Medvedev flies back to Philly with ‘upper-body injury’

EDMONTON, Alberta — The plan was for Evgeny Medvedev to take a skate Tuesday morning with Sean Couturier and Chris Conner.

A black practice jersey hung in the Russian defenseman's locker stall, but the player was nowhere to be found.

Instead of being at the rink, he was en route back to Philadelphia with what general manager Ron Hextall calls an "upper-body injury."

Monday Medvedev sat out against the Vancouver Canucks, but was a healthy scratch as far as the Flyers knew. He didn't say anything about the injury until telling director of sports medicine Jim McCrossin on the plane ride from Vancouver to Edmonton.

"Literally no one knew anything," Hextall said "and then on the plane Jimmy came up to me and was like, ‘Meddy’s hurt.’"

Perhaps a language barrier issue?

"I really don’t know," Hextall said. "I’m gonna get to the bottom of that, but at this point I don’t know because I didn’t see Meddy (Monday) night. I didn’t see him today because we sent him home to see our doctor."

Now the Flyers are hoping it will just be one more game he sits out. Monday night the team could have used Medvedev, who has been one of their better defensemen all season. The 33 year old will be evaluated by team doctors Wednesday back at home and the team will know more about his status then, but Hextall said he doesn't believe it will be a long-term issue.

His omission from the lineup means that Brandon Manning stays in despite a few costly errors in recent games. He was part of the play Monday night that made a one-goal game a 3-1 deficit at the hands of the Vancouver Canucks.

"I don’t know if it hit his stick or our stick but either way, I’ve got to be better," Manning said Monday. "I’ve been kind of getting caught in those situations lately. Either a bad bounce or a bad read by me, either way I’ve just got to be better in those situations."

The Flyers' roadtrip continues Thursday in Calgary against the Flames and ends Saturday against the Winnipeg Jets. The 6-foot-3, 198-pound Medvedev has one assist through 10 games and a minus-1, but was among the Flyers' best puck-moving defensemen.

If the Flyers don't put anyone else on injured reserve, they won't have a roster spot to make a call-up. They wouldn't have the money to afford one, either. The team currently has roughly $95,000 in salary cap space with a full, 23-man roster. Pierre-Edouard Bellemare is on injured reserve with a lower-body injury and is expected to be out close to two more weeks. Couturier is nearing a return from a concussion, at which point the Flyers could return Conner to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms and save $575,000 against the cap.

If Medvedev is out long term, the team would need $950,000 to recall Andrew MacDonald, who would be the most likely candidate to be called up from the Phantoms.

Dave Isaac; (856) 486-2479; disaac@gannettnj.com