Tyson Foerster might be back much sooner than initially feared.
The Flyers' breakout winger suffered an arm injury while skating for Team Canada during the IIHF World Championship back in May, which then developed into an infection in his elbow that left no clear timetable for a return.
Recent word, though, is that Foerster is in good shape.
Foerster "should be ready for the season," Flyers general manager Danny Brière told longtime writer Bill Meltzer of Hockey HotStove via text last week, while also relaying that the 23-year-old's treatments have gone well.
Reached by text today, Flyers GM Daniel Briere said Foerster appears likely to be able to start the 2025-26 season on time. https://t.co/keu1OLX3XZ
— Bill Meltzer (@billmeltzer) August 14, 2025
Foerster scored a career-best 25 goals last season, taking up a key part on the Flyers' most consistent line of himself, center Noah Cates, and fellow winger Bobby Brink.
As a two-way skater who openly said his focus was on the defensive end of his game upon first breaking into the NHL, the former first-round draft pick from 2020 really started to tap into his offensive prowess in the back half of last year's schedule, which included utilizing an effective and quick wrist shot far more.
Foerster's surge through the late section of last season also pushed him to back-to-back 20-plus goal seasons, and all within his first two full years in the NHL. That was more than enough to cement him as a clear part of the Flyers' rebuilding efforts.
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The reveal of the infection, though, which came at the start of July, led to worry of a setback, and obviously, the possibility of missed time.
"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," Brière said of Foerster's infection back on July 1. "We don't know, and at that point, we'll re-evaluate and see if more needs to be done or, if we're lucky enough, that's the end of it, that 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."
Foerster and the Flyers appear to be in the best-case scenario, though, which is to the benefit of both of them.
At first, when the Flyers weren't sure if Foerster would miss any time, Brière said they would be looking toward a prospect to help fill the potential hole in the lineup.
Alex Bump, whose stock skyrocketed as he became a collegiate star at Western Michigan and then moved up to join the Phantoms for their AHL playoff run, appeared to be the leading candidate to take up the spot as the most NHL-ready.
But the Flyers might not need him to now. That said, the organization is still very high on Bump, and the 21-year-old wing prospect very much has a chance at earning an opening-night roster spot in training camp next month anyway after he impressed at the team's development camp earlier in the summer.
"I think Bump's put himself in a position, regardless of Foerster's injury, where he's gonna be competing for a job," Flyers assistant GM Brent Flahr said back at development camp. "He's done everything we've asked him to as far as his collegiate career, training since we've drafted him, and you can see the product out there for a young guy.
"He's not coming to camp to hope to play one day. He's coming to make the team."
The Johansen saga ends
A long-lingering beat, though one with little to say about for all that time, also reached its end last week.
An arbitrator ruled in favor of the Flyers on the grievance filed by center Ryan Johansen and the NHL Players Association for the termination of Johansen's contract from nearly a year ago.
TSN's Darren Dreger was first to report the ruling.
Sources say an arbitrator has ruled in favour of the Philadelphia Flyers in a grievance filed by the NHLPA following the termination of Ryan Johansen’s contract in August, 2024. The Flyers cited a “material breach” as grounds for termination.
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) August 12, 2025
The Flyers took Johansen and $4 million of his salary from the Colorado Avalanche to get the Sean Walker deal across the finish line back at the 2024 trade deadline.
It was almost entirely a cap absorption move, and Brière, when he spoke about it at the time, was pretty up front about there being no real plans for Johansen within the organization. Until the Flyers could find somewhere else to potentially send him, the idea was to have him report to the Phantoms in the AHL.
But then a hip injury suddenly popped up that left Johansen unable to play, even though he skated for the Avalanche a couple of days prior to the trade.
That summer, the Flyers placed Johansen on waivers for the purpose of terminating his contract, citing a "material breach."
The move was quickly followed up with objection from Kurt Overhardt, who was a polarizing figure in Philadelphia already as Johansen's and Cutter Gauthier's agent, and then the news that the NHLPA would be filing a grievance on Johansen's behalf.
There was little update on the case's status after, as neither party could really comment on it.
It's in the rearview now.
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