Coming off the heels of their emotional victory over the Anaheim Ducks, the Philadelphia Flyers have slumped to the tune of 6 straight losses after dropping their Saturday matinee affair against the struggling New York Rangers.
They dropped a close contest against the Toronto Maple Leafs in overtime following their victory over the Ducks, but what has followed has been 5 disastrous defeats at the hands of the Tampa Bay Lightning twice, Buffalo Sabres, Pittsburgh Penguins, and the Rangers by a combined score of 29 to 11. Additionally, they’ve allowed 8 power play goals on just 19 attempts and their power play is a pitiful 2 for 14.
To make matters worse, the injuries have started to pile up as they remain without Bobby Brink, who was placed on IR earlier in the week, as well as goaltender Dan Vladař, who exited Wednesday’s game with an injury. They’ve since recalled Aleksei Kolosov from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, but they had to make a couple more moves after yesterday’s game in the form of recalls for defenseman Hunter McDonald and forward Lane Pederson.
The Flyers placed defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen (upper-body) and forward Rodrigo Ābols (lower-body) on IR as corresponding moves. Ristolainen was placed on injured reserve shortly after their loss to the Rangers, whereas Ābols was moved earlier today.
Ristolainen had missed the Flyers’ first 31 games as he was recovering from his triceps surgery that he had undergone near the end of the 2024-25 season. Upon his return, he produced 3 assists in 13 games with a -3 rating, 24 shots on goal, 24 blocked shots, 16 hits, and 21:59 ATOI.
What helped the Flyers immensely was that his presence on the back-end alleviated pressure and stress off fellow defenders Jamie Drysdale, Travis Sanheim, and Cam York, who had seen their ice-time cut by a few minutes per game upon his arrival, keeping them from getting overly fatigued.
As for Ābols, the Latvian Olympian has been a mainstay on the Flyers’ fourth line this season, producing 3 goals and 10 points in 42 games to go along with a -1 rating, 22 PIM, 52.1% success rate on faceoffs, 49 hits, and 24 blocked shots while averaging 10:30 TOI.
Nicolas Deslauriers was the only healthy forward on the roster so Pederson should get a good opportunity to play meaningful NHL minutes until Ābols returns. With the Phantoms, Pederson has scored 13 goals and 28 points in 37 games with a +4 rating and 22 PIM.
The Saskatoon, Saskatchewan native hasn’t played an NHL game since 2022-23 when he was a member of the Vancouver Canucks and Columbus Blue Jackets, where he split 27 games with both clubs and added 3 goals and 6 points. He has since been a prominent player in the AHL with 92 points in 121 games over the last 3 seasons.
With McDonald, he will also be looking to make his NHL debut as soon as Monday night when the Flyers visit the Vegas Golden Knights. Drafted in the 6th round of the 2022 NHL Entry Draft, McDonald has been a mainstay for the Phantoms over the last 2+ seasons as he’s collected 4 goals and 26 points in 115 games.
McDonald spent his draft year with the Omaha Lancers and Chicago Steel of the USHL in 2021-22, where he tallied 14 points in 54 games with a +14 rating and 87 PIM. He then committed to Northeastern University, whereupon he spent 2 seasons, tallying 20 points in 58 games along with 88 PIM and +24 rating.
The 6’4”, 235-pound defender should provide the Flyers with size, physicality, and a reliable defensive game. It will be interesting to see who would come out of the lineup, should McDonald be slated to debut, as Noah Juulsen saw 17:14 TOI, Emil Andrae skated 16:42 TOI, and Nick Seeler played 20:31 against the Rangers.
Juulsen has been in and out of the lineup throughout the season but it will be interesting to see if he opts to keep the veteran in the lineup over a younger defender like Andrae. It will be something to monitor as we near Monday’s game with the Flyers kicking off their 3-game road trip in Vegas that has stops in Utah and Colorado along the way.
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