Flyers winger Tyson Foerster could miss the start of next season after elbow infection
Foerster, who is coming off a career-high 25 goals and 43 points, is expected to undergo further testing to determine the severity of the infection.
The hockey gods surely do giveth and taketh.
On Tuesday, as the Flyers made moves in free agency, they were doing so with a clear understanding of what was on the horizon: Flyers winger Tyson Foerster will miss time with an elbow infection.
A more specific timeline for Foerster’s recovery has not been determined, as he is expected to undergo additional testing. He traveled to Vancouver this week to see a specialist.
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“So he had an injury at the World Championships that wasn’t supposed to be anything really serious,” Flyers general manager Danny Brière said on Tuesday. “Came back here, and there’s some infection that set into the elbow, and then it just got worse. So he came, saw our doctors, and decided they had to go in and remove the infection.
“What I’m finding out is, it takes a long time for all the samples to come back negative, and that’s what we’re still waiting on. We don’t know, and at that point, we’ll reevaluate and see if more needs to be done, or if we’re lucky enough, that’s the end of it, and he can move on and be ready for the start of the season.
“But there’s no guarantee of that. So we’re sitting and waiting right now to see how serious it is or not.”
The news comes at a bad time, considering the 23-year-old’s continued growth across the last two seasons. He has become a surefire top-six winger for the Flyers and was rewarded for it with a two-year bridge deal with an average annual value of $3.75 million in late May.
After an impressive rookie campaign — tied for third among rookies with 20 goals and 10th in points (33) in 77 games — he set career highs across the board this past season. In 81 games, he had 25 goals and 43 points and notched his first hat trick in April.
And that all came after a slow start. He finished with nine goals in the final nine games of the season.
“I think I was getting chances earlier before, too, I just wasn’t able to score. But finally, the puck started going in for me in waves,” Foerster said about his end-of-season surge in April.
He got another boost of confidence playing for Canada at the recent IIHF men’s World Championships. Although Canada finished a disappointing fifth, Foerster had two goals and three points. In the tournament, he had a highlight-reel goal when he drove around defenseman Marcus Pettersson of Sweden before scoring on Jacob Markström.
Porter Martone, the Flyers’ top 2025 pick, told The Inquirer at the NHL scouting combine that he sat next to Foerster in the locker room at the World Championships.
“He does all the little things right,” Martone said. “He’s a young guy in the league, but you wouldn’t know it when he’s out on the ice. He’ll bump himself up the lineup; he was playing on a line with Nathan McKinnon and stuff like that. You could tell how good he is.”
Brière has repeatedly said how impressed he has been with the 6-foot-2 Foerster, who “brings another level” of skill to the Flyers’ lineup. Despite his uncertain status for the season, the Flyers have, thus far, not added a winger in free agency.
“No,” Brière said when asked if there was a thought to bring in another player. “Because even in that case, he’s not going to miss the whole year, or, I hope he’s not going to miss the whole year. So, you’re going to need that money at some point.
“We have some young guys. Maybe, if he does have to miss [time] early in the season, that maybe they step up. Maybe it’s an Alex Bump. Maybe it’s a Porter Martone. [Devin] Kaplan played at the end of the year for us. There’s other guys who perform that, maybe they get a look early in the season if they have a good camp. So we just didn’t feel that we could spend his money not knowing how long — or if he’s going to be out — or how long he’s going to be out at this point."