Jamie Drysdale has been in the NHL for four seasons now. But with a total of 147 games over those few years, it only feels like it has been about a year and a half.
The only year that Drysdale played just about every game was 2021-22, his second season with the Ducks. He appeared in 81 games that year.
This year was much the same regarding injury. Drysdale battled much of the year with a core muscle issue that hindered his skating. And once he joined Philadelphia in January, he had a left shoulder injury that cost him some time as well.
With the season behind him, Drysdale feels good heading into his first full year with the Flyers.
"I feel good, honestly. Body's feeling good for the first time in a while so that's a positive. I'm just looking forward to hopefully a full 82 and go from there," Drysdale said after the first day of training camp."
Drysdale opens up about struggles with core muscle injury
A big part of Drysdale's game has to do with his skating. When dealing with an injury to a part of your body that is crucial to what you want to do, it can be hard. Drysdale didn't want to harp too much on the injury since everyone deals with things throughout the year.
But it did become hard to prepare for games when your body doesn't do want you want it to do.
"It's not great, kind of knowing that you can't do what you want to do and know you can do. So that's not ideal," he said. "From not being able to warm up properly, kind of just being restricted, kind of just doing everything you can to just make it feel decent going into games."
Drysdale stayed in the Philadelphia area since having his surgery in late April. He worked out with a group of other players who stayed as well. He detailed what a day-to-day workout looked like for him, which helped teach him how important it is to dial into what could help him stay healthy and on the ice.
He also gave major credit to the training staff for the work they put in with him during the season. It ended up taking a lot to get him to where he could play as much as he did.
"Just working with these guys day in and day out, I can't thank them enough for the amount of work that the staff here has put in with me. It was incredible, to be honest. The fact that it kind of turned into a full-year job for them, every single day, hours on end, so big thanks to them for making me feel the way I feel now, which is good."
It did take some time after having the surgery to get back into the swing of things. At first, Drysdale was a little unsure of what he could say about the rehab in general. But he did mention it was a "decent rehab" to get to where he's feeling good about his body and where it's at.
One of the most important things for him now is getting the chance to have the full camp and season with the Flyers to learn the processes right from the beginning.
"I'm really looking forward to it. I know camp's hard and whatnot but just getting reps under my belt between last year and through this camp. Kind of just going through the full process as it should be will be really nice."