The Flyers just took a serious hit - Tyson Foerster is out for the next 2-3 months with an upper-body injury. That’s not just a key player down. That’s a major chunk of their offense, their special teams, and a whole lot of versatility suddenly missing from the lineup.
This isn’t just about replacing goals. It’s about replacing the kind of two-way impact Foerster brings every night - the kind that doesn’t always show up on the scoresheet, but absolutely shows up in the win column. And now, the Flyers are going to have to find a way to fill that void by committee.
“Could everybody give himself five percent better, you know?” head coach Rick Tocchet asked after the team’s morning skate at Xfinity Mobile Arena. “You add all those up, it helps, right?”
That’s the ask. Five percent more from everyone.
Because no single player is going to replicate what Foerster was doing - leading the team in goals, driving play at even strength, and logging big minutes on both special teams units. He was having a breakout season, plain and simple.
Monday night’s game against Pittsburgh - where he scored his 10th goal of the year before leaving with the injury - was just the latest example of how much he’s grown into a cornerstone piece.
Now? The Flyers have to pivot.
One of the first moves Tocchet is making: giving Nikita Grebenkin a shot higher up the lineup. The 22-year-old winger was skating with Noah Cates and Bobby Brink on Wednesday morning, a clear sign he’s getting a chance in a more offensive role when the Flyers face the Sabres later that night.
Grebenkin was the return in last March’s Scott Laughton trade with Toronto, and while he made the opening night roster, his role so far has been limited - mostly fourth-line minutes, mostly defensive assignments. But this is a player who came over from Russia with a reputation for creativity and offensive upside. Now, he’s getting a real opportunity to show it.
“For him, I just want him to play [with his] mind free,” Tocchet said. “But he’s gotta skate. He’s gotta hold on to pucks.”
Grebenkin’s ready. “It’s a big chance for me,” he said. “I want to help the team every time…Let’s go play.”
While Grebenkin gets his shot, the more established names on this roster are going to have to do more - and quickly. Matvei Michkov, Owen Tippett, Travis Konecny, and Trevor Zegras are the obvious candidates to pick up the slack offensively. All four are expected to be featured on the same power play unit with Travis Sanheim on the back end - a group that now carries even more weight with Foerster sidelined.
But this isn’t just about scoring more goals. It’s about maintaining structure, energy, and accountability - the kind of things that keep a team afloat when one of its best players goes down.
“When you lose somebody like that, it’s a committee thing,” Tocchet said. “I know it’s an overused word, but it is a committee.
There’s not one guy that can make up for a loss. To me, it’s a team thing.
So hopefully everybody has five percent better.”
That’s going to come down to leadership - not just from the bench, but from inside the room. Tocchet made it clear: the coaches will lead, but the players have to own it.
“It’s a dressing room thing,” Tocchet said. “It’s the next man up.
It’s not letting excuses in that room. When the coaches leave, it’s like, ‘Hey, we got this.’
We really rely on a chunk of leaders to really [message], ‘Hey, we can still be a good hockey team. We can still win games, we can still do a lot of things.’
The ‘poor is me’ stuff, that can’t linger in that room.”
Cates, who’s centered Foerster regularly going back to last season, echoed that sentiment. “In this league, you gotta step up, next guy up. Everyone’s gotta pull on the rope.”
That rope just got a little heavier. But if the Flyers want to stay in the fight without their top scorer, they’re going to have to find that extra five percent - from the top line to the fourth, from the net out.
And they’re going to have to find it fast.