Flyers' Joel Farabee could miss start of 2022-23 season after disk surgery

Last September, the Philadelphia Flyers locked forward Joel Farabee down on a six-year, $30 million extension that will only come into effect at the start of next season. 

It appears Farabee could miss at least some action early into the campaign. 

Per ESPN and Adam Kimelman of the NHL's website, Farabee underwent disk replacement surgery in his cervical region on Friday. The 22-year-old is expected to need three to four months to recover, and that timeline means he could be a spectator for the start of the 2022-23 season. 

As noted by ESPN stats, Farabee finished the 2021-22 campaign fifth on the Flyers with 34 points and fourth with 17 goals tallied across 63 games. Kimelman explained that Farabee missed time in December with an upper-body injury and was then sidelined for roughly a month later in the winter due to a different upper-body injury. 

The rebuilding Flyers finished this past season at 25-46-11 and dead last in the Metropolitan Division. They made headlines last week, though, when they hired John Tortorella to be their next head coach after they parted ways with former assistant and interim coach Mike Yeo in early May. Yeo replaced Alain Vigneault, who was fired on Dec. 6, 2021.