Defensively speaking, it’s already been a rough summer for the Flyers.
On Monday, it got worse.
A tweet sent out by Philadelphia’s official account reported defenseman Andrej Meszaros suffered a torn Achilles tendon while training in his native Slovakia -- this coming just days after Flyers GM Paul Holmgren said Meszaros was completely healed from last season’s back surgery.
“Andrej had successful surgery this morning to repair a torn right Achilles tendon,” Holmgren said in a statement. “The surgery was performed by Dr. Steve Raikin at Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia.
“Andrej was injured last week during summer training in Slovakia. Andrej will be out indefinitely.”
The typical recovery period for a torn Achilles can be six to eight months or more, which means Meszaros is possibly in danger of missing the entire 2012-13 season.
The loss is a huge one for the Flyers’ defense, especially given the assumed absence of Chris Pronger, the departure of free agent Matt Carle for Tampa Bay last month and the failed attempts to acquire defensemen Ryan Suter and Shea Weber. Meszaros, when healthy, is one of the team’s top D-men.
No matter how you look at it, the Flyers’ D is weaker now than it was a year ago.
The injury leaves Philly to start the season with a projected top-six of Kimmo Timonen, Braydon Coburn, Luke Schenn, Nicklas Grossmann, Bruno Gervais, and Andreas Lilja (one would expect Erik Gustafsson to be in the mix as well.)
So...P.K. Subban offer sheet, anyone?