No reason for Flyers, or anyone else, to worry about Patrick yet

Larry MacDougal / AP Nolan Patrick, the Flyers’ top draft pick, missed 35 games last season with the Brandon Wheat Kings because of two sports hernias. While playing in the Western Hockey League last season, for the Brandon Wheat Kings, Nolan Patrick had 46 points, including 20 goals in 33 games. He missed 35 games, though, because of two sports hernias, both of which caused knife-sharp pain to radiate throughout his lower stomach whenever he skated. He was asked Friday, during the Flyers’ development camp at the Skate Zone in Voorhees, how healthy he really was when he did make it on the ice. He estimated 75 at best, 60 percent at worst. Still, the injuries — and his decision to have William Meyers surgically repair one of the hernias on June 13, 10 days before the NHL draft — seemed to have contributed to his descent from the prohibitive No. 1 pick to No. 2, where the Flyers scooped him up.

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