Ryan Ellis’s career might be over

Sep 22, 2022 - 1:57 PM

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Thursday marked the first day of the Philadelphia Flyers being on the ice during training camp, and with that we got a little update from our old pal Chuck Fletcher about some current injured players on the roster.

According to Fletcher, center Sean Couturier is optimistic about his current back injury and is generally feeling better than when he was injured last year. Still no timeline available on the Flyers’ top forward but his official status is still week-to-week.

And, just to add more doom and gloom, it turns out Ryan Ellis’s career might just be over at the age of 31.

Ellis has not played in a professional hockey game since Nov. 13, 2021 due to an issue in his pelvic region and in total, has appeared in just four games for the Flyers since being acquired by them last summer. During his time in Nashville, there were of course injury troubles — Ellis played in approximately half of the Predators’ games in his last two seasons there — but there was nothing to indicate that it was this bad.

If Ellis is truly done for good, it means that one of the best defenseman in his generation when it comes to underlying numbers and ability to control the play, is suddenly gone. If even relatively healthy, this Flyers season would look a whole lot different than what it is probably going to be. Now, it is going to be a lot of Rasmus Ristolainen and Tony DeAngelo in the top-four, while hoping that some youngster like Cam York or Egor Zamula can get us just a little bit excited on the prospects of the future Philadelphia blue line.

Through 11 years in the NHL, the Hamilton, Ont. native appeared in 566 games, and scored 76 goals and 275 points.