Flyers Lose Two Players to Injury

The 2015 regular season has come to an abrupt end for a couple of Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday night, as forward Wayne Simmonds and defenseman Andrew MacDonald each suffered bone fractures and with only two and a half weeks left in the season, their recovery times are expected to bleed into the off-season.  With the club not expected to make the playoffs this year, the whole year will come to an end.

Simmonds suffered a broken bone in his foot after blocking a shot early in the game, after he had scored a goal.  There was no concrete timetable given for Simmonds' recovery, but with the team nine points back of the second wild card spot and behind two teams to get there, it really is unlikely that they will make it.

The 26-year old winger will finish the year with 28 goals and 50 points in 75 games, which has him ranked 86th overall in pool scoring, after Wednesday night's action.  He was taken 119th overall in the 6th round of the draft by Brenda & Seward, which was turning out to be a bargain pick before the injury, but now might be about the same as his draft position, with only a couple weeks left to play.

MacDonald's injury wasn't described in an incident, but the reports are saying that he had suffered a fractured hand, which likely has a longer lead time than the foot injury, but it is also a moot point with how much time is left in the season.

The rearguard will now end the year with 2 goals and 12 points in 58 games played, having been a healthy scratch a number of times and had some time off for personal reasons as well.  Dale B. chose MacDonald in the last round of the draft, 311th overall, but as of Thursday morning, he was ranked 523rd overall, nowhere near being equal to his draft position.

Neither pool team is figuring into the money situation, although Dale is still in the top six teams vying for the third segment and it wasn't like MacDonald was giving him much to go on in the race.  Dale's team is 23 points back, so it does seem unlikely that he'll cross the line in top spot, but at least his team was close.