flyers are still mum on the Ellis situation and the fact that he might forego surgery altogether is a real possibility. This situation begs the question as to what the Flyers do in the summer since they put everything into Ellis’ basket.
Every egg went into one basket since the Flyers entered the season with no contingency plan on defense. No one from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms was truly NHL-ready, they only signed Nick Seeler as the 7th defenseman, and it wasn’t until December where they claimed Kevin Connauton off waivers from the Florida Panthers. Knowing Ellis’ injury history, it was an interesting move to hope for a prayer that he stayed healthy for the majority of the season, because if he fell to another ailment, the Flyers’ defense would go from great to bad in a split second. That’s exactly what ended up happening as they decided not to split the second pairing of Rasmus Ristolainen and Travis Sanheim all season. They promoted Justin Braun back to the top pair with Ivan Provorov to reprise his role from the previous season and left the ageless wonder in Keith Yandle to partner up with whoever was playing that night. Yandle with Seeler or Connauton might’ve been the worst defensive pairing the Flyers have put on the ice in recent memory, Braun played well at the top for about a month before he expectedly got caught in no-man’s land playing top minutes against the opposition’s best, and Ristolainen and Sanheim took about a month to finally gel but once they did they instantly became the best pair, however that’s not saying much all things considered.
Stories broke out before the deadline about how Provorov and the Flyers might be parting ways or at the very least have a fractured relationship. The Russian rearguard reportedly is tough to coach, doesn’t take criticisms properly, and the team didn’t like how he threw them under the bus in a few interviews. Whether any of that is true, remains to be seen, however one thing we know is that Chuck Fletcher has been diligently working the phones for blockbuster trades regarding his defensemen. Several teams were sniffing around Provorov and Sanheim at the trade deadline, including the St. Louis Blues and the Los Angeles Kings. Fletcher announced during his post-trade deadline press conference that he has had talks with general managers about trades that would be completed over the summer and he’s working on the frameworks for those deals. He also specifically mentioned about carrying on with a core of players under the age of 25, specifically mentioning 25 several times, which is funny considering that Sanheim is 26 and Provorov and Travis Konecny are 25 and turning 26 years of age. If the Flyers believe another re-tool is the answer, then trading any member of that trio is going to happen and we all know how much Fletcher loves making “hockey trades”.
However, with news circulating that Ellis might not be ready for training camp or even next season, do the Flyers have to put the brakes on any trades they’re currently working on? The Flyers have yet to say what is wrong with Ellis, all we know is that it’s something to do with his lower-body. During Wednesday night’s TNT broadcast of the Flyers-Rangers game, Paul Bissonnette was speaking about Ellis and how he’s been out all season with a hip injury but then had to quickly stop and correct himself and say lower-body. There’s been murmurs all season long about his hip, but the Flyers have staunchly refused to specify the exact injury, how long he’ll be out for, and if he requires surgery or not. His injury went from day-to-day to week-to-week to out for the season with a one-game return sprinkled in the middle. One would have to assume that if he underwent surgery in November or even December, that he would be ready for training camp after rehabbing all summer long. Now that we enter the end-of-April doldrums, Ellis still hasn’t undergone surgery, the Flyers feel that surgery might not be necessary, and they’re taking it “week by week”. An odd stance to be taking with the regular season coming to an end, and there’s obviously so much more to this story than is being told but the Flyers have always kept a tight lip on injuries, even during Ron Hextall’s tenure.
At this point all we can do is speculate until our hair’s turn grey but trading Provorov and/or Sanheim has to be put on the back-burners for another year if Ellis isn’t ready for the training camp or next season. The Flyers are going to have to completely shift their attention to defensemen this summer and try to bring in the right depth pieces for when things go sour so they don’t have to rely on players like Seeler or Connauton to play big minutes and a handful of games but also trying to find a replacement for Ellis. That is going to be tough considering the market for top defensemen is astronomical if you can even find one available.
However, one thing we’ve learnt this season is that Provorov needs and deserves a better partner on the top pair, Sanheim and Ristolainen can be a dependable second pair if the top pair doesn’t falter and they’re not tasked to play upwards of 23-24 minutes, and trying to solidify the bottom pair is as crucial as trying to find a top pair defenseman. Those 12-14 minutes that are designated to the bottom pair are crucial minutes and we’ve seen how bad Yandle, Connauton, and Seeler have been together in those limited minutes.
Here’s hoping for a speedy recovery for Ryan Ellis and that he can make it for the opening night roster next season but with everything that is coming out; godspeed.
