The Philadelphia Flyers have made a roster move that not many fans will agree with and it involves young defenseman Emil Andrae.
Announced by the team on Friday afternoon, the Flyers have sent Andrae back down to the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Andrae played just one game since his recall a few days ago, where he played over 15 minutes against the Nashville Predators in a fairly solid win for the team.
In addition to the Andrae news, the Flyers have recalled center Jacob Gaucher from the Phantoms.
Transaction: We have recalled forward Jacob Gaucher from the @LVPhantoms (AHL). Defenseman Emil Andrae has been loaned to Lehigh Valley. pic.twitter.com/8VBGlTakjn
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) October 31, 2025
Andrae is now re-joining a Phantoms team that has a fairly busy schedule ahead of them. Lehigh Valley is in Hartford set to take on the Wolf Pack in a back-to-back series starting Friday night, and then will travel to face the Bridgeport Islanders next Wednesday, before traveling home to host the Toronto Marlies next weekend.
But like with any transaction that might displease a section of the fan base, the reasoning behind it is somewhat controversial but should be laid out anyways.
Why Flyers sent down Andrae once again
Andrae played a decent game on Thursday night but it wasn’t a singular performance that should demand a spot on the Flyers roster — outside of being a much, much better option than Egor Zamula, Noah Juulsen, and Adam Ginning. But, they needed to make a corresponding move with captain Sean Couturier out.
There has been no official word on a timeline, since the Flyers are off on Friday and we won’t hear from anyone until morning skate on Saturday, but recalling a center in Gaucher should tell us that he is at least expected to miss the next game or two. There was a possibility that the Flyers didn’t need to recall anyone with Couturier out, and head coach Rick Tocchet could have just worked with what he was given to fill out the forward lines, but bringing up Gaucher signals that he still wants Trevor Zegras to remain on the wing and roll the centers as Noah Cates, Christian Dvorak, Rodrigo Abols, and Jacob Gaucher — if we are reading this right.
With Couturier needing a replacement, in their mind anyways, a move needed to be made. As PHLY’s Charlie O’Connor hypothesizes, sending Andrae down was just the path of least resistance. The young defenseman does not need to go through waivers to be sent down — the only other waiver-exempt players are Matvei Michkov and Nikita Grebenkin. Why did the Flyers not just place one of Zamula, Ginning, or Juulsen on waivers and send them down instead? It’s never great to potentially lose a player off your roster for nothing and considering that they are still here, they’re playing well enough in Tocchet’s eyes that they aren’t a detriment to this team winning hockey games.
That’s the formula that makes this equation make a bit of sense. Additionally, Charlie adds that he wouldn’t be surprised to see Andrae brought back up soon. It is just a bit of a numbers game and being extremely cautious to not lose one of the veteran players.
Soon enough, the team is going to have to figure out what is going on with their bottom pair. Neither of the three larger blueliners have been good enough to be guaranteed a spot — so when Rasmus Ristolainen returns from injury in a month or so, many will believe and the Flyers will probably be pushed on this, that the best course of action would be to bring Andrae up and have him next to Ristolainen for that third pair.
It’s annoying for now, as we just want to see this team be as good as it possibly can be and that most likely is with Andrae in the lineup, but in this early-season situation where things are still not as fluid and the team is winning hockey games, there’s a nugget of logic. Still, it’s slightly annoying.
