The injuries are suddenly piling up for the Philadelphia Flyers.
They caught a break with Travis Sanheim and Denver Barkey both not missing any time after going down in Saturday’s win in Edmonton, but they haven’t been as lucky since returning home.
Both Bobby Brink and Jamie Drysdale were injured on borderline hits in the Flyers’ 5-2 win over the Ducks. Anaheim was only penalized for one of those hits, and none of the multiple questionable collisions received any supplemental discipline.
To top it all off, Travis Konecny did not return to the game for the third period on Thursday night.
While we await updates on Brink and Konecny, it looks like Drysdale will have to miss some time. According to the league media site, the Flyers placed Drysdale on injured reserve, retroactive to Tuesday, Jan. 6.
According to the NHL’s media site, #Flyers defenseman Jamie Drysdale has been placed on injured reserve.
— Jackie Spiegel (@jackiespiegel93) January 9, 2026
By being placed on injured reserve, Drysdale will be inactive for at least the final two games of the Flyers homestand on Saturday and Monday against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Those are two important games for the club against one of the top teams in the conference.
It’s not too much of a surprise that Drysdale will miss some time, though. He appeared motionless on the ice after the high hit from Ross Johnston. They brought out the stretcher, but the defenseman was able to leave the ice with some help from the training staff.
Ross Johnston what are you doing? Hope Drysdale is alright#LetsGoFlyers
— RGF (@rgfray1) January 7, 2026
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Drysdale dressed for all 41 games prior to his injury. It was a breath of fresh air for the defenseman, who had a few slower starts due to injury troubles in years past.
Noah Juulsen drew back into the lineup on Thursday night and played fine, but the Flyers could look to call someone up from Lehigh Valley. We dove into those potential call-up options earlier this week, including Christian Kyrou, Helge Grans, and Ty Murchison.
It’s going to be tough to replace Drysdale, though, as the defenseman has turned a corner over the last year or so. He’s formed quite the duo with Emil Andrae on the second pair, earning 50.8% of the expected goals share in 314 minutes together at 5-on-5, per Money Puck.
Hopefully, Drysdale won’t have to miss much more than the minimum seven days by being placed on IR. The Flyers play 14 games in 28 days, so they’re going to need all the manpower they can possibly get to stay fresh during the upcoming stretch.
After this homestand, the Flyers have a back-to-back in Buffalo and Pittsburgh next week before returning home to host the Rangers on Saturday afternoon.
