The Flyers know replacing Tyson Foerster can’t be done with just one guy.

He was playing all-situation minutes and leading the team in goals. At just 23 years old, he has become a foundation piece to the Flyers’ rebuild.

On Wednesday, when the Flyers host the Sabres (7:30 p.m. ET/TNT), they’ll start a stretch of two to three months without their key winger. Foerster could be out until after the Olympic break with an upper-body injury.

“Those aren’t guys you can just plug in and out,” Travis Konecny said after morning skate. “First of all, off the ice, he’s a huge part of the locker room. And then on the ice, he’s one of our best defensive guys, one of the better sticks on our team, for sure. On the offensive side of things, there are not many guys that can hit a puck the way he can. It’s tough, but there’s nothing you can do, it’s part of it, every team goes through that.”

Rick Tocchet agreed.

“We really rely on a chunk of leaders, the messaging of, ‘Hey, we can still be a good hockey team, we can still win games, we can still do a lot of things,'” the Flyers’ head coach said. “The poor-is-me stuff, that can’t linger in that room.”

In Foerster’s absence, Nikita Grebenkin will see an expanded role. The 22-year-old has played mostly on the fourth line, but has the playmaking ability to scale the lineup.

“He plays with the puck and has confidence, it’s pretty fun to watch,” Owen Tippett said. “He’s a special player and I think the more he plays, the better he’s going to get. … You never want to see a guy like Tys go down, but kind of the treat of it is it opens up spots for other guys to step up.”

Here’s how the Flyers looked at morning skate.

Forwards

Trevor Zegras-Christian Dvorak-Travis Konecny
Matvei Michkov-Sean Couturier-Owen Tippett
Nikita Grebenkin-Noah Cates-Bobby Brink
Nicolas Deslauriers-Rodrigo Abols-Garnet Hathaway

Defensemen

Cam York-Travis Sanheim
Emil Andrae-Jamie Drysdale
Nick Seeler-Egor Zamula

Goalies

Samuel Ersson (starter)
Dan Vladar

Tocchet wants to see Grebenkin consistently skating and in attack mode. He liked what he saw from Grebenkin at morning skate after the head coach thought the Russian winger missed an odd-man opportunity in the Flyers’ 5-1 loss Monday night to the Penguins.

“Against Pittsburgh, he had all day to go in and fire the puck, but he waited, he tried to make a pass and the guy picked it off,” Tocchet said. “We talked about it and then today, his 2-on-1s were outstanding. Hopefully he can apply that in a real game.

“To be an NHL player, you’ve got to take that information. Hopefully he gets a 2-on-1 tonight and he moves his feet. I think he will because he did it today in practice.”

Grebenkin has played 9:52 minutes per game. We’ll see how much that changes because of Foerster’s injury.

“Tyson is a big guy for the Flyers,” Grebenkin said. “I have maybe more time, it’s a big chance for me and I want to help the team every time.”

The Flyers understand it’ll have to be a committee approach without Foerster.

“Can everybody give themselves five percent better?” Tocchet said. “You add all those up, it helps.”