Flyers Give Injury Updates, Recall Two Players From AHL

The Philadelphia Flyers put out some roster updates ahead of their matchup with the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday.

With their All-Star Break coming to an end on Friday, the Philadelphia Flyers decided to make a round of roster moves while giving a couple of injury updates on three players with a news release Thursday morning. The team announced that they’ve called up forward Connor Bunnaman and goaltender Alex Lyon from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms and confirmed that defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere and forward Michael Raffl are expected to return to practice after being sidelined with separate injuries. Philly also gave an update on Carter Hart, saying that he’s feeling “significantly better” but still won’t return to the crease for a minimum of seven days.

There’s a decent amount of information to take in here, so let’s start with the injury front. It’s excellent news that Ghost and Raffl are set to return to action soon. No matter what your opinion of Gostisbehere has been this season, he’s still one of Philadelphia’s six best defensemen when healthy and should immediately help in the chance-creation and puck-moving departments when he does come back into the lineup. Raffl should also be welcomed back with open arms, as he’s one of the better two-way forwards currently on the roster and has been a big part of the Flyers Bottom-6 for years.

The news about Hart may be looked at as a negative by most fans, the fact that he’s at least feeling better is a good sign for the young netminder and the Flyers squad as a whole. As Courier Post writer Dave Isaac pointed out on Twitter, Hart being out for the next seven days would still have him returning within the original 2-3 week timeframe, meaning that there was no setback in his recovery (yet, *knocks on wood*). Would we all like him to come back a little earlier than anticipated? Sure, but nobody should have a full-blown fit that he’s taking as long as it was expected to rehab his lower right abdominal strain.

Though it’s not officially known if Gostisbehere and Raffl will play against Pittsburgh on Friday, I’d expect them to since they’re practicing with the team. If not, they should, without a doubt, return on Saturday against the Colorado Avalanche or Monday against the Detroit Red Wings as long as nothing catastrophic happens.