“It’s just not making a lot of progress right now.”

That is quite literally the last thing any Flyers fan wants to hear right now regarding Ryan Ellis. The Flyers have been without their top right-handed defenseman for what feels like 10 years now, and won’t be getting him back anytime soon. 

Ellis was traded to the Flyers by the Predators this offseason for Phil Myers and Nolan Patrick, with Patrick getting flipped to Vegas for C Cody Glass. Ellis has played a total of four games, registering 1G-4A-5P.

We saw Ellis exit the lineup after the October 20th game against Boston, where he told media members that he just wasn’t able to keep going with the injury he suffered in the last preseason game like he thought he could. He then returned to the lineup on November 13th against Dallas, where he picked up an assist on Ivan Provorov’s first goal of the year.

That was the last time we’ve seen Ellis.

Fast forward 51 days, and we’re in the same spot as we were on November 13th. Braun is a serviceable defenseman at this point in his career, but by no means should he be playing top pair minutes. Unfortunately, that’s the spot that he and the team have been put into due to Ellis’ absence.

Chuck Fletcher built this defense around the idea that Ryan Ellis would be a fixture in it all year, and now with him out, he’s relying on “Iron Man” Keith Yandle, waiver-wire pick-up Kevin Connauton, and career AHLer, Nick Seeler. It’s an absolute joke and a complete failure on Chuck Fletcher’s part.

I agree that Chuck had no way of predicting Ellis would get hurt in a meaningless preseason game, but those are the cards he’s been dealt and he has zero backup plan.

I’m getting told Cam York has to “learn to play with AHL pros before playing with NHL pros”, while Kevin Connauton takes a joy ride on Brendan Lemiuex’s fucking back. So what if York looks a little out of place or makes a mistake in his own zone, what has this third pair been doing this whole time?

Keith Yandle and Kevin Connnauton are both veteran NHL players that should know what to do and where to be, and you’re telling me you’re afraid to play York because he might make a couple of mistakes? Give me a break.

If you’re that afraid of playing York because you think he needs a little more seasoning, why the actual fuck is he on the taxi squad right now and not in Leigh High getting those said reps. The Flyers organization is completely inept from top to bottom and it all starts with that loser Dave Scott.

Give me:

Ivan Provorov – Rasmus Ristolainen

Travis Sanheim – Justin Braun

Cam York – Keith Yandle

They’re not going to sit Yandle when he’s so close to breaking this dumb streak, so the only option we have is pairing him with York. The one thing that Yandle has struggled with is controlling the puck in his own zone under pressure and finding that first breakout pass consistently. I genuinely think York could really help out in that regard.

York is a fantastic skater and one of his best traits is being able to hit a pass for a clean breakout. You can tell Yandle has lost a couple of steps, so York’s smooth skating ability would give that pair much-needed speed and agility that they just don’t have with a Yandle – Connauton, or Yandle – Seeler pair.

We’ll see how they try and fix these pairs with an Ellis return not happening anytime soon.

Mandatory Credit: Zack Hill - Flyers PR