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Ryan Ellis

Snapshots: Forsberg, Ellis, Jets

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Nashville Predators’ general manager recently publically announced that he had offered Filip Forsberg an eight-year deal to stay in town and avoid free agency, and now Forsberg’s agent has done the same. JP Barry told Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK TV that they are talking about an eight-year deal and though he noted they are not yet in agreement on salary, the two sides are grinding away at it.

The Predators are the only team that is allowed to offer Forsberg an eight-year deal at the moment, and even that right will expire in two weeks when free agency begins. The 40-goal winger will turn 28 in August, meaning a contract of that length would take him well into his mid-thirties and potentially represent the final big payday of his career.

  • Ryan Ellis has played in just four games for the Philadelphia Flyers since they acquired him in the summer of 2021 and that total may not increase for a while. When speaking with media including Charlie O’Connor of The Athletic, general manager Chuck Fletcher explained that there is still plenty of work to do in Ellis’ rehab and would not confirm that the veteran defenseman will be ready for the start of the season. Ellis, who was acquired for Philippe Myers and Nolan Patrick, has five years remaining on his contract and carries a cap hit of $6.25MM.
  • The Winnipeg Jets had an option as part of the Andrew Copp trade to take either the St. Louis Blues 2022 second-round pick or the New York Rangers 2023 second. They’ve chosen the former, relays Murat Ates of The Athletic, which will be the 55th overall selection this year. While the 2023 draft is generally considered deeper, the Jets obviously feel as though it is more beneficial to get a player into their system right away.

Snapshots: Ellis, PHF, Kane

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It’s been a trying year for Ryan Ellis, who played just four games for the Philadelphia Flyers after a trade from the only organization he had ever known previously. Injured, recovered, and injured again, the 31-year-old has basically lost an entire season, while watching his new team go down in flames. Now, the speculation over his future in Philadelphia is starting to ramp up, with a report today from Anthony Di Marco of The Fourth Period, who writes that some within the Flyers “wonder if Ellis even wants to be part of the organization.”

There has certainly been some confusion around where the veteran defenseman stands in his current recovery, as in late March, more than four months after he last appeared in a game, general manager Chuck Fletcher told reporters that they were still making a decision on whether Ellis needed surgery. Of course, with five years remaining on his contract and carrying a $6.25MM cap hit, Ellis is one of the most important players the Flyers have and one that is integral to any thoughts of competing for the playoffs next season.

  • The PHF has announced that free agency will open May 1 and this year will not include an entry draft. Instead, all amateur athletes graduating from NCAA and USports programs will immediately qualify for unrestricted free agency. The salary cap has also been confirmed to be set at $750K for this season, with a floor of $562.5K, and players are now eligible to sign two-year contracts which can include signing bonuses up to 10 percent of the total value. These increases all come following a massive private investment earlier in the year, which has also allowed the league to provide comprehensive benefit plans.
  • Evander Kane’s grievance hearing was started yesterday but will require a second day, according to Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic. Unfortunately, that doesn’t come right away, and the second day is still to be determined. As suggested yesterday, the outcome of this grievance is still not expected for some time and should not have any effect on Kane’s current contractual status with the Edmonton Oilers.

Ryan Ellis Out For Rest Of Season

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The Philadelphia Flyers received less than 100 minutes of ice time from Ryan Ellis this season. The veteran defenseman has been ruled out for the rest of the season, Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher told reporters including Charlie O’Connor of The Athletic. Though he still wouldn’t reveal details on the injury, Fletcher noted that they are still making a decision on whether Ellis needs surgery.

While this should come as no surprise, given how the year has gone for Philadelphia, Ellis’ first season with the team is now completely lost. The 31-year-old appeared in just four games, the last coming on November 13. He actually recorded points in each of those appearances, exactly the kind of frustrating teaser that Flyers fans don’t want to think about after a season that has been marred by injury after injury, and is ending with the captain and face of their franchise traded to an Eastern Conference rival.

Acquired for Nolan Patrick and Philippe Myers in the offseason–two players who have also disappointed–Ellis was supposed to be the right-handed answer in Philadelphia, finally replacing the two-way play that they had lacked on that side since Matt Niskanen’s unexpected retirement. He had, after all, played that role to perfection for many seasons in Nashville, offering 40-point upside while contributing in all situations.

Unfortunately, the Flyers are now looking at a player on the wrong side of 30, signed for five more seasons, that carries a $6.25MM cap hit and has missed essentially an entire year due to injury. It’s not at all clear what level of play Ellis will be able to provide next season, especially should they decide on surgery.

Still, the Flyers aren’t really looking at a rebuild, despite moving on from Claude Giroux and some other expiring pieces. The team re-signed Rasmus Ristolainen to a long-term deal and have talked about how Fletcher will be given a “blank check” to fix the team. Should Ellis return to his previous form, it will be a huge boost to the lineup, though at this point even a recovery timeline is not certain.

Philadelphia Flyers Add Sean Couturier, Ryan Ellis To COVID Protocol

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The Philadelphia Flyers announced Sunday that center Sean Couturier was placed in the NHL’s COVID protocol on December 21, while defenseman Ryan Ellis and two staff members entered protocol today.

There are now five Flyers skaters in COVID protocol, joining forwards Kevin Hayes, Morgan Frost, and Max Willman.

Couturier, after hovering near a point-per-game pace for the last three seasons, has just six goals and 11 assists for 17 points in 29 games this year (0.59 points per game). Despite that, he’s still averaging over 20 minutes of ice time per game and is steady as ever defensively.

Ellis was already out of the lineup with a lower-body injury, but was expected to return around the holiday break. Injuries have limited him to just four games this season, his first with the Flyers after arriving via trade from the Nashville Predators.

Couturier will miss the next two of Philadelphia’s games and could be eligible to return on New Years Day against the Los Angeles Kings. Ellis, as he was just added today, will miss more time. If healthy, he could return on January 6 against the Pittsburgh Penguins, missing the team’s next four games at the least.

Ryan Ellis Out 4-6 Weeks

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Nov 18: Vigneault gave an updated timeline for Ellis today, telling reporters including Sam Carchidi of the Philadelphia Inquirer that the defenseman will miss four to six weeks. The plan right now is rehab, not surgery.

Nov 15: The Philadelphia Flyers got Ryan Ellis back for less than 19 minutes of ice time. The veteran defenseman re-injured himself in Saturday’s game and is now out week-to-week, according to head coach Alain Vigneault.

It’s a brutal setback for one of the Flyers’ big offseason acquisitions, who has played extremely well whenever he’s been healthy enough to do so. Ellis has five points in four games on the year but now faces another uncertain timeline for his return. The team has had a very up-and-down season so far, with a 7-4-2 record through 13 games. They’ve looked both like a tight-checking contender (with strong goaltending to boot) and a disorganized mess at times, flip-flopping through performances like the ones they had at Carolina and Dallas the last two games. Losing Ellis, who was expected to step into a huge role on the back end, means that there will be more shuffling to try and figure out the best lineup moving forward.

Not only is this a concern for this season, but Ellis has certainly not been a model of health over the last several seasons. In 2017-18 he missed half the year following knee surgery, in 2019-20 he spent nearly two months on injured reserve after suffering a concussion in the Winter Classic, and last season played just 35 games after shattering his knuckle. While those are obviously very separate incidents, it’s been a tough go for the 30-year-old defenseman.

When the Flyers acquired him, Ellis was seen as a potential fixture on the blueline for the next half-decade. His contract, which carries a $6.25MM cap hit, extends through 2026-27. A supremely talented two-way defender, the Flyers will have to hope he can get back on the ice in the coming weeks to start paying dividends on that deal.

Injury Updates: Malkin, Toews, Forsberg, Ellis

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The injury and COVID-riddled Penguins have been without center Evgeni Malkin all season as he works his way back from offseason knee surgery.  Speaking with Mike DeFabo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, GM Ron Hextall indicated that the 35-year-old has been skating basically daily and is on track in his recovery.  However, despite that promising news, the team is unable to provide an update on how much longer Malkin will be out of the lineup.  The original announcement was that he’d miss the first two months of the season at a minimum so an updated timeline may still be a couple of weeks away.

Other injury notes from around the NHL:

  • Devon Toews could be making his return to Colorado’s lineup soon as Niki Ardebili of the Avalanche’s team site notes that the hope is that the blueliner will be activated and make his season debut on Saturday against Columbus. Toews averaged just shy of 25 minutes a game last season for the Avs and would be a timely addition to their back end with Cale Makar now on IR.
  • The Predators have listed (Twitter link) winger Filip Forsberg as week-to-week with an upper-body injury. The veteran suffered the injury in the third period of Tuesday’s game versus Calgary.  Forsberg is in the final year of his contract and is eligible for unrestricted free agency this coming summer so an extended absence certainly wouldn’t help his value.  The 27-year-old was off to a nice start before the injury with seven points in nine games to start his season.
  • Flyers defenseman Ryan Ellis has been ruled out of their next two games, relays Jordan Hall of NBC Sports Philadelphia. Originally hoped to not miss any time, this will be the sixth and seventh games that the 30-year-old has missed as a result of his lower-body injury.

Metropolitan Notes: Bean, Brown, Ellis, Varlamov

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After having a limited role in Carolina last season, there were rumblings that Jake Bean had asked to be traded.  The blueliner told Aaron Portzline of The Athletic (subscription link) that while his camp indicated to the Hurricanes that they felt a fresh start would be beneficial, it wasn’t a formal trade request.  After he was left unprotected in expansion, it was widely anticipated he’d be picked by Seattle but that didn’t happen.  Instead, Bean was moved to the Blue Jackets at the draft and signed a three-year, $7MM deal after.  The 23-year-old is logging more than 21 minutes a game so far this season, more than seven minutes higher than his ATOI with Carolina last year.  After being unsure about what his role would have been if he had stayed with the team that drafted him, Bean is getting plenty of ice time in Columbus.

More from the Metropolitan:

  • Flyers winger Patrick Brown has recovered from his bout with COVID-19 and was cleared to rejoin the team at practice on Friday. However, as Sam Carchidi of the Philadelphia Inquirer points out, the recent waiver claim from Vegas won’t be able to travel with the team at the start of their Canadian road trip.  While he has cleared NHL protocol for the number of days since a positive test, Canada’s timeline is a little longer so Brown will have to travel separately next week once he reaches the 14-day mark.
  • Still with the Flyers, defenseman Ryan Ellis will miss tonight’s game due to a lower-body issue, notes Olivia Reiner of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Ellis had been missing practices with a lower-body injury but head coach Alain Vigneault indicated that he’s unsure if this injury is related to that one.  He’s expected to be available to play on their upcoming road trip and is listed as day-to-day.
  • The undisclosed injury that held Islanders goalie Semyon Varlamov out of training camp will sideline him for at least the next two games, relays Newsday’s Andrew Gross (Twitter link). Ilya Sorokin is off to a tough start to his second season having allowed 14 goals in his first four appearances but will be counted on as the starter for a little while longer at least.

Snapshots: Strome, Ekholm, Giroux

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The inevitable departure of Sabres star Jack Eichel? The sudden availability of young Ranger Vitali Kravtsov? A victim of one of a number of unresolved roster crunches? Any of these situations could provide the first trade of the 2021-22 season, but at least one insider believes the first deal of the year could come elsewhere. TSN’s Pierre LeBrun reports that the Chicago Blackhawks are quietly shopping center Dylan Strome as they look to manage their surplus at center. With Jonathan Toews healthy and back in the lineup, the off-season acquisition of Tyler Johnson, and the presence down the middle of top prospect Kirby Dach as well as fellow youngsters Henrik Borgstrom and Mackenzie Entwistle, the Blackhawks suddenly find themselves with centers to spare and LeBrun notes that Strome appears to be the odd man out. At just 24 years old and still clinging to the draft pedigree of being the No. 3 overall pick in 2015, Strome has shown flashes of NHL greatness, but not enough consistency to establish himself as a concrete top-six player. Strome is on an expiring contract and will be a restricted free agent this summer and it looks as if his next contract will not be in Chicago. Interested teams have incentive to add Strome sooner rather than later to get a full-season look prior to negotiating that next deal, while LeBrun notes that the Blackhawks also want to make a move as soon as possible. The result could be a trade in a matter of days rather than weeks. The real question is whether Chicago will land a return commensurate with the Strome who recorded 51 points in 58 games in 2019-20 or if instead the lucky buyer can buy low on the skilled pivot given his 17 points in 40 games last year.

  • Who might be the first major impending UFA to sign a long-term extension this season? The Nashville Predators sure hope that the answer will be Mattias Ekholm. The Predators spurned trade offers for Ekholm last season and doubled down on their loyalty and reliance on the two-way defender when they moved Ryan Ellis this off-season, yet Ekholm is still playing on an expiring contract. Ekholm’s camp has stated that they will not negotiate a new deal during the season, so the clock is ticking for GM David Poile and company to come to terms on a critical contract. Fortunately for the Predators, LeBrun reports that both sides have been working hard over the past few days to hammer out the details of an extension. With Nashville beginning their season on Thursday, Ekholm will either re-sign in the next 48 hours or possibly not at all. It will be a long season for the Predators if the future of the top defender is in doubt all year.
  • Claude Giroux is in a similar situation with the Philadelphia Flyers as a career member of the franchise playing on an expiring deal. However, no contract is imminent for the Philly captain. LeBrun states that both sides have come to a mutual agreement to wait on extension talks until after the season, quite possibly setting up a separation between the veteran and his squad. It is hard to argue that Giroux is not still a star even at 33; he has scored at just about a point-per-game clip over the past four years and has only missed two games in that span as well. Yet, the Flyers could see his salary cap space as better used on younger assets as they continue to remake their roster. How both Giroux and Philadelphia perform this season will dictate their relationship moving forward.

Ryan Ellis, Phillippe Myers, Nolan Patrick, Cody Glass Swapped In Three-Team Trade

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Talk about going out with a bang. Just before the NHL entered a transaction freeze that lasts through Wednesday’s Expansion Draft, the Nashville Predators, Philadelphia Flyers, and Vegas Golden Knights completed a trade with a slew of big names. Nashville sent career Predator Ryan Ellis to Philadelphia in exchange for fellow defenseman Philippe Myers and center Nolan Patrick, the No. 2 overall pick in 2017. The Predators then flipped Patrick to Vegas for another young center, Cody Glass, the No. 6 overall pick in 2017. Per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, this is a purely player-for-player trade with no picks or prospects changing hands.

At first glance, the biggest winner in this trade has to be the Flyers. While Nashville was exploring trading one of five defensemen that they would have liked to protect from expansion, Ellis was not considered to be a likely trade candidate. The 30-year-old right-hander has been an elite defenseman for the better part of the last decade with the Predators, playing big minutes and producing impressive point totals all while playing a sound defensive game. Admittedly, Ellis does carry some concerns, including an offensive drop-off this season, an injury history, and a contract with six years and $37.5MM remaining. However, at least in the short-term, he is an outstanding addition to the Flyers’ defense corps. Their core objective this off-season was to find a mate for Ivan Provorov on the top pair and that is now complete.

It is hard to take issue with the cost paid by the Flyers as well. Ellis, though much older and a very different style of player, is a tremendous upgrade to Myers on the Philly blue line. As a one-for-one swap, there is no question that Ellis is the better player right now and Myers will likely never reach that caliber of play either. As for Patrick, the young forward needed a change of scenery after his first few years as a pro player have been marked by injury and inconsistency. There was some discussion that Philadelphia could even leave Patrick exposed, given their vast number of valuable, expansion eligible forwards. By moving Patrick in this deal, the Flyers give up the upside of the former top pick, but gain protection flexibility in exchange. Leading scorer James van Riemsdyk or long-time standout Jakub Voracek, both previously expected to be exposed to the Seattle Kraken, could now step into Patrick’s vacancy.

As for Nashville, the deal solves some problems but all of them. The Predators have been looking to clear salary cap space this summer to improve their roster and do just that by getting out from under Ellis’ expensive long-term contract. However, by bringing in Myers they are still left with five defensemen that they would like to protect – Myers, Roman Josi, Mattias Ekholm, Dante Fabbro, and Alexandre Carrier – but only eight total skaters they can protect. Fortunately, the forward portion of their protection scheme is made easier by flipping Patrick for Glass, who is exempt from the Expansion Draft. Glass was never given consistent opportunity in Vegas possesses ample ability and could find success for Nashville right away.

Vegas was clearly unhappy with Glass’ development, leading to his benching in the postseason and trade rumors early this off-season. However, the team has been too quick to trade away prospects and picks in their early seasons of existence and losing Glass would have hurt their pipeline if he had been dealt in a deal for yet another veteran. Instead, they replace him with Patrick, who is still just 22 and has three seasons of NHL experience under his belt. Perhaps most importantly, Patrick has experience with Knights GM Kelly McCrimmon, the former GM of the WHL’s Brandon Wheat Kings when Patrick was a superstar for the team. If anyone can help Patrick get back on track and reach his potential, it could be McCrimmon. In regards to the Expansion Draft, Vegas is exempt and taking advantage of that special privilege with what could turn out to be a major move down the road.

This is a landscape-shifting move for the Seattle Kraken, who now could see players for both Philadelphia and Nashville that they expected to be exposed now protected. It is believed that the Predators were seeking a side deal with Seattle and there is no word as to whether one has been completed or not, though Nashville appears to have some sort of trick up their sleeve. As for Philly, the Kraken probably believed that they could see at least two of Patrick, van Riemsdyk, and Voracek exposed, but now will not. GM Ron Francis and company have their work cut out for them in reacting to a wild pre-roster freeze flurry.

Nashville Predators Activate Ryan Ellis

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The Nashville Predators are one of the most impressive stories of the season so far. After a brutal first half where they went 11-16-1, there were questions about GM David Poile’s job security and many were wondering just how many of their core pieces they would sell at the deadline. Since then, the Predators are 11-2-0 and now securely in a playoff spot in the Central Division.

Still, there are questions about whether they can hold that playoff spot given how many injuries they are dealing with. Today at least was a good day in that respect, as Ryan Ellis has been activated from injured reserve and will make his return to the lineup. Ellis hasn’t played since February 28 and has just nine points through 21 games this season.

Ellis is one of the most important players Nashville has though and his return is certainly a welcome one. The team tweeted out the long list of scratches that now includes Tyler Lewington, Filip Forsberg, Brad Richardson, David Farrance, Mathieu Olivier, Eeli Tolvanen, Alexandre Carrier, Luca Sbisa, Dante Fabbro, Kasimir Kaskisuo, Tommy Novak, Mark Borowiecki, and Matt Duchene.

Given all those unavailable, the team recalled Michael McCarron and Rem Pitlick from the taxi squad.

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