John Tortorella discusses the future of a very important Flyers Player

Tortorella is one of those old school very vulgar coaches that demands the most of his players at all time. One player that's came up alot lately is Flyers defenceman Ryan Ellis. After suffering a injury to his pelvic region cost Ellis all but four games last season.

Fletcher would touch base on Ellis mentioning he's doing rehabilitation and is undetermined when he's likely to return, But it's unclear when Ellis will be cleared to join his teammates infact On July 13, Fletcher said Ellis had progressed but there was "no guarantee when he'll be back."

Tortorella was recently asked about Ellis and though he didn't provide any updates on his condition he would say how important a player Ellis is to the Flyers line up.

"I've talked to Ryan twice once at the practice facility a few weeks ago, we had a conversation," Tortorella said in a phone interview with NBC Sports Philadelphia. "It's funny, I just called him today, left a message just to check on his rehab. I'm not sure. I'm not going to sit here and lie to you and say he's going to be ready to go. I'm not sure. I don't think he's sure.

"So that's something we're going to have to monitor and see where we go. If he's healthy and he's ready to go mentally to play, it's a huge plus for our back end, both defensively and offensively. But we're going to have to wait and see, we'll see what happens."

"You look at Ryan Ellis, you look at Sean Couturier, you look at Kevin Hayes, right up the middle of the ice, that's where you build your team," Tortorella said. "What if those guys are healthy? What happens to your club?"

- John Tortorella

Ellis is 31 and was acquired last summer from the Nashville Predators would also mention the goal of returning to the lineup is very important to him.

"I want to play here, I want to be a part of the solution here, I think I can really help out this team," Ellis said in April at his end-of-the-season press conference. "My family loves it here, my kids love it here, we've found a great school. If I was playing, this would be Heaven for me. The only reason it's not is because I'm not playing."

- Ryan Ellis