Breaking: Flyers first round pick officially ruled out for the rest of the season.

The Philadelphia Flyers have suffered a huge loss and it's one that may have a long term impact on the franchise moving forward.

According to a report from Bob Rotruck, the radio broadcast voice for the Flyers American Hockey League affiliate the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, Flyers first round draft choice German Rubstov has been sidelined for the entire 2018 - 2019 regular season with a season ending injury. The 20 year old Rubstov was the victim of a hit from Cody Goloubef on November 16th when the Phantoms were facing off against the Providence Bruins and it appears that is when he suffered the injury. We do not know the nature of his injury at this time but at the end of the day what really matters is that he will miss the remainder of his first professional season.

The 20 year old Rubstov was in in the midst of his first season as a pro, at least in North America, and was off to a really solid start with the Phantoms thus far. Through 14 games in the American Hockey League he had already picked up 6 goals and 54 assists for a total of 10 points and boasted a plus minus rating of +3 on the season. It seemed like it would be a relatively short journey to reach the NHL level for Rubstov but this major injury may have set back his development significantly. That being said we likely won't really know until training camp next season, assuming he is healthy enough to participate at that time.

Rubstov was drafted to be a Sean Couturier like player, a forward with a very solid two way game that the Flyers could count on to be reliable defensively and he joined the Acadie-Bathurst Titan of the QJMHL last season, a team run by Couturier's father of all things. That being said injuries have really hampered his development so far and that was starting to be a very serious concern even prior to today's latest announcement. The fact that injuries have been piling up already in his young career has to be a major red flag now considering how serious this latest one is, but hopefully it won't ruin his prospect of playing for the Flyers one day.

[pub]