There are many storylines heading into the Philadelphia Flyers 2019-20 season. The contract status of Ivan Provorov and Travis Konecny, how will the trio of Morgan Frost, Joel Farabee, and Isaac Ratcliffe look? One story nobody expected was the surprise announcement of a mysterious “upper body injury” and week-to-week status of Nolan Patrick.
Patrick, the soon-to-be 21-year-old, is under the microscope by the Flyers fanbase after two less than stellar years since being drafted second overall in 2017. His first two seasons were remarkably similar. His rookie season he played 73 games, scoring 13 goals and 30 points. His sophomore season he played 72 games and scored 13 goals and 31 points.
He missed games early in the season with injuries, returned in a slump, and closed out the season looking great and filled everyone with optimism for the following season. Rinse and repeat.
Now with the addition of Kevin Hayes on the roster, his role is going to decrease, so he will have more time to adjust rather than being thrown straight into the deep end. In theory that was supposed to give him an opportunity to grow and develop at a rate he is comfortable with, rather than struggling to tread water on the second line.
If Patrick is truly on a week-to-week basis, he will probably miss most if not all of training camp, and historically players who miss camp take a while to get their game in order upon their return. Thus, the worry for Patrick’s season comes to the surface.
After injuries early on in the past essentially derailed his past two seasons, having an injury before the regular season even starts doesn’t bode well for his season.
Keeping an eye on his health status as the season nears is important. Hopefully, he doesn’t miss all of the preseason and sees at least a couple practices before the regular season starts. If Patrick’s injury drags out until the start of the season, he could be doomed to repeat history for a third straight year, much to everyone’s disappointment.
By: Dan Esche (@DanTheFlyeraFan)
photo credit: news.yahoo.com
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