Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard

Flyers’ Alex Lyon out four weeks, leaving goalie situation unsettled

The Flyers now have four goalies in camp trying to come back from surgeries or injuries.

Flyers goalie Alex Lyon makes a save against Montreal last season. He will be sidelined for four weeks.
Flyers goalie Alex Lyon makes a save against Montreal last season. He will be sidelined for four weeks.Read moreSTEVEN M. FALK

With the regular season starting in two weeks, the Flyers' goalie situation is extremely unsettled.

It became more unsettled Thursday when the team announced that Alex Lyon would miss four weeks because of a lower-body injury suffered during warm-ups before Tuesday's preseason game at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Before his injury, Lyon had been No. 3 on the Flyers' goalie depth chart. He had a 2.75 goals-against average and .905 save percentage in 11 games with the Flyers last season.

The Flyers now have four goalies in camp trying to come back from surgeries or injuries, along with 20-year-old Carter Hart, who has never played on the pro level except in exhibition games.

Besides Lyon, the Flyers have four other goalies in camp: Brian Elliott, Michal Neuvirth, Anthony Stolarz, and Hart.

Out of that group, Hart is the only one who isn't coming off surgery.

Elliott, who played one period in his preseason debut and allowed two goals to the Rangers on Wednesday, had abdominal surgery in February and hip surgery in the offseason. Neuvirth had both hips surgically repaired in the offseason, and Stolarz missed most of last season because of two knee operations.

The hope is that Elliott is ready to start the Oct. 4 season opener in Vegas against the Western Conference champion Golden Knights.

"I felt pretty good," Elliott said after stopping 11 of 13 shots Wednesday in a 6-4 win over the Rangers at Madison Square Garden. "It's a delicate type of balance to push it and I guess go easy on it some days. I think this was a good test to get 20 minutes of game action in."

Asked if he felt he would be ready for the regular-season opener, Elliott said, "It's always a question mark when you kind of have to have a balancing act like we do."

Stolarz made 31 saves and played solidly in Tuesday's 5-1 victory over the Islanders, filling in for the injured Lyon and playing the entire game.

"Obviously, Rome wasn't built in a day and I'm not going to be in tip-top shape after two games," Stolarz said. "… Overall, it was a step up from the last game, but I still think there's a lot of room for improvement."

The often-injured Neuvirth has played one period in the preseason, stopping eight of nine shots in Monday's 3-1 victory over the Islanders.

Neuvirth has to "prove to us he can stay healthy and play at a high level," general manager Ron Hextall said earlier in the week.

The Flyers would like Hart — who is regarded as their goalie of the future — to start the season with Lehigh  Valley in the AHL. He has played well in two preseason games spanning three periods, stopping 36 of 38 shots for a .947 save percentage.

The Flyers (3-1) will face the Islanders in a 7 p.m. exhibition game Friday in Allentown at the PPL Center, home of the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. It will be the Flyers' fourth game against the Isles in their first five preseason games.

Breakaways

The Flyers signed 6-foot-3, 160-pound defenseman Yegor Zamula to an entry-level deal and assigned him to Calgary in the WHL. Zamula, 18, was in camp on a tryout contract.. … The Flyers reduced their roster to 41 by sending 10 players to the Phantoms: Colin McDonald, David Kase, Zach Palmquist, Reece Willcox, German Rubtsov, David Drake, Frank Hora, Mike Vecchione, James de Haas, and Connor Bunnaman.