December 19, 2025
Kyle Ross/Imagn Images
The Flyers' lineup has a lot to make up for in the absence of Tyson Foerster.
The Flyers put together an impressive win up in Montreal on Tuesday, then fell apart in Buffalo on Thursday.
In between, they found out they'd be without Tyson Foerster for five months, which in other words, is the rest of the season.
Foerster underwent surgery for his upper-body injury on Monday after further medical consultation and testing dictated it.
He tried to tee up on a one-timer during a home loss to the Penguins at the beginning of December, but instead fell to the ice upon the follow-through of his shot, clutching his right arm in clear distress.
Originally, Foerster was estimated to miss 2-3 months, which would've been tough on the Flyers, but came with a path for him to get back on the ice this season.
But that appears taken away now, which is flat-out brutal for the team unless they somehow find a way to jump ahead of schedule and play into May without him.
The thing is, without him, the Flyers are losing a lot.
Foerster was the Flyers' leading goal-scorer when he went down with his injury, in what was shaping up to be a breakout season for the 23-year-old winger, likely into the 30- to even 40-goal range at the rate he was going.
But he was a lot more than that. He continued as a strong two-way forward, usually to go alongside Noah Cates as a relentlessly checking center, and was maybe the strongest along the wall in puck battles than he had ever been before.
He was arguably the Flyers' most complete player on the ice, and losing that presence for the season? That's brutal, and it's going to call on other key forwards to step up and make up the difference if the organization does still intend to move the rebuild along in a tangibly visible way this year.
When Foerster initially went down, head coach Rick Tocchet called for everyone on the team to find "five percent better" within themselves.
Immediately, that spotlight goes to Matvei Michkov, Owen Tippett, Travis Konecny, and Bobby Brink, who are each talented wingers on the roster that have had their moments, but just as many fumbles so far this season.
And maybe it's less about that "five percent better" now, knowing that Foerster more than likely won't be back this season, and more about each of them finding another gear entirely if they can.
Michkov's heads-up play to strip the puck from the goalie and feed it to Brink in front for a goal in Tuesday's 4-1 win over Montreal was a start, and Brink's just as slick play to move in off the wall and slip a pass inside to Cates for a quick shot in during the 5-3 loss to Buffalo a couple nights later is nice, too, but they're going to need more over these next few months – a lot more.
A few more thoughts on the Flyers heading into the weekend and Saturday's road matinee against the Rangers...
Trevor Zegras keeps emerging as the one name the Flyers can always seem to hang their hat on, as a resurgent star and as one of the shrewdest moves of the entire offseason.
He scored the go-ahead goal on a quick-developing 2-on-1 that had the Canadiens locked up Tuesday night, then threaded a beautiful pass down low to Cam Yok for the lead against the Sabres on Thursday night before that effort crumbled.
CAM YORK SNIPE!!! WHAT A PASS BY TREVOR ZEGRAS. 2-1!!!#LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/QhqsRy7Hdi
— Flyers Clips (@Flyers_Clips) December 19, 2025
As of Friday, Zegras has an excellent stat line of 34 points (14 goals, 20 assists) through 33 games with a plus-3 rating, and always seems to be a threat to create plays while being one of the Flyers' most fun players to watch in the process.
They took a risk on him in the summer to be an offensive shot in the arm, and so far, the 24-year-old keeps on as everything they could've hoped for coming over from Anaheim.
The power play is struggling mightily again.
It went 0-for-6 across the Montreal and Buffalo games this week, and dating back to Dec. 7's 3-2 loss to Colorado at home, the Flyers have gone an abysmal 0-for-16 on man advantages.
Tocchet, who has routinely been calm and patient through his media availabilities since being hired as the Flyers' head coach, was visibly frustrated for the first time after the 3-2 overtime loss to Vegas, where his team went 0-for-3 on the power play in that game as well, and he tried shuffling up the special teams units looking for any kind of spark.
He hasn't found it, though, and Foerster going down with injury quietly factored into the power play's issues.
Before, Foerster and Zegras skated together on one of the power play lines, and that combination worked between Zegras' skill with the puck and Foerster's strength on the walls and his increasing willingness to shoot.
It's not a coincidence that Zegras (4) and Foerster (3) are both, still, the Flyers' leading power-play goal scorers, and now that one's gone, the whole operation has seized up.
The Flyers have to find a way around it, though, because when teams get sloppy and put themselves in the box, you have to punish them for it.
Rasmus Ristolainen finally made his return to the Flyers' lineup Tuesday night in Montreal, and in a big way when he laid out a huge open-ice check on the Canadiens' Juraj Slafkovský.
Ristolainen drops Slafkovsky, and then Demidov goes after him. #GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/deYDsOVJ24
— Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) December 17, 2025
Cam York and Travis Sanheim have been set as the top pair, Emil Andrae played his way into a regular NHL role and seems to have his chemistry with Jamie Drysdale, and now the early going for Ristolainen will be to see how he melds with Nick Seeler on the bottom pair, with Noah Juulsen as the seventh defenseman to rotate in if you need him.
Shoutout to Ty Murchison, too. He played well in his look up with the Flyers and should be at the front of the line for a call-up if another injury comes in. He definitely earned it.
Egor Zamula? Well...he was put on waivers, cleared, and can be sent down to the Phantoms. He's had years to show the Flyers something, but he might be out of time now.
So Egor Zamula clears waivers. Now we'll see if the Flyers demote him to the AHL or keep him up with the knowledge that they could demote him in the future.
— Charlie O'Connor (@charlieo_conn) December 19, 2025
They'll have to do it before tonight's roster freeze at midnight, though. https://t.co/KcTdZksnv2
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