Not exactly what you want to see so early in the season. Per the Inquirer‘s Jackie Spiegel, Jamie Drysdale has been placed on injured reserve with an upper-body injury.
With Drysdale heading to the IR, the team was able to bring Ryan Poehling back on the roster. If the Flyers make Drysdale’s addition to Injured Reserve retroactive to Nov. 10 — the day after the team played the Panthers — then he has to remain there for at least seven days, meaning that he will be missing Monday’s game against the Sharks, and then upcoming matches against the Ottawa Senators and Buffalo Sabres this week.
It may seem hard to believe, but Drysdale has only played 39 games for the Philadelphia Flyers. He joined the organization in January this year (along with a 2025 2nd-round pick) in the surprising trade that sent William “Cutter” Gauthier to the Anaheim Ducks. Drysdale played a total of 34 games in 2023-24 and, even after the trade, never looked quite right; the skating still popped, but Drysdale was confirmed to have been playing through an injury that required corrective surgery in the off season. All told, he scored 10 points last season–five of them with the Flyers.
That was last year, though, and we need to focus on what Drysdale’s contributions have been this season: one goal and three points in 15 games. Not the greatest of starts, but to be fair, Keith Jones and the rest of the Flyers’ front office has said on several occasions that they see Drysdale’s development as a work in progress–that perhaps he shouldn’t have been in the NHL for as long as he has, and that there’s a lot of ground to make up. The best way to do that? Play games–and you can’t play when you’re injured. Hopefully, this injury isn’t anything serious enough to derail Drysdale’s season and, unless we get more details, he could be back next week without issue.
In the short term, Drysdale’s absence solves a the logjam on the blue line, especially as Cam York’s return gets closer every day. The pairs for tonight’s game are projected to be:
Emil Andrae – Travis Sanheim
Nick Seeler – Rasmus Ristolainen
Yegor Zamula – Erik Johnson
This is presents a huge opportunity for Emil Andrae to prove he belongs in the NHL–that he’s learned all he can with the Phantoms in the AHL. Drysdale has been the Flyers’ point man on the first power play unit; that hole should be Andrae’s to fill, and it looks like he’s going to get every chance to show he’s got what it takes to play in the best league in the world while Drysdale is sidelined. At the very least, the rash of injuries to the blue line to start the season (remember that Seeler was out for a while, too) delays the major decisions about who’s going to form the core of the Flyers defense for the rest of the season.
