Morgan Frost may miss rest of season; Flyers GM keeping door open for Matt Niskanen return

Center Morgan Frost, the Flyers’ top prospect, will undergo shoulder surgery in Colorado and may miss the rest of the season, general manager Chuck Fletcher said on Tuesday.

Fletcher said Frost would be sidelined for several months. “I don’t know if he’s a candidate to come back at any point this season,” Fletcher said. “I guess in my mind, I’m just hopeful for a full recovery and a great offseason and get him ready for next year. Maybe he’ll beat that timeline – we’ll have more information after the surgery is completed this week.”

Frost, 21, a first-round selection in 2017, replaced the injured Sean Couturier and played two games before dislocating his left shoulder when hit by Buffalo’s Jake McCabe in a Jan. 19 contest. At the time, the Flyers said he was sidelined indefinitely.

Last season, Frost was an All-Star selection with the AHL’s Phantoms, and he had seven points in 20 games with the Flyers. He had a strong training camp before this season.

In other injury news, right winger Wade Allison, ranked No. 3 by The Inquirer in its prospect ratings, had ankle surgery last week and will be sidelined four to five weeks before joining the Phantoms.

» READ MORE: Morgan Frost, Cam York top list of Flyers’ top 12 prospects | Sam Carchidi

“Hopefully, we can fix something that’s been bothering him for a while,” Fletcher said.

Left winger Isaac Ratcliffe, another top prospect, had a rib injury that turned into a collapsed lung, Fletcher said. After two surgeries, he has returned to skating and will play for the Phantoms in about a month.

When Matt Niskanen unexpectedly retired after last season, the Flyers lost a top-pairing defenseman, a player who played in all situations, a leader in the locker room, and the only member of the Orange and Black to have a Stanley Cup ring.

No wonder, then, that Chuck Fletcher stays in touch with Niskanen, 34, and calls him every two weeks.

» READ MORE: GM Chuck Fletcher likes Flyers’ record so far, but knows his team hasn’t played as well as it suggests

If there’s a chance Niskanen changes his mind, Fletcher said, he would welcome the veteran with open arms.

“But I think he’s having too much fun ice fishing,” Fletcher said in an interview Tuesday morning on SiriusXM’s NHL Network.

Later in the day, in a conference call with local reporters, Fletcher said, “Matt’s made it pretty clear he’s done playing, but we didn’t terminate his contract. We left open the possibility that if he did change his mind, we would be in a position to bring him back. It’s not something we’re counting on; he’s been pretty clear in his conversations with me that he’s enjoying where he’s at now and it was the right decision at the right time.”

Fletcher said Niskanen “had a massive impact on our team last year and really changed the trajectory of this franchise. We’re really indebted to him. I would have loved to have had him for one more year, but he made the choice he did and we respect it.”

Left winger James van Riemsdyk was named the East Division’s player of the month for January. He had 13 points, including five goals, and shared the league lead with four power-play tallies.

The NHL is also honoring frontline health-care workers each month, and Amanda and Josh Hathaway of Langhorne, Pa., were saluted.

» READ MORE: The Flyers’ Nate Prosser, from taxi squad to the big team and back | On the Fly