Injuries on the Defense Has Flyers Thinking Trade

An already depleted Flyers blueline just got worse.

The team announced that defenseman Andrew MacDonald and Braydon Coburn will both miss four weeks. Coburn hasn't played since the season opener, blocking a shot from Boston Bruins defenseman Torey Krug with his left foot. MacDonald blocked two shots against the Pittsburgh Penguins Wednesday night and will also be out a month.

General manager Ron Hextall's phone is about to be very busy.

"Yeah, it's different if you lose a guy for a game or two or even a week," Hextall said. "It does change things. We gotta take a look what's out there and move on our best option."

Hextall would prefer to pull the trigger on a trade rather than keeping a call-up with the Flyers and doesn't have much breathing room, kind of like the offseason. With Kimmo Timonen (likely done for his career with blood clots) on long-term injured reserve, the Flyers have about $2 million in cap space. The team retroactively put Vinny Lecavalier (left foot injury) and Coburn on injured reserve as well.

"There's not a lot out there and the guys that are out there you wonder if they haven't played and what kind of shape they're in and stuff," Hextall said. "We gotta do our research here and come up with the best solution we can."

The likely scenario, assuming there isn't a trade at Flyers-o'clock (around 5:45 p.m. on a Friday) is that the team calls up one player to play against the Detroit Red Wings Saturday. They can roll with six defensemen until leaving next week for a Florida roadtrip.