Dave Isaac | NHL Writer

VOORHEES — It wasn’t until a couple weeks before the Flyers opened training camp that Nolan Patrick really thought the start of his season was in jeopardy.

His offseason was choppy. He worked out for “a good chunk of the summer” and had a base that he was trying to hit and couldn’t. He had headaches and told Flyers general manager and team president Chuck Fletcher of them back in June but trudged on with his offseason routine.

At training camp, the team initially called Patrick’s ailment an “upper-body injury.” Several doctors appointments later and trips to see neurologist Dr. Jeffrey Kutcher from the University of Michigan, they came to the conclusion that Patrick has migraine disorder.

Fletcher said back in September that rest and medication would be part of the treatment process and that Patrick’s family has a history of migraines, but the 2017 second-overall pick isn’t sure if that’s a factor.

“I don’t know. I’m not a doctor,” Patrick said Wednesday after his first full practice with the team this season. He’s been on the ice for parts of others but left early. He’s still wearing a white jersey, indicating that he hasn’t been cleared for contact. “I don’t know how it works. I don’t know if it’s from the past or something that happens.

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“I can tell what progress is. It’s slow, but obviously I notice it.”

It's also important to note that in his first two seasons, Patrick has had multiple hits to the head. Most recently he was hit in the back of his head on the right side with a shot from New York Islanders forward Cal Clutterbuck last season on March 3.

The Flyers say that Patrick’s timeline is “week-to-week,” which is purposefully vague.

This isn’t as simple as a broken bone which heals one day or even a soft-tissue injury which can have some degree of effectiveness. The next step comes whenever Patrick feels ready for it and when asked how many consecutive good days he’s had, Patrick wouldn’t answer saying, “I’m not gonna give much detail.” The fact that modern medicine doesn’t have many clear answers for ailments of the brain is an extra challenge in his recovery.

“It’s really frustrating,” he said. “You don’t know any timeline. Obviously it’s been getting better but it’s pretty frustrating.”

The last several days the Flyers have practiced, Patrick has been on the ice for at least some of the session.

Coach Alain Vigneault knows Patrick isn’t in his plans yet, but the player has been in meetings and Vigneault thinks he’s grasped the Flyers’ new system.

“A couple of times a week I’ll get feedback from our medical crew on where he is,” Vigneault said. “I do like when I see him on the ice, obviously. Today he looked real good. He looked smooth. He killed penalties in a couple of instances. He’s week-to-week, I think Chuck called it. I know he wants to get back. We’ll see. We’ll play this by ear and see what the doctors say.

“I would say at this stage he’s gonna need full practices, more than two or three (before he returns to the lineup). I can’t give you a timeline. I do know…I think everybody can tell by the way he’s skating on the ice that there’s some progression. To what extent, I haven’t had my weekly feedback yet but I am very pleased when I see him on the ice.”

Patrick looks different in a couple ways. For one, his long hair was cut at some point during training camp and no longer flows out of the back of his helmet. He also looks a bit slimmer and was listed at 203 pounds last season, five heavier than the Flyers list him now.

Another noticeable change is that he’s been wearing a tinted visor since for the last couple weeks. Shayne Gostisbehere has been wearing one for more than a season now and said that Patrick has been hitting him up for advice.

“He’s tried it and has tried different tints,” Gostisbehere said last week. “He’s in a different boat than me. I did wear one after my concussion, but it wasn’t because of the concussion. The buildings are just too bright these days. If you go into any building besides maybe St. Louis, it’s just so bright and I just needed to dim it down a little bit. He’s teetering. He’s messing around with different levels of tint. I think more and more guys are going to it.”

Whenever Patrick returns to the lineup, it would change the look of the team in a pretty big way.

At that point, Claude Giroux probably wouldn’t be playing center anymore. The Flyers and their captain prefer him at wing anyway, but Monday against Vegas and in Wednesday’s practice Giroux was in the middle. Sean Couturier and Kevin Hayes would likely be above Patrick on the depth chart, but Scott Laughton potentially centering the fourth line, or even current call-up Mikhail Vorobyev, would have the Flyers look even deeper than they already are at center.

In order to do that, Patrick may have to play a game or two in the minors. Typically, injured players can be sent down to the AHL on a two-week conditioning stint. Patrick’s case is a little different because he’s still waiver exempt for nine more NHL games, so they could send him to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms for longer if they so choose.

“I have no idea. That’s not my decision to make,” Patrick said when asked if a stint in the minors is on the docket for him. “If that does happen, it’s obviously something that will help to just pop into a game and get going. It obviously depends on when I’m back, what our lineup looks like at the time, if we have guys hurt. I don’t know. It’s not my decision.”

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Dave Isaac joined the Courier-Post in April 2012 after covering the Flyers for three seasons elsewhere. Contact him on Twitter @davegisaac or by email at disaac@gannett.com.