The Philadelphia Flyers could be without Joel Farabee for the first part of the 2022-23 season after the young forward underwent successful disc replacement surgery in his cervical region this morning. The procedure was completed at Penn Medicine, and Farabee is expected to make a full recovery in three to four months.
Neck or spinal surgery is certainly not what Flyers fans want to hear about their young star, who struggled along with the rest of the roster this season. The 22-year-old forward had just 17 goals and 34 points in 63 games, numbers that didn’t even match his shortened 2020-21 sophomore campaign. Signed long-term to a contract that carries a $5MM cap hit, Farabee is meant to be one of the pillars that the Flyers build around moving forward.
A three-month timeline would allow him to be ready for the start of the regular season but obviously, that is still in jeopardy at this point. An injury like this is not something a player would want to rush back from, even if the team expects to try and contend for the Metropolitan Division playoff spots after a poor year.
With the team also looking to clear salary this summer by moving James van Riemsdyk, according to The Fourth Period, there could be quite a different look upfront to start the year. Those two finished fourth and fifth in team scoring during the 2021-22 campaign, just behind Claude Giroux, who is an unrestricted free agent after a deadline trade.
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