Patrick hoping to head into 2021 with clean bill of health

Nolan Patrick’s long, strange sick bay trip might be at an end, and maybe the Flyers’ former No. 2 overall pick doesn’t want to push his luck by talking about it.

“It’s obviously been a while since I’ve participated in everything with the team,” said Patrick, now 22 and nearly two years older than when he last played in a Flyers game. “I’ve been scrimmaging the last couple of weeks since I’ve been here, so pretty used to that. It was a good day out there today.”

Patrick didn’t want to ruin Monday by risking a detailed answer on the debilitating condition that has dominated his professional life since the summer of 2019.

“I’m not going to get into too much detail of how my head feels,” he said of the chronic migraines. “I’m going to see how camp goes and go from there.”

Patrick was essentially assessing himself on the first day of the Flyers’ short but intense training camp ahead of the shortened 2021 regular season, which kicks off in an empty Wells Fargo Center against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Jan. 13.

As they will do for all but one day this week, the team split into two practice groups Monday at the Skate Zone training complex, then held a miniscrimmage between the groups afterward.

That’s probably as close to real game conditions as Patrick has experienced since he was felled by what was termed a “migraine disorder” during a regular Flyers training camp two Septembers ago. What had been occasional headaches during the summer was knocking him for a loop then. Since, he’s endured as frustrating a stretch as any Flyers player could expect to endure.

It wasn’t as shocking or inspiring as 24-yearold teammate Oskar Lindblom’s battle with and return from Ewing’s sarcoma, but Patrick’s repeated attempts to rehab his body and head would only wind up in painful recurrences of headaches and other symptoms.

Like Patrick, Lindblom was looking fit and ready during this first onice camp day. He’s also not pressing his health luck.

“We’re just trying to be relaxed out there and have fun,” Lindblom said. “Everything’s very good. You can’t do much about the things in the past. We’re just trying to look forward and do our thing out there.”

Patrick has had a brush or two with concussions — once after getting hit in the back of the helmet with a slapshot — but no connection to the migraine troubles has been definitively identified. But in an Oct. 2019 interview, general manager Chuck Fletcher said, “Nolan does have a history of migraines, going back to when he was younger.”

Either way, Patrick wants to leave what is past where it belongs.

“I’m not going to really go into detail about last season. That’s obviously behind us now, and I’m looking forward to getting back this season and hopefully get back as soon as I can,” Patrick said. “It’s obviously mentally tough whenever you are injured (and just) watching. Obviously, you want to be out there. It’s a tough injury that affects you mentally more than others would, but I feel good.”

Just as Lindblom, who was one of the Flyers’ leading scorers on what would become a very different kind of 2019-20 season when he was diagnosed in Nov. 2019, served as an inspiration when he returned for two playoff games last summer, Patrick’s presence on the ice is a welcome sight.

“I see the excitement in him about being back with his teammates, about working and having fun,” head coach Alain Vigneault said. “I see the excitement in his teammates with him being back . ... I think for him and for our team, it was a positive day, a step forward, and we’ll take it a day at a time and see how he’s doing.”

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With prospect Zayde Wisdom not on the ice, Vigneault was asked about his status. “We’ve been told from our team and from the league, when a player is not on the ice during training camp, we’re supposed to say he’s not available today,” the coach said. “That’s the message that we have gotten.”

Unlike the guessing game with missing players that went on during the playoff bubble days over the summer, however, Vigneault said more info would soon be on the way.