I wouldn't panic about it from a Flyers' perspective. Some of us have just watched the Josi-Ellis pair get burned in the playoffs for years, and that desire to break up the pair basically finally came to fruition this year, while we have 2 younger RD in Fabbro and Carrier who seemed to be better partners for Josi and Ekholm than Ellis has been. Ellis is just redundant on a pairing with Josi. They both kind of want to do the same thing, just Josi is far far better at it, so Ellis has been missing out, especially in terms of getting knocked off the PP1 unit.
Ellis needs to be your #1 RD, get 1st unit PP time, and be paired with a guy who will mind the store more on LD. Give him all that and he should be fine. If he stays healthy and you guys have a good season, he may even put up 50 points. He has had to adjust his game a little and become less of a battler defensively, because it finally became obvious even to him that he's just too small and weak to keep doing that as he ages. Fair enough. Now he tries more to be "savvy" instead. Just tell Carter Hart to watch out, because Ellis will try to steal his job playing goalie. And just screen Hart instead. Ellis needs a helping hand on D, and Josi wasn't very good at lending it. So how you use him is going to matter a lot.
Well for a few more years anyway. But I think we all fear that he'll become a boat anchor after that. He's not fast, and he does get hurt a fair bit, I don't see him aging well.
He seemed to be a respected leader, so you will get good "intangibles" from him anyway, despite whatever dropoff occurs with his game.