- Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen continues to recover from tricep surgery that has sidelined him since March 26th of last season. In a positive update to his recovery timeline, Jordan Hall of NBC Sports Philadelphia reported that Ristolainen has resumed skating, albeit in a non-contact jersey. Ristolainen was initially given a six-month recovery timeline, suggesting he might be ready for the start of the 2025-26 season. He aims to build on a successful season before surgery, having scored four goals and 19 points in 63 games with the Flyers.
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Flyers Rumors
Metro Notes: Sillinger, Foerster, Flyers Rookies, Kolosov
Columbus Blue Jackets center prospect Owen Sillinger is expected to return from a February knee surgery early into the 2025-26 season, per Aaron Portzline of The Athletic. The Blue Jackets will hold him out of contact throughout the preseason to help ensure that target, general manager Don Waddell told Portzline.
Waddell’s wording suggests that Sillinger will begin ramping up his contact at practice beginning in the regular season. That timeline could make a return in the final week of October, or early November, a feasible target. He is almost certain to start the year on the AHL roster, after potting 11 goals and 29 points in a top-six role with the Cleveland Monsters last summer. That will be no slight to Sillinger though. He has served an important role on the Monsters throughout the last three seasons – and scored 11 goals in each year, despite fewer games every seasons. There will be a spot in the top-six held for Sillinger when he returns, and a hot return could quickly push him up Columbus’ call-up chart. If he gets moved to the NHL, he’ll regroup with younger brother Cole Sillinger, who has filled a role in the Blue Jackets’ top-nine for the last four seasons. Owen made his NHL debut last season, in a game that Cole sat out of due to injury.
Other notes from around the Metropolitan Division:
- Philadelphia Flyers forward Tyson Foerster is still on pace to be ready for the start of the season, president of hockey operations Keith Jones shared with Charlie O’Connor of PHLY Sports. Foerster sustained an elbow injury that got infected and required surgery while playing for Team Canada at the 2025 IIHF World Championship. He was the second-highest goal-scorer on the Flyers last season, with his 25 goals in 81 games falling one short of Matvei Michkov’s team-leading total. Foerster seems set to return to a top-six role throughout Philadelphia’s 2025-26 season. With this news, the Flyers can rest assured that he’s tracking to begin making that impact right out of the gates.
- The Philadelphia Flyers are confident that rookies Oliver Bonk, Denver Barkey, and Jett Luchanko will be ready for the start of training camp despite summer injuries, per Jackie Spiegel of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Spiegel points out that Luchanko faced a groin injury, Barkey faced a high ankle sprain, and Bonk faced bumps and bruises after a long 2024-25 season. All three players could have shots at making the 2025-26 roster. Luchanko made the Flyers out of training camp last season before returning to the OHL, while Barkey and Bonk went on runs to a Memorial Cup championship with the London Knights last season.
- During his press conference, “Jonesy” also shared that the Flyers are confident they’ll have goaltender Aleksei Kolosov at training camp this year, again captured by O’Connor. Kolosov spent the 2024-25 season split between the NHL and AHL rosters, after playing through his fourth and final season in the KHL in the year prior. Kolosov posted an .867 save percentage in 17 NHL games, and an .884 in 12 AHL games. He posted five wins in both leagues. It seems he’d be a reasonable bet to start the season as the AHL starter, though O’Connor points out that there’s no telling where his camp performance could land him. He’ll likely be competing with Samuel Ersson and Daniel Vladař for NHL minutes.
Prospect Notes: Luchanko, Yurov, Marrelli
Flyers top center prospect Jett Luchanko spent most of the summer rehabbing a groin issue, Jordan Hall of NBC Sports Philadelphia reports. It kept him out of development camp and, depending on where he’s at in his recovery, may cause him to miss a chunk of rookie camp as well before full training camp gets underway next week. The team remains hopeful he’ll be able to participate in rookie camp, Hall says, although it only kicks off in three days.
This training camp cycle is an important one for Luchanko, who surprised many by making Philly’s NHL roster out of camp last season – just one month after his 18th birthday. The 5’11” pivot was the 13th overall pick in the 2024 draft and, after going pointless in four games for the Flyers, returned to juniors. He had 56 points in 46 games for the OHL’s Guelph Storm before finishing the season with Philly’s AHL affiliate in Lehigh Valley, where he had six assists in seven playoff games.
That strong finish could be a stepping stone to another opening-night job for Luchanko, who the Flyers likely prefer to have in a professional environment based on their generous usage of him thus far in his development. That would mean another NHL stint – the proposed exception to the NHL-CHL transfer agreement that bars him from reporting to Lehigh Valley on a full-time basis isn’t expected to be approved before the start of the season.
There’s more on some other notable NHL up-and-comers:
- On the heels of signing his entry-level contract and his anticipated NHL debut this fall, Wild 2022 first-rounder Danila Yurov spoke to The Athletic’s Michael Russo about his offseason preparation. The 21-year-old forward arrived in North America from Russia in mid-July and has been living in New York with one of his U.S.-based agents, he said. He’s been making friends and training with several NY-based NHLers, including Ducks marquee trade pickup Chris Kreider and star Rangers defenseman Adam Fox. The lengthy acclimation period will hopefully boost his chances of making an impact in his rookie season after posting a 34-40–74 scoring line in 108 KHL games with Metallurg Magnitogorsk over the past two seasons.
- Blue Jackets defense prospect Luca Marrelli will be out until at least mid-December after having offseason shoulder surgery to repair a labrum tear, general manager Don Waddell told Aaron Portzline of The Athletic. The 19-year-old righty signed his entry-level contract midway through last season and, thanks to his October birthday, will be making his pro debut with AHL Cleveland whenever he returns to health. A 2024 third-round pick, he had an offensive explosion with OHL Oshawa last season, posting 74 points in 67 games before leading his team in playoff scoring with a 6-30–36 line in just 21 appearances. He was named to the CHL’s Third All-Star Team, the OHL’s Second All-Star Team, and led the league in playoff assists.
Flyers, Kraken Swap Jon-Randall Avon, Tucker Robertson
The Flyers acquired forward Tucker Robertson from the Kraken for forward Jon-Randall Avon, the teams announced. The pair of prospects will now report to their new teams’ training camp in a couple of weeks.
It amounts to a swap of lower-tier prospects who haven’t quite panned out as their clubs hoped. They’re both entering their age-22 seasons, born just a handful of days apart in the summer of 2003.
It’s particularly unsurprising to see the Kraken move on from Robertson. He was a fourth-round pick in 2022 after going undrafted in 2021, a season he missed entirely due to the pandemic. But despite producing over a point per game for the OHL’s Peterborough Petes in 2021-22 and 2022-23, he hasn’t been able to find any sustained offensive success in the pros.
Robertson never graded out as a top-10 or even top-15 prospect in Seattle’s system. He split his first pro season in 2023-24 between AHL Coachella Valley and ECHL Kansas City but found himself on the AHL roster full-time in 2024-25. Unfortunately, that didn’t come with much playing time. He only got into around half of Coachella Valley’s games, recording a 4-5–9 scoring line in 38 games. The 5’10”, 190-lb center now has 10 goals and 19 points in 77 career AHL games over the last two years.
Avon, whom the Flyers signed as an undrafted free agent in 2021, has seen moderately more offensive success. He was teammates with Robertson in junior hockey with Peterborough and made the jump to the pros at the same time. The stepson of former Blackhawks star Steve Larmer has stuck around as a depth piece with Philly’s AHL affiliate in Lehigh Valley for the last two years, putting together a 16-19–35 scoring line with a -22 rating in 125 games. He’s taller but lankier than Robertson at 6’0″ and 174 lbs.
Since Avon’s ELC slid twice before going into effect, both he and Robertson are entering the final seasons of their contracts. They’ll be restricted free agents next summer with neither being eligible for arbitration.
Flyers, Others Interested In Signing Carter Hart; No Updates On Eligibility
According to a new article from The Fourth Period, David Pagnotta reports that the Philadelphia Flyers and several other teams are interested in signing Hart, awaiting the NHL’s decision on his eligibility. Regardless of the NHL’s eventual ruling, it is notable that nearly two years have passed since Hart and the other four players participated in competitive hockey, making it almost impossible to project their future value.
Before stepping away from the Flyers during the 2023-24 season, Hart had enjoyed a relatively successful career at the NHL level. The former 48th overall pick of the 2016 NHL Draft had spent six years in Philadelphia before that point, managing a 96-93-29 record in 218 starts with a .906 SV% and 2.94 GAA. Meanwhile, despite being outed in Round Two by the New York Islanders, Hart’s first trip through the postseason in 2020 was a bright spot in his career, collecting a 9-5-0 record in 14 games with a .926 SV% and 2.23 GAA.
- After spending the last 16 years within the Flyers organization as both player and coach, Ian Laperrière is finally moving on. Earlier today, Anthony Di Marco of the DailyFaceoff reported that Laperrière is joining the Islanders as a professional scout. Seeking the head coaching position of the Flyers this summer, Laperrière was removed from his post as head coach of the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms, but retained by the Flyers as an advisor. Regardless, Laperrière has finally decided to leave the organization altogether.
Are The Flyers Close To Turning The Corner On Their Rebuild?
It feels like the Philadelphia Flyers have been in a perpetual rebuild for the last decade, but really, it’s been two separate attempts at a rebuild. This most recent edition essentially kicked off in March of 2023 when prior Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher was fired and replaced by current GM Daniel Briere.
Flyers fans might not have had much to cheer about the past ten years; however, that window of futility is beginning to close, and a new window, one of opportunity, is starting to open. The issue for the Flyers, and this could be one for their cross-state rivals, the Pittsburgh Penguins, is that they don’t have those high-impact top-end young assets, which will hurt their ability to build around their young pieces.
That’s not to say that the Flyers have failed their rebuild, but their prospect pool isn’t overly impressive for a team that has been in what feels like a forever rebuild and is currently ranked 18th overall by The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler, although that was before their 2025 draft haul. Some fans might have concerns about a repeat of the Flyers’ last rebuild that Ron Hextall oversaw, but Briere appears to be more assertive than Hextall and likely won’t be so passive when it comes to building the team he wants.
Now, in fairness to the Flyers’ prospect ranking, they have graduated a couple of terrific prospects to the NHL already, in Bobby Brink and Matvei Michkov, which lowers their ranking. They also had several players age out of Wheeler’s rankings, making it somewhat premature to say that the pool is devoid of future talent.
That being said, if you look down the Flyers’ NHL roster, there isn’t a lot of talent under the age of 25, and the rebuild seems to lack the cohesiveness that some of the better rebuilds and retools have shown. When a team like the Pittsburgh Penguins emerged from the basement of the NHL standings, they did so with two significant waves of talent entering the NHL full-time in back-to-back summers.
Sidney Crosby didn’t start his NHL career alone; he was joined by Marc-Andre Fleury, Ryan Whitney, and Maxime Talbot. The following season, Evgeni Malkin, Jordan Staal, and Kris Letang arrived, and the Penguins remained in the Stanley Cup picture for the next decade.
The Flyers don’t seem to have such waves of talent inflows in their rebuild, which is certainly not ideal. That isn’t to say that Philadelphia can’t or won’t go through a rebuild like that.
Still, it does seem like the waves of talent are becoming fewer and farther between, which could delay the process and lead to a few more years of struggles for the Flyers before they finally turn the corner. The 2025-26 season could get ugly in Philly, as they still lack solid goaltending and have gaps all over their roster.
There will, however, be signs of hope this season as Jett Luchanko, Oliver Bonk, Alex Bump, and Nikita Grebenkin will likely all compete for NHL roster spots, which should lead to some exciting competition. Speaking of fun, bringing in Trevor Zegras from the Anaheim Ducks was one of the most entertaining moves of the summer and could make for great theater if Zegras can get close to the form he showed a few years ago.
Injuries and inconsistency have lowered the 24-year-old’s trade value, and the Flyers managed to acquire him cheaply from the Ducks. If he can return to his 2021-22 level, the Flyers will have the chance to sign Zegras long-term and make him part of their future, or trade him for a better return than what they sent to Anaheim.
The trade was a smart move for Briere, who was aggressive in acquiring the talented forward. It’s possible that the deal doesn’t work out, but since Philadelphia gave up so little (Ryan Poehling, a 2025 second-round pick, and a 2026 fourth-round pick), it was worth the risk.
The other significant move the Flyers made this summer was hiring former Flyers player and Jack Adams Award winner Rick Tocchet as Philadelphia’s new bench boss. Tocchet, who has won two Stanley Cups as an assistant, should bring some structure and accountability to the Flyers, which was missing last season.
Tocchet’s relationship with Zegras will be interesting to watch develop, as he has a history of getting through to talented players who may not be interested in playing two-way hockey. In Pittsburgh, Tocchet was respected as Mike Sullivan’s go-between when it came to Phil Kessel, and those years in Pittsburgh were some of Kessel’s best NHL seasons, with likely some of the credit going to Tocchet.
Aside from those two major moves, the Flyers stayed quiet this summer. They made only depth signings with Christian Dvorak (one-year deal), Dan Vladar (two-year contract), Noah Juulsen (one-year deal), Dennis Gilbert (one-year deal), and Lane Pederson (one-year deal). These signings won’t propel the Flyers into the playoff race, but they will strengthen the team’s depth and give some of the younger prospects more time to develop in the pro ranks.
Despite all the changes, this season will probably still be a tough one for the Flyers since they lack enough young players to step up and compete in the Eastern Conference. And that’s okay; in fact, it could work out well for the Flyers if they start to rise while the New York Rangers and Islanders begin to leave their peak years.
The Flyers are in the later stages of their rebuild, but it’s still too early to call it the home stretch, as they await another wave or two of quality prospects that will form the next core.
Photo by Nick Wosika-Imagn Images
Morning Notes: Blues, Fedorov, Ciernik
Aside from 2023 10th overall pick Dalibor Dvorsky, forwards Aleksanteri Kaskimäki and Dylan Peterson have the best chance among the Blues’ young AHL-bound prospects of seeing NHL ice at some point this season, Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic relays.
Both are coming off their first full minor-league season with Springfield, although Kaskimäki is the younger one. The 21-year-old Finnish pivot was a third-rounder in 2022 and adjusted well to North American ice in his first season stateside, tying for fifth on the team in scoring with an 11-23–34 line in 63 games.
Peterson, two years Kaskimäki’s senior as a 2020 third-rounder, was in his first pro season altogether after four years at Boston University. The 6’4″ center/winger is more of a checking piece than a scorer – evidenced by his 82 PIMs – but still managed 13 tallies in 52 appearances for the Thunderbirds.
Rutherford posits they’ll have the upper hand over some potentially higher-ceiling scoring options like 2023 No. 25 pick Otto Stenberg, who only arrived in Springfield midway through last season. The organization would like to give him some more runway in the minors before considering him for a call-up.
More from around the hockey world:
- More than 20 years after his last game for the team, the Red Wings announced today they’ll be retiring Sergei Fedorov’s No. 91 before their game on Jan. 12 against the Hurricanes. Fedorov, perhaps the most high-profile member of Detroit’s ’Russian Five,’ sits fourth in franchise history in points per game (1.05), and his cumulative +276 rating is the best of any Red Wings forward. He was a defining member of Detroit’s 1997, 1998, and 2002 championship teams and also won a pair of Selke Trophies and a Hart, twice cracking the 100-point threshold in the process.
- Flyers prospect Alex Čiernik is hoping to continue to re-energize his development after getting past some injury troubles, he told Jackie Spiegel of the Philadelphia Inquirer. The 2023 fourth-rounder signed on with Pelicans in Finland’s Liiga for the upcoming season – his first in a top-flight European pro league – and will be coached by former Flyers forward and development coach Sami Kapanen. He scored 23 points in 46 games last season for Nybrö Vikings IF in Sweden’s second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan after missing most of his post-draft season due to multiple head injuries.
How Can Konecny Take The Next Step For Flyers?
Philadelphia Flyers forward Travis Konecny is coming off a career-high 76-point season, but the 28-year-old will need to clear one final hurdle to truly elevate his game to the next level, writes the Hockey News’ Jonathan Bailey.
Konecny is coming off of a bit of a two-part season. He started 2024-25 with a bang, which included 17 goals in his first 38 games. However, he struggled mightily down the stretch, posting just seven goals in his final 44 games. What’s more, he was only able to light the lamp twice over the final 25 games of the season. Despite those struggles during the second half, Konecny (who skated in all 82 games and participated in the 4 Nations Face-Off), still finished with a career-high 0.927 points per game.
However, as Bailey sees it, Konecny will need to surpass the point-per-game mark to truly enter the conversation among the league’s elite. By doing so, Konecny will likely maintain consistent play throughout the season. While the 4 Nations Face-Off may have slowed Konecny’s steam down the stretch, his hope to participate with Team Canada in the 2026 Olympics will force a similar situation next season.
Elsewhere in the Eastern Conference:
- While the organization has taken several steps forward in recent seasons, the New Jersey Devils believe they are now ready to truly compete for the Stanley Cup. Per NHL.com’s Mike G. Morreale, New Jersey assistant general manager Dan MacKinnon said, “To put it succinctly, it’s time to take another step.” MacKinnon acknowledged that injuries played a role down the stretch last season, which ended with a five-game, first-round loss to the Carolina Hurricanes. Injuries last season included Jack Hughes missing the remainder of the year after undergoing shoulder surgery in March, as well as defensemen Luke Hughes and Brenden Dillon going down in Game 1 of the playoffs. All three are expected to be ready to go to start next season, and the additions of veterans like Connor Brown and Evgenii Dadonov should only help the cause. “I think the one thing we were looking for is better 5-on-5 play, and you look at the goal totals of Brown and Dadonov, a majority come at 5-on-5,” said GM Tom Fitzgerald. “We feel we’ve definitely added to what we felt we needed in depth. But, again, you want players to level out and be consistent with their play from October to the end of the season.”
- Forward Trevor Kuntar, 24, signed a one-year deal with the Buffalo Sabres’ AHL affiliate, the Rochester Americans, seeking not only a fresh start but also the opportunity to follow in his father’s footsteps and play for his hometown team, per team reporter Andrew Mossbrooks. Kuntar, a native of the Buffalo area, signed with Rochester after spending the last two seasons in the Boston Bruins organization. After three seasons at Boston College, Kuntar signed with the Boston and appeared in 124 games with the AHL’s Providence Bruins, posting 13 goals and 32 points. Kuntar is now set to wear the same jersey his father, Les Kuntar, wore for Rochester during the 1996-97 season.
Players Who Could Start The Season On LTIR
While only a handful of teams project to need cap relief via long-term injured reserve to open the season, multiple candidates across the league might technically qualify for a placement. Doing so would bar the player from returning until Oct. 31 at the earliest – 24 days from the season start date of Oct. 7.
Avalanche: Logan O’Connor
O’Connor underwent hip surgery in early June. Given the five-to-six-month projected recovery window, he won’t be available until early November at best, putting him past the 10-game/24-day threshold required for LTIR. Colorado, which has $2.10MM in current cap space, will likely place O’Connor on standard IR if they don’t make any other cap-affecting moves between now and October. If they need the relief, though, they could create up to O’Connor’s $2.5MM cap hit in cushion for the first few weeks of the season if they need it.
Blues: Torey Krug
St. Louis general manager Doug Armstrong announced in May that Krug’s career is done because of pre-arthritic conditions in his left ankle that surgical intervention only slowly corrected. Since the Blues only have around $625K in cap space, Krug and his $6.5MM cap hit will be going on LTIR as soon as they need the flexibility for a call-up.
Canadiens: Carey Price
What’s certain is that Price won’t play this season or ever again. He’s entering the final season of his contract at a $10.5MM cap hit after confirming nearly two years ago that his knee injury would prohibit him from suiting up again. What’s uncertain is whether or not he’ll begin the season on LTIR. Montreal isn’t in a great position to optimize its LTIR relief, either by matching his cap hit in excess or getting down to $0 in space before placing him on the list. That’s made his contract a trade chip for teams who might need the relief more.
Devils: Johnathan Kovacevic
Kovacevic underwent knee surgery in early May and won’t be ready for training camp and likely opening night as well. Whether that stretches past Oct. 31 and makes him eligible for an LTIR placement if New Jersey needs cap relief early on remains to be seen.
Flyers: Ryan Ellis, Rasmus Ristolainen
Ellis’ career is over after sustaining a wide-ranging muscular injury in his pelvis just four games into his Flyers tenure in 2021. Ristolainen underwent a procedure on his right triceps tendon on March 26 with a six-month recovery time, putting him right on the edge of potential LTIR eligibility. Philly will have a better idea of the latter’s LTIR deployment potential after he undergoes his training camp physical. With $370K in cap space, they’re in a good position for near-max LTIR capture and will almost certainly at least place Ellis there to begin the year to give them call-up flexibility.
Golden Knights: Alex Pietrangelo
Pietrangelo is already on offseason LTIR, meaning the Knights actually still have to add an additional $1.2MM to their roster before opening night to optimize his capture and unlock his full $8.8MM cap hit’s worth of relief for this season. The team confirmed he requires multiple undisclosed but significant surgeries that will likely mark the end of his playing career, but it’s unclear if he’s actually had them done yet.
Jets: Adam Lowry
Lowry underwent hip surgery in late May and won’t be available until after Thanksgiving at the earliest. Winnipeg likely won’t be formalizing an LTIR placement with nearly $4MM in cap space, though.
Mammoth: Juuso Välimäki
Välimäki underwent ACL surgery in early March. He likely won’t end up on LTIR given Utah’s current cap flexibility ($6.68MM), but he’ll be out until at least early November so he’ll be there as an early-season option in case they need relief for whatever reason.
Oilers: Zach Hyman
Hyman’s inclusion here is on the speculative side. The winger could very well be ready for the start of the season. However, there hasn’t been much clarity on how much recovery he still needs after undergoing surgery to repair a severe wrist injury that kept him out of the Stanley Cup Final. A report in early June indicated there was uncertainty about his status for training camp, with no meaningful updates since then.
Panthers: Matthew Tkachuk
Tkachuk told ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski earlier this month that he’s still deciding whether he wants to undergo surgery to address the adductor issue that hampered him down the stretch and in the playoffs after sustaining it at the 4 Nations Face-Off. All signs point to him opting for it and spending the next two to three months on the shelf as a result, though. Placing him on LTIR is the only way the Panthers, who currently have a cap exceedance of $3.725MM, can be compliant to start the season without shedding a significant contract, something they aren’t keen to do.
Wild: Jonas Brodin
Minnesota has $9.41MM in cap space, but that number will shrink once they re-sign restricted free agent Marco Rossi (or add salary while trading his signing rights). Neither scenario will likely push them into a situation where they need to use LTIR relief, but they might have Brodin and his $6MM cap hit as an option for some short-term flexibility if required. He underwent an upper-body procedure in early June and is questionable for the beginning of the season, so it’s not yet clear if he’ll miss enough time to qualify.
Flyers Believe Tyson Foerster Will Be Ready For Opening Night
Flyers general manager Daniel Brière believes winger Tyson Foerster “should be ready for the season,” he told Bill Meltzer of NHL.com and Hockey Hot Stove.
Foerster had an elbow surgery earlier in the offseason aimed at addressing an infection he developed following an injury sustained while playing for Canada at the World Championship. Brière told Meltzer that “everything looks good right now” in terms of Foerster’s recovery, signaling the results of his reported follow-up MRI in late July were promising.
That knowledge may have played a small part in their joint decision to have 2025 top pick Porter Martone make the jump to NCAA hockey with Michigan State this season instead of having him compete for an NHL job in camp. A Foerster absence in camp and at the beginning of the regular season would have opened up another opportunity for one of the Flyers’ myriad young wingers to get a taste of NHL action, but if the team is anticipating him being available, that’s a top-six job they no longer need to worry about for the first few weeks of the year.
Getting a healthy Foerster out of the gate is a crucial step toward any postseason hopes the Flyers have. The 23-year-old is fresh off a career-high 25-goal season – second on Philly last year behind star rookie Matvei Michkov – and signed a two-year, $7.5MM extension in May to keep him away from restricted free agency. He’ll be penciled into a top-six role, which could be on a line with captain Sean Couturier or offseason trade pickup Trevor Zegras if he’s deployed down the middle.