Flyers odds and ends: Tyson Foerster is on track, Sam Ersson is headed for a big year

The Flyers still seem to expect Tyson Foerster to be ready for the start of the season, per Keith Jones' latest update on Wednesday, with the caveat that general manager Danny Briere will be able to share more soon.

"I know he's doing well, so that's the great news there," said Jones, the Flyers' president of hockey operations, during a press conference at the team's training center in Voorhees.

"But I'll leave that for Danny when he talks.

I think he'll talk next week, probably.

But yeah, Tyson's on pace to be there for us when the season starts, but Danny will get more into it." Foerster suffered an arm injury while skating for Team Canada at the IIHF World Championship back in the Spring.

An infection in his elbow developed from it, and initially, there was no clear timetable for a return , which lent to concern that the young winger could miss time.

But Briere texted longtime Flyers beat Bill Meltzer ( of Hockey HotStove ) that Foerster was doing well and Should be ready for the season" a few weeks ago.

Jones relayed a similar message on Wednesday, and Foerster was on the ice in Voorhees on Thursday ahead of the Flyers' rookie camp sessions, per NBC Sports Philadelphia's Jordan Hall and granted, in a non-contact capacity.

Tyson Foerster here for a group workout in non-contact fashion as he recovers from having surgery for infection in elbow.

Keith Jones said Wednesday that Foerster is in line to be ready for start of season.

pic.twitter.com/k1Y7Ch0KXH Still, it all points to Foerster being on track, which would be huge for the Flyers, as it keeps their breakout forward from the past couple of years in the lineup.

A few other beats on the Flyers...

Belief in Ersson While speaking to the local media on Wednesday, Jones ran down the list of players he safely believed will progress this coming season.

He mentioned Foerster, Noah Cates, Bobby Brink, a rebound year for Cam York, and Travis Konecny and Travis Sanheim as the longtime veterans.

Then Jones got to goaltending, and specifically Sam Ersson.

"I'm a big believer in Sam Ersson," Jones said.

"I think that Sam is in a position now age-wise, and being pushed by the depth at that position that's there now, it's going to benefit him as well.

I think that Sam is going to stand up to the test here this year." In a way, the Flyers have been waiting for him to.

Ersson impressed during the first half of the 2023-24 season as Carter Hart's backup, and ended up playing so well that he had worked himself up into an even split of the starts by January of that year.

Then Hart went on leave to face trial for his alleged part in the 2018 Hockey Canada sexual assault case.

Ersson was suddenly the Flyers' No.

1 goalie, and with the team in the middle of a surprise playoff push.

He held up for a while, but by the end, Ersson was gassed from playing nearly every night, and former coach John Tortorella admitted that was largely his fault because there was no other dependable option behind him for that last stretch.

The Flyers went on to miss the playoffs, but with the hope going into the summer that Ersson could learn how to take on a No.

1 goalie's workload and fully take over the Flyers' net.

But through injuries and inconsistency in various stretches throughout last season, he never did.

So the goaltending situation for the Flyers is, once again, open.

Briere signed Dan Vladar in the offseason and said he would have a chance to come in and compete to be a No.

1 .

Ivan Fedetov and Aleksei Kolosov are still in the picture for the time being, too.

And down the line, prospect Carson Bjarnason will be with the Phantoms in the AHL this season, and could possibly be looking at that first NHL look late in the schedule depending on how he develops.

However, there is still room for Ersson to bounce back and prove himself the clear starter.

There's just a bit more heat on him now to prove it, but perhaps by design.

The coming season will be a pivotal one for Sam Ersson.

A tedious timeline Jones and Flyers governor Dan Hilferty emphasized constantly on Wednesday that the aim for the team this year is to be visibly better on the ice from night to night .

But the two executives constantly avoided promising anything, too.

It's been five years since the Flyers have made the playoffs.

They want to get back, sooner rather than later, but as much as they do, Hilferty noted that he doesn't want to see the team rush to get there for maybe one shot, then immediately fall apart.

When the Flyers do finally get back, Hilferty said he wants that eventual return to be the start of a run of "sustainable excellence," where they're in the playoffs every year and with a real shot at winning the Stanley Cup.

But that goes back to what Jones, Hilferty, and Briere have been stressing about the organization's efforts for nearly the past three years, and what the current landscape of the NHL has largely proven over the past decade: You have to draft, develop, and build from within, and you have to be patient and commit to your plan.

And that can be tedious and take forever.

It's easy to forget now, with how good they've respectively been for so long, but look at the Carolina Hurricanes and Florida Panthers, for example.

Before Carolina became the constant playoff contender and before Florida roared into the back-to-back Stanley Cup juggernaut it is now, those two teams were toiling away as afterthoughts for years, but with crucial young names like Sebastian Aho, Jaccob Slavin, Aaron Ekblad, and Sasha Barkov in place and steadily building up their respective cores.

Those aforementioned names are each known NHL stars now, and crucial parts of their teams, but each of them were drafted no later than 2015.

The Hurricanes didn't see the playoffs for another several years after getting Aho, and the Panthers didn't truly become this version of the Panthers until they took the big swing on the Matthew Tkachuk trade to shift into a defensive identity where he, Barkov, and Sam Bennett just wear the opposition down.

Turning it back to the Flyers, they have their pieces.

They have Matvei Michkov, they have Foerster, and they have Porter Martone on the way.

But rebuilding takes forever, especially when there's a deliberate intent to get it right, like the Flyers for right now still seem to be on.

And it does take a lot of patience, and putting up with a lot of tedium for the fans who tune in every night, until it all finally does click.

OK, about Carter Hart The Flyers have uncertainty in goal again.

Carter Hart, who was found not guilty in the aforementioned Hockey Canada sexual assault case that required him to leave the Flyers two years ago, sits there now without a contract and pending reinstatement from the NHL.

The thought was out there of whether the Flyers would possibly take a look again.

Hilferty was quick to say "no comment" with a deferral to the league.

"At this point, we're gonna make no comment on that situation," Hilferty said.

"The NHL has made it clear they'll speak first, but right now, we're not prepared to comment at all about the Carter Hart situation.

"The NHL has told us they're running the show." SIGN UP HERE to receive the PhillyVoice Sports newsletter Follow Nick on Twitter: @itssnick Follow Nick on Bluesky: @itssnick Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports.

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