Flyers' Travis Konecny, Travis Sanheim placed in COVID protocol

The Philadelphia Flyers’ nightmare season never ends. On Wednesday, the team has placed Travis Konecny and Travis Sanheim in the COVID protocol, making them unavailable to the team for Thursday's game against the Pittsburgh Penguins. The team has also loaned Felix Sandstrom and Kirill Ustimenko back to the AHL, clearing room for additional taxi-squad recalls if necessary.

Konecny and Sanheim join Ivan Provorov, Nick Seeler, Claude Giroux and Jackson Cates in the protocol, while several other key players remain out with injuries. Importantly, both new COVID additions played on Tuesday, logging 19 and 24 minutes, respectively, against the Anaheim Ducks. That wasn’t enough to help the Flyers win, however, as they continue to struggle through this disappointing season.

Now 13-14-6 on the year, Philadelphia will have to try to navigate the next little while without nearly their entire core. If Konecny and Sanheim tested positive, they will miss at least two games. Already the club had turned to young players like Cam York and Morgan Frost to carry some of the load, but now even more depth will be needed from the minor leagues.