Source: Flyers’ Ryan Ellis still has no timeline for a return from nagging pelvic injury

The 2021-22 season may be in the Flyers’ rearview mirror, but the injury woes that plagued the team have carried over into this year’s training camp, which begins Thursday.

Defenseman Ryan Ellis still is in the process of rehabbing a pelvic injury he suffered in the preseason last year and has no timeline to return to the Flyers’ lineup, a source confirmed to The Inquirer. The Daily Faceoff first reported Ellis’ current injury status Tuesday.

The defenseman was listed on the Flyers’ training camp roster that was released on Monday but will miss at least the start of the season. The organization is expected to provide an update on Ellis on Thursday when the on-ice portion of training camp starts.

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Ellis, 31, played just four regular-season games for the Flyers last season (one goal, four assists), primarily on the right side of the top pairing alongside Ivan Provorov, before sitting out for the remainder of the season. His absence disrupted the equilibrium of the Flyers’ defensive corps, as they struggled to find an equal in-house replacement.

In his exit interview in April, Ellis described his pelvic injury as “multilayered,” claiming that there is no single “fix-all” to address the issue. Going into the offseason, Ellis and Flyers management had a mutually agreed-upon plan in place to rehabilitate the injury that would not involve surgery. Ellis was pleased that he finally had a path toward recovery after previously lacking an understanding of the injury’s full extent.

“My whole life has been built around playing hockey, and that got taken away from me. It’s been draining,” Ellis said in April. “With the plan we have and the steps we’re going to take in order to get back ready for next year. I haven’t been this excited in months because I finally have an approach and a path clear to go.”

However, general manager Chuck Fletcher indicated that Ellis might not be ready for the start of the season when he traded three draft picks in exchange for former Carolina Hurricanes right-shot defenseman Tony DeAngelo at the draft in July. DeAngelo, who turns 27 next month, played on the Hurricanes’ top pairing alongside Jaccob Slavin last season and also was a power-play quarterback like Ellis was.

Now, DeAngelo likely will play alongside Provorov this season with Ellis out indefinitely.

“Right now, we felt we had some major holes on defense, with the uncertainty around Ryan Ellis,” Fletcher said in July. “He’s progressed, but there’s no guarantee when he’ll be back. That’s certainly a massive hole in our lineup, which we filled with Tony DeAngelo.”

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Fletcher acquired Ellis last offseason from the Nashville Predators as part of a three-team trade that sent 2017 No. 2 overall pick Nolan Patrick to the Vegas Golden Knights and defenseman Phil Myers to the Predators. Ellis spent 10 years with the Predators after they selected him with the 11th overall pick in the 2009 draft, scoring 75 goals and registering 195 assists in 562 games.

News of Ellis’ status heading into the season came one day after the Flyers announced that top-line center Sean Couturier is week-to-week with an upper-body injury. Couturier, 29, missed 53 games last season with a back injury that required surgery. Young wingers Joel Farabee (disk replacement) and Bobby Brink (hip) also are recovering from offseason surgeries.