Veteran forward Ryan Johansen’s future with the Flyers organization remains hazy.
According to a team official, Johansen flew to the Philadelphia area earlier this week to undergo tests with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms medical staff on Wednesday and help determine the severity of an apparent hip injury. The Flyers were unaware of any sort of injury when they acquired Johansen and a 2025 first-round pick on March 6 for defenseman Sean Walker. Johansen’s agent Kurt Overhardt declined to comment on the injury.
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Johansen played in all 63 Avalanche games this season before the trade, posting 13 goals and 10 assists for 23 points. In the Avalanche’s previous game before the trade on March 4, Johansen saw 10:58 of ice time and finished his last shift with about one minute remaining in regulation of a 5-0 win over Chicago.
On the day of the trade, Johansen took part in the Avs’ morning skate. The Flyers learned of the injury after they placed Johansen on waivers, moments after the trade was announced.
The severity of the injury will determine what comes next. The Flyers were hoping that Johansen would report to the Phantoms in an attempt to get his career back on track after what has been a difficult season for the 31-year-old, although the primary reason they acquired Johansen — and $4 million of his $8 million salary cap hit — was because of the draft pick that came with it.
Regarding why they didn’t want Johansen on the NHL roster, the Flyers are reluctant to make bold changes to their dressing room culture, something that they’ve labeled as the most important part of the rebuild and a reason for their surprising success this season, and they’re fully healthy up front. On Tuesday in their 3-2 win over San Jose, the Flyers iced Sean Couturier, Scott Laughton, Morgan Frost and Ryan Poehling down the middle, while newcomer Denis Gurianov got in the lineup ahead of healthy scratches Cam Atkinson and Nic Deslauriers.
Johansen and Flyers coach John Tortorella apparently didn’t see eye-to-eye during their brief tenure together in Columbus in the 2015-16 season.
According to The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline:
Only one period into (Tortorella’s) tenure — during the first intermission of a road loss in Minnesota — he confronted No. 1 center Ryan Johansen about his conditioning.
The Tortorella-Johansen relationship continued to broil — demotions, benching, healthy scratches, etc. — until Johansen was ultimately traded to Nashville for defenseman Seth Jones in early January.
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According to a report from Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, Johansen made an “attempt at reconciliation,” but it’s not believed that he and Tortorella have spoken since the trade.
A team official also strongly pushed back on any suggestion that Johansen’s situation has anything to do with prospect Cutter Gauthier getting traded to Anaheim in January. Gauthier and Johansen share the same agent in Overhardt.
If Johansen’s injury is serious enough, it would prevent the Flyers from potentially buying out Johansen in the offseason, although that was a decision they hadn’t made yet. While a buyout would reduce their salary cap hit next season, it would count for $1.33 million against the cap over the next two seasons. Depending on what the Flyers do in the offseason, they could decide that eating the entirety of Johansen’s salary cap hit for one season and getting it off the books for the 2025-26 season would be preferable.
In 905 career games with the Predators, Blue Jackets and Avalanche, Johansen has 202 goals and 376 assists for 546 points, and represented Columbus at the 2015 NHL All-Star game.
(Photo: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)