Patrick decided to have surgery before draft, is doing well
When Nolan Patrick made an unscheduled trip to the Philadelphia area earlier this month, it was pretty clear he wasn’t dropping in just to say hi.
Patrick, one of two top prospects the Flyers would have a chance to choose as their own in last weekend’s NHL Draft, had a nagging history of hernia trouble the previous year. And Flyers general manager Ron Hextall presumably had already been clued in that the New Jersey Devils were going to select sleek center Nico Hischier with the No. 1 overall pick.
So Hextall and the Flyers would have a decision to make; trust the kid when he said he felt OK, or ... panic?
“I actually felt better about it once we found out what the issue was and what had been bothering him, really, the entire season,” Hextall said Friday about a draftee he hopes will lead the club far into the future. “Really, from last season’s offseason training and conditioning to the start of the year and throughout the year. For me, it provided us clarity.”
But that would only come after Patrick agreed to come to see Dr. William Meyers, a renown specialist in core muscle injuries based in Philadelphia, who deals with professional and amateur athletes across the spectrum. It didn’t take long before Meyers informed Patrick that his “sports hernia” injury had likely been misdiagnosed, and he would need a surgery to truly correct the problem.
“People asked if we were apprehensive, but I didn’t know, honestly, until we had him down to see our docs,” Hextall said. “When we ran him through the different appointments with our doctors we’d certainly felt a lot better about what was going on ... exactly what it was. It became pretty clear there was an issue and it needed to be dealt with.”
Patrick agreed right away to the surgery, and quickly enabled Hextall to stop wringing his hands because the kid had his agent, Kevin Epp, call Hextall and the Devils (just in case) to do something Hextall considered extraordinary.
“When he knew this was what needed to happen he was proactive,” Hextall said. “His agent reached out to us on his own and said Nolan wants to get it done on his own. We’re like, ‘Whoa.’ That essentially saved two weeks for him. I thought that certainly showed the character of the young man.
“That brought clarity in terms of what’s been nagging him the whole year, that there was something there . ... I don’t want to say it, but it was a positive. You look at everything that happened to him during the year (being) in and out ... now we know what the issue was.”
Had Patrick waited and gone through the Flyers for the surgery, the club wouldn’t have been able to schedule it, obviously, until a few days after the draft. As it stood, Patrick scheduled it just a few days after his visit here, on June 13. Now, he told Hextall in a recent call “he feels terrific.”
Patrick, fresh from being the Flyers’ marquee No. 2 overall selection last Friday night in Chicago, is scheduled to fly to Philadelphia again Sunday for follow up rehab assessments, and Hextall said the four to six weeks official timeline on his recovery dates to the day of surgery. So from that perspective, Hextall said he’s hoping Patrick can resume offseason training in “another two to four weeks here.”
Of course, he’ll probably be told to start gingerly. Hextall indicated the surgery was not like those procedures that both Claude Giroux and Shayne Gostisbehere underwent in May of 2016, which were closer to the hip area. Both players struggled during the season in trying to come back from those procedures. That’s not expected to happen with the 18-yearold Patrick.
“We’re looking at the big picture,” Hextall said. “We’re not looking at next season, we’re looking at hopefully the next 10 to 15 seasons. We’re looking at what’s best for Nolan long term ... and short term. He had this done pretty early. He’s got lots of time here and this is a full recovery in four to six weeks (from the surgery). This isn’t, ‘OK, you can start skating in four to six weeks.’ This is full recovery. So he’s got plenty of time.
“You never want any of your players to interrupt summer training, but he’s got long enough now where we believe he can be in shape and be at his best in training camp.”
*** Hextall said he could not comment on any specific players under contract, but he also didn’t deny reports that say the Flyers will sign unrestricted free agent goalie Brian Elliott when the UFA market opens for business Sunday at noon.
Elliott, 32, is 191-117-35 with a 2.42 goals-against average and .913 save percentage in 372 career games, including 339 starts. He’s played with four teams over his nine-year career, most successfully with St. Louis.
Despite Hextall saying recently he hadn’t shut the door on re-signing Steve Mason, clearly it’s been closed. Mason is being courted by a few teams, with Winnipeg said to be going hard for him.
Beyond Elliott, Hextall said he might only look at lower-level free agents that could help the Phantoms or maybe are good enough to be called up in injury situations. So consider Jordan Weal the Flyers’ big forward free agent catch. They re-signed him to a two-year, $3.5 million contract extension late Thursday.
Said Hextall: “If we didn’t sign Jordan Weal we might have looked for one more forward and tried to upgrade our skill level. But now that we have Jordan in the fold we’re going to hold there. ... Jordan’s played 33 NHL games and of course there’s risk. There’s not enough of a track record to say, ‘OK, stamp it in the books.’ But we do believe in Jordan. We believe in his character, we know the kid. He did a real good job for us last year.”