Full Timeline of Flyers’ Ryan Johansen Saga… So Far

After acquiring him in a March 6 NHL trade deadline deal with the Colorado Avalanche, the Philadelphia Flyers and Ryan Johansen haven’t exactly gotten along. With Tuesday’s news of Johansen’s pending contract termination, things have taken another turn for the worse.

But, how did we get here in the first place?

Upon being dealt to the Flyers, it was reported that Johansen had initially been willing to stick things out and play. The Flyers had no intention of that happening, so Johansen was placed on waivers to assign him to the AHL and have him play for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

Johansen then disclosed a legitimate injury, as found by Flyers team doctors, preventing him from being assigned to the AHL as originally planned, despite having played for Colorado only two days prior to the trade and appearing in all 63 of their regular season games up to that point.

On March 17, only 11 days after the trade, Flyers general manager Danny Briere told Philly Hockey Now, “He claimed to be injured when we traded for him, so we had him see the doctors. They found an injury, so now he’s going to be rehabbing. You can’t send down a player who’s injured, so he’s going to be doing rehab until… we don’t know when.

“That’s about all I can say at this time, or all that I have,” Briere finished. “So, he’s back on our roster doing rehab and trying to get better.”

Briere also added that it was “fair to say” that Johansen’s injury caught the Flyers by surprise at the time the trade with the Avalanche was completed.

Additionally, the situation at hand has nothing to do with current Flyers head coach John Tortorella, who briefly coached Johansen with the Columbus Blue Jackets before the veteran center was shipped off to the Nashville Predators.

Said Briere: “As far as I know, I haven’t heard of any communication between Ryan and John. I don’t know for sure; they could have been talking to each other. But as far as I know, no, there hasn’t been any discussion.”

Months passed without changes in Johansen’s status or news about the 32-year-old’s future in the NHL or the Flyers organization. No surgeries were announced, long-term injured reserve was never utilized, and Johansen just sat on the Flyers’ roster with what had only been reported as a hip injury.

“All I can tell you is I don’t expect him to be back,” Briere said of Johansen at his exit interview in April. “He doesn’t think he can play hockey.”

Briere later spoke with Philly Hockey Now again on June 21, providing an update that “As far as I know, (Johansen is) doing stuff that isn’t too invasive to see if it can rectify his issues. I think he’s coming in here next week to meet with our doctors and trainers, so we’re hoping to get a little more clarification on the rest of the summer and leading into camp and the season next year.”

After the Flyers bought out veteran forward Cam Atkinson, a former teammate of Johansen’s in Columbus, on July 1, it appeared that the team was content with riding out the 2024-25 season with Johansen on the roster, perhaps on long-term injured reserve.

However, whatever happened in the last eight weeks leading up to Johansen’s contract termination on Tuesday indicates that this was certainly not the case.

The Flyers cited a “material breach” as the reason for Johansen’s placement on unconditional waivers and subsequent contract termination. This indicates the organization reviewed the contract and found that something Johansen did or is doing violates its language, thus giving them grounds to pursue termination.

Johansen’s agent, Kurt Overhardt, issued a statement alongside KO Sports Inc. on Johansen’s behalf, claiming, “Ryan Johansen has a severe hockey injury that requires extensive surgery, which has been scheduled,”

Given that Johansen’s injury was discovered nearly six months ago and the surgery has only just now been scheduled at the end of August, an “extensive” procedure with a lengthy recovery period would virtually end his 2024-25 season, prevent an offseason buyout, and eliminate the possibility of having to play for the Phantoms in the AHL by extension.

Johansen cleared unconditional waivers on Wednesday afternoon and now has 60 days to formally lodge an appeal.