Flyers injury update: Bobby Brink nearing return; Dan Vladař remains day-to-day
As the Flyers prepare for a three-game road trip, they’ll be looking for some reinforcements. Rasmus Ristolainen will not make the trip and is out with an upper-body injury.
The Flyers face the New York Rangers on Saturday before embarking on a three-game road trip through what some are calling the new Death Valley.
Whether they will have reinforcements as the team heads west to face the Vegas Golden Knights, Utah Mammoth, and Colorado Avalanche is the big question.
According to Flyers coach Rick Tocchet, who spoke Saturday morning at Xfinity Mobile Arena, Bobby Brink is a “possibility against Vegas.” Brink was placed on injured reserve on Thursday, retroactive to Jan. 6, when he was injured on a blindsided hit by Anaheim Ducks forward Jansen Harkins just 2 minutes, 38 seconds into the first period.
It had seemed earlier in the week that the winger would return, but he was not on the trip for the losses to the Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins, and he has now missed six games. Brink skated Saturday morning and, if he is good to go, they’ll appreciate having back his production — 11 goals and 20 points in 41 games — and chemistry with Noah Cates.
Goalie Dan Vladař‘s status for the road trip is a little more up in the air.
“At this point, I’d say day to day,” Tocchet said. “It depends [on] how he feels after therapy. So it’s like, one of those things every 24 hours, you kind of, you get better or not? What percentage? So it’s hard to really pinpoint things exactly.”
Vladař suffered what looked to be a lower-body injury in the first period against the Buffalo Sabres, when he wasn’t sure where a missed shot by Josh Doan went before Rasmus Dahlin scored a power-play goal. The netminder, who is one of Czechia’s three goalies for the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics, allowed two goals on five shots in one period of action during the Flyers’ 5-2 loss on Wednesday.
According to a team source on Thursday afternoon, the Flyers may have avoided the worst-case scenario on his injury. While the early findings are positive, they won’t know more for a few days. Whether or not he goes on the trip is to be determined.
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“Yes, I think,” Tocchet said before adding, “still got to talk to the doctors on that, because if he’s not going to play in the games [maybe not]. Is there a possibility for the third game? Maybe. That’s what we’ll decide.”
Although the team source also stated that Rasmus Ristolainen’s early findings were also positive and that they may have avoided the worst-case scenario, the defenseman will not make the trip west.
“I don’t think it’s a long-term. Is it a week thing? Maybe,” Tocchet said. “If I say a week and it’s not seven days, you guys (the media) are going to kill me. But it’s definitely a week. It could be eight days, nine days, I don’t know.”
Ristolainen is out with an upper-body injury. When and how the injury was sustained is unknown. He was a full participant at morning skate and took power-play reps with the top unit in Buffalo on Wednesday, but then did not skate in the game that night.
It’s another unfortunate setback for the 31-year-old blueliner. He made his season debut on Dec. 16 in Montreal after undergoing surgery on a right triceps tendon rupture in late March. It followed a pair of procedures in 2024, which also repaired a ruptured triceps tendon. Flyers general manager Danny Brière said last April that the injury was similar, although he wouldn’t confirm whether he suffered a torn tendon again.