While the team hasn’t made an official announcement, Philadelphia Flyers winger Nikita Grebenkin is out with an injury and will likely not be in the lineup Thursday against the Chicago Blackhawks.
“Yeah he’s been dealing with things the last couple of games,” head coach Rick Tocchet said after Wednesday’s practice. “He went to see a doctor today to get some more tests done on him.”
When asked the nature of the injury, Tocchet revealed it was upper body and that it was more than likely Grebenkin would be out of the lineup for Thursday’s game against the Blackhawks, but it was still something that had to be discussed among the trainers.
Flyers winger Nikita Grebenkin’s absence has been explained
Grebenkin played all three games on the West Coast, ending up pointless but on the plus side of the plus/minus ledger in two games (Anaheim and San Jose) and a minus against the Kings. He played 8:55 time-on-ice against San Jose, 10:44 TOI against the Kings, and 8:47 TOI against the Ducks. While being a decent presence on the forecheck and winning puck battles, the forward hasn’t really lit up the lamp with just two assists in March. Through 55 games this year, Grebenkin has four goals and 10 assists for 14 points. He’s currently gone 16 games with scoring. His last goal was against Boston on Jan. 29.
While it was not clarified whether or not it was injury-related, Grebenkin was not in the lineup Tuesday night in the crucial game against the Columbus Blue Jackets and that decision caught some ire from Flyers fans. Now, it might have just been that the young winger was a little too banged up to get in some action, rather than it being performance-based. Although, given the lack of production and some real tangible plays where Grebenkin made a difference, that could also be the case.
The forward, drafted in the fifth round of the 2022 NHL Draft (135th overall) by Toronto, is in the final year of his entry-level contract that he originally signed with the Maple Leafs before the Flyers acquired him in the Scott Laughton deal in 2024. He’ll be a restricted free agent at the end of the contract, meaning Philadelphia will still retain his rights. As for the time being, with Sean Couturier, Denver Barkey, and Luke Glendening all returning to the lineup, Grebenkin’s absence won’t result in the Flyers reverting to using eleven forwards and seven defenseman as they did a few times on the recent road trip.
Emil Andrae in, Noah Juulsen out
Meanwhile, Emil Andrae, who was actually a healthy scratch against Columbus on Tuesday night, will be back in against Chicago tomorrow night. Tocchet said Andrae is still developing but still needs to be put in positions to succeed. As Tocchet mentioned prior to Tuesday’s game against the Blue Jackets, defenseman Noah Juulsen, “we need some beef in there” and “definitely need some guys with some size tonight” against a Columbus club that brought their somewhat heavy game to the Flyers.
“It’s his first year,” Tocchet said. “We’ve sheltered his minutes. I think against certain lines he has a tough time against and I think Todd has done a nice job with him to develop him to be honest with you. The PK is another thing, and in our thought process Columbus are a bigger team, I think they took the game over in the second period because they were kind of out-muscling us. So that’s kind of the thought process too.”
As for Juulsen, he’ll be most likely out the lineup with Andrae being brought back in. Juulsen wasn’t at the practice Wednesday but Tocchet said it was a maintenance day.
