The Philadelphia Flyers announced today that forward Nicolas Deslauriers has been placed on injured reserve with an upper-body injury. The move is retroactive to Deslauriers’ last game on November 9th, allowing Philadelphia to activate him as soon as he returns to full health. Deslauriers left the team’s practice on Wednesday, after re-aggravating his injury on a blocked shot. General manager Daniel Briere dubbed him as day-to-day, the same designation provided to defender Jamie Drysdale (upper-body) and goaltender Samuel Ersson (lower-body), who are both working their way back from an IR placement of their own. Both Drysdsale and Ersson have returned to Philadelphia’s practices in full. Deslauriers’ move to IR would open the necessary roster space for the Flyers to activate both Drysdale and Ersson, should they be back to game shape soon.
Deslauriers has been a routine healthy scratch this season, making it hard to distinguish between when he’s missed games due to injury versus coaching decisions. He hasn’t had any notable stat changes through his last five games – spanning from late October to November 9th – recording just one point and two shots on goal while averaging under 6 minutes of ice time a game. Even his bruiser tendencies are tapering out, with one fighting major standing as Deslauriers’ only penalty through seven games – a far cry from the 136 penalty minutes he managed in a full 2022-23 season. His return won’t shake up the Flyers’ lineup too much, but the same can’t be said about Drysdale and Ersson – who will each return to position groups much more contested than when they left.
Ersson will have the toughest battle, looking to regain ground on Ivan Fedotov and Aleksei Kolosov – who have split starts in the former’s absence. Philadelphia has improved their average goals-against per-game from 3.56 to 3.10 since Ersson suffered his injury on November 11th. They still rank in the bottom-half of the league in goals-allowed, but the improvement under their Russian and Belarussian tandem has been a welcome surprise, especially considering Ersson is the only Flyers netminder with a save percentage above .900. He sits at a .902 through 11 games this season, while Kolosov boasts a .882 in eight games, and Fedotov a .877 in 10 games. Those numbers, and Ersson’s 5-2-2 record on the season, should be enough to slot the Swede back into Philadelphia’s starting role – though the position will likely be much more of a committee after his absence.
Meanwhile, Drysdale’s absence has provided Yegor Zamula his own chance to earn a role. Zamula recorded his first goal and multi-point game of the season five games ago – with a two-point effort against Buffalo – but hasn’t managed any scoring since. Still, he’s rotated through the defense – playing as little as 13 minutes or as much as 20 minutes depending on the game. The 24-year-old sits with six points, a -10, and no penalties through 18 games this season – while averaging roughly 16 minutes of ice time per game. Those numbers are, again, not much to write home about – but they’re comparable improvements to the three points, -10, and one penalty that Drysdale recorded in 15 games before injury. He’s averaging over 20 minutes of ice time each game, and could quickly return to that role once fully healed – but Zamula’s persistence and lineup flexibility will create some tough decisions for head coach John Tortorella. Philadelphia acquired Drysdale and a 2025 second-round pick from Anaheim for top forward prospect Cutter Gauthier last season. Gauthier has followed the theatrical trade with three goals and 11 points in 24 games this season.
