Flyers interim coach Mike Yeo ‘very confident’ defenseman Ryan Ellis will be healthy enough to return next season

At the start of the season, it seemed like general manager Chuck Fletcher finally found the steady veteran presence the Flyers needed to pair up with Ivan Provorov on the blue line in Ryan Ellis.

Unfortunately for Fletcher and the Flyers, their partnership didn’t last long.

The duo only played the first three games of the season together before Ellis came out of the lineup with a lower-body injury initially sustained during the preseason. He made a one-game return on Nov. 13 against the Dallas Stars on the third pairing alongside Keith Yandle before the team shut Ellis down for the year.

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Now, Ellis has been out for five and a half months, and interim coach Mike Yeo still doesn’t know the exact course of action — surgery or no surgery — Ellis will take on his road to recovery. However, Yeo said that he is “very confident” that Ellis will return next season.

“In texting with him, I know that that’s his only mindset right now, that’s his only focus is to get healthy and get here and contribute,” Yeo said. “I’ve known him for a while, and I know what a competitor he is. I’ve coached against him. He definitely wants to be out there. It hurts him not being out there. And he’s doing everything that he can to make sure that he will be.”

Ellis’ long-term absence took a wrecking ball to Fletcher’s plans for the season, forcing third-pairing defenseman Justin Braun to play up on the top pairing with Provorov until the trade deadline. The right side of the third defensive pairing alongside Yandle became a revolving door of players from fringe NHLers Nick Seeler and Kevin Connauton to 21-year-old Cam York.

In his four-game showcase with the Flyers, Ellis showed how he can contribute at five-on-five and on special teams. He registered five points (one goal, four assists), was plus-two, and averaged 22:48 of ice time.

With all eyes on the Flyers’ future, the team needs top players like Ellis and center Sean Couturier to rebound from their 2021-22 seasons lost to injuries.

“I do believe that this group can turn things around quickly and be very competitive,” Yeo said. “And, obviously, a big part of that would be guys like Coots and Elly, making sure that they’re fully healthy.”

Nine seasons as an NHL head coach with the Minnesota Wild, the St. Louis Blues, and now the Flyers have come with plenty of challenges for Yeo.

He lost his job with the Wild in the midst of the 2015-16 season after losing 13 of the last 14 games. After going 7-9-3 to start the 2018-19 season with the Blues, Yeo was fired and replaced with former Flyers coach Craig Berube, who led the team to the Stanley Cup that season.

But was the Flyers’ 2021-22 season the most challenging of Yeo’s career?

“By a long shot,” Yeo said without hesitation.

The team was ravaged by injuries up and down the lineup, suffering 492 man-games lost to 21 different players. That total is the highest the Flyers have had since at least the 2007-08 season, the earliest season that data was tracked.

The players who led the way in games missed are \some of those most valuable to the team, including Ellis (78 games), Couturier (52), and Kevin Hayes (34).

“When you have the injuries that we’ve had this year, I don’t care, nobody’s going to survive that,” Yeo said. “You know, it’s hard to go into games where you have 10 to 12 guys that are NHL players that aren’t in the lineup. Or even some of those guys that were already filling in for NHL players.”

Now, Yeo is choosing to look at the positives from this season, especially regarding young players like center Morgan Frost, wingers Bobby Brink and Noah Cates and defenseman Ronnie Attard, who were given increased opportunities because of the number of veterans out of the lineup.

“I think that there are young players that have gotten an opportunity that maybe they wouldn’t have, and now, because of that, they’re going to be further ahead next year,” Yeo said.

After returning to the lineup April 5 after dealing with a concussion for nearly a month, forward Scott Laughton said he’s played “two good games” out of 12. However, he looks forward to ending the season on a high note Friday against the Ottawa Senators. “Haven’t felt like my pace has been the same from before. I’ve watched a couple of my games from before my injury and a couple after and just hasn’t been the same.” ... Goalie Martin Jones (34 games played, 3.43 goal against average, .900 save percentage) is expected to start against the Senators. ... Couturier (back) and Seeler (lower body) were the only two injured players who participated in Friday’s morning skate.