Flyers’ Ryan Johansen ‘Doesn’t Think He Can Play Hockey’

It appears that Ryan Johansen is done with the Philadelphia Flyers before he even started.

At Friday’s exit interviews, Flyers general manager Danny Briere shed some light on Johansen’s situation, and his comments were far from reassuring.

“All I can tell you is I don’t expect him to be back. I don’t know, exactly, the situation. We’re dealing on the medical side with him,” Briere said. “The thing for him is getting him back to be able to play at this time. He doesn’t think he can play hockey. I wish I had a better answer for you. We need to get him better to figure out if there’s even a remote chance of him dressing for the organization at any level.”

It is worth noting that before joining the Flyers via trade, Johansen had played in all 63 of Colorado’s games leading up to the trade, including one two days before the deal was struck.

Briere previously told Philly Hockey Now that Johansen claimed to be injured upon arrival, and that the Flyers’ medical staff indeed found an injury.

“They found an injury, so now he’s going to be rehabbing,” Briere had said. “You can’t send down a player who’s injured, so he’s going to be doing rehab until… we don’t know when.”

Further complicating matters for the Flyers is the fact that injured players also cannot be bought out. The fact that Johansen is still rehabbing one month post-trade suggests that his injury is fairly significant, and should it drag on into next season, he will become a candidate to go on long-term injured reserve.

On the other hand, the Flyers are also saddled with Ryan Ellis and his $6.25 million cap hit until 2027, and there does not seem to be any chance of Ellis returning to play hockey again himself.

It’s easy to imagine a world where the Flyers find themselves in cap trouble in the immediate future.