After losing Matt Carle to free agency and missing out on landing Ryan Suter or Shea Weber, the Flyers' defense corps was already looking suspect heading into 2012-2013, pending any future moves. They weren't terrible by any stretch, but they didn't look any better than the defense that wasn't good enough last year once Chris Pronger was lost.
This morning, the outlook got even more bleak as the team broke the news that Andrej Meszaros underwent surgery to repair a torn right achilles tendon. The team says he will be out indefinitely.
Losing Meszaros is obviously a major hit. Paul Holmgren had recently declared him healthy after requiring back surgery last season, which was great news given the uncertainty surrounding the blue line. The achilles injury happened while training last week in Slovakia though, and Bill Meltzer says that Meszaros could miss somewhere between half and "most" of the regular season.
The injury could force Homer to make a deal he might not otherwise have wanted to. We won't speculate too far into that just yet, but losing a top-4 defenseman while already looking to add one can't be a comforting feeling for the GM. The addition of Luke Schenn via the JVR trade will help, but he was already a question mark in terms of just how good he'll be after an inconsistent start to a promising career. Bruno Gervais' signing was intended to provide depth, but not "losing Meszaros for most of the season" depth.
On a related note, Homer probably shouldn't watch this video of Claude Giroux training today. It put us into a nervous fit worrying over every ligament below his ribs.
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