Flyers defenseman Emil Andrae has been loaned back to the Flyers AHL affiliate, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, per the team this morning.
The move definitely comes as a shock; Andrae has made the most of his 20 games in the NHL this season and seemed to be playing like a top-four defenseman on a Flyers team with a struggling group of blueliners.
Emil Andrae is one of 3 defensemen for the Flyers not to have a negative plus-minus – Nick Seeler (+1) and Helge Grans (0) are the other two. Sending Andrae to join Grans in Lehigh Valley will leave Seeler as the only positive defenseman for the Flyers.
Andrae averaged the fifth-most time on ice per game of the Flyers d-corps, with 19:18 minutes per game. He tallied one goal and four assists (five points), along with 10 takeaways and 28 blocked shots.
Andrae was responsible for 23 giveaways, the 14th most on the team. Only three defensemen have fewer turnovers than Andrae, two of them being Grans and Erik Johnson, who have combined for 21 games played total this season. The other is Yegor Zamula. Cam York is tied with Andrae.
This move came as a shock. While his performance Thursday against the Kings certainly did not help his case, one game should not be a reason to send a player down to the AHL.
The only justification I can think of is Andrae was likely to be scratched again. He seemingly only drew into the lineup Thursday due to Cam York being scratched for a reset game. Maybe Andrae was press box bound yet again, and the team would rather him get reps in Lehigh.
Regardless, the move is certainly a confusing one. With Andrae playing the way he was, especially with how the rest of the defense has played this season, it does not quite make sense.
With the roster freeze being last night, the move was reportedly just for roster flexibility, and we will likely see a forward get brought up to fill out the roster in the near future.
Will this be a long-term move for Andrae? Only time will tell, but if this move was just for flexibility, we should see Andrae back after the holiday roster freeze concludes.
