The Philadelphia Flyers received brutal news regarding defenseman Ryan Ellis a few weeks back. However, the team's injury woes are not as bad as they originally seemed.

Forwards Sean Couturier and Kevin Hayes will be full participants in training camp beginning on September 21. Both players missed significant time last season with various injuries.

Couturier didn't play a game after December 18 last season. He underwent back surgery on February 11, and received full clearance a couple of weeks ago.

“I feel good,” the 29-year-old center said Monday. “I had a long recovery. (It) took longer than I thought, a lot of ups and downs, but now I'm feeling good and ready to go. Excited to get going again.”

Hayes underwent three separate surgeries last season on his abdominal region. He had 31 points in 48 games last season, with 22 of those points coming after March 5.

“This was the first summer I've had in probably two years where I entered into the training part of my summer where I was 100 percent and doing everything and nothing was really holding me back,” Hayes said.

The Flyers are heading into the first season under a new regime. They hired Stanley Cup-winning coach John Tortorella as their newest bench boss back in June. The Flyers hope that a healthy Couturier and Hayes can help turn the team around.

“I think on paper we have a really good team,” Hayes said. “But I think when you have such a bad year like we did last year, it just adds that to it. … I think with ‘Torts' leading the group, it's going to be a hard but fun training camp, and I think we're going to kind of embrace the hard work together and hopefully come together as a team quicker than it would normally take.”