The Philadelphia Flyers needed to make a decision with defenseman Cam York returning to action on Thursday and it looks like they have. Controversially, the Flyers have sent young blueliner Emil Andrae back down to the AHL after just one single game.
The Flyers have not made the demotion official, but according to the Inquirer’s Jackie Spiegel, Andrae is no longer listed on the Flyers roster on the official media website. It was later confirmed by a source from the team that Andrae has in fact been sent back down.
Looks like Emil Andrae has been sent back to Lehigh Valley. His name is no longer on the #Flyers roster on the NHL media site.
— Jackie Spiegel (@jackiespiegel93) October 15, 2025
The news isn’t a huge surprise considering that Cam York should be ready to go when Philadelphia plays visiting Winnipeg tomorrow night. York was seen paired with Travis Sanheim during practice Wednesday as Philadelphia’s top pair. So putting him back into the lineup is a no-brainer.
So York is back with Sanheim, boding well for his status on Thursday.
— Charlie O'Connor (@charlieo_conn) October 15, 2025
The bottom two pairs… I guess either could be the 3rd pair on Thurs? Ginning-Juulsen makes more sense because Ginning did get 20 minutes on Monday & they've liked his play. Would be surprised if he got sat.
What might be disappointing to some is the fact Andrae played fairly well on a third pairing against the defending Stanley Cup champions Monday night. Andrae had played 10:22 of ice-time with a shot on goal. He also had a takeaway and a giveaway. Meanwhile, when the 23-year-old defenseman was on the ice, the Flyers had a 7-1 advantage in shot attempts, a 2-0 advantage in shots on goal, and even a 2-0 advantage in registered scoring chances. Basically, when Andrae was out there, there was nothing going on in the Flyers’ own end.
And while it was a very limited sample size, Noah Juulsen was not as much of a defensive liability next to Andrae compared to when he was playing with Egor Zamula.
With York coming back to the blue line, the Flyers had to make a decision: Waive one of Zamula, Juulsen, or Adam Ginning, or simply demote Andrae without needing to pass through waivers. The decision with the lowest amount of blowback and the potential of losing one of their roster players for nothing, was eventually made. Ginning was playing too well to earn a demotion, Juulsen is the new guy in town and has familiarity with Rick Tocchet, and while Zamula has been playing poorly, is a Russian pal for Matvei Michkov and the Flyers don’t want to potentially lose him to the waiver wire. Andrae was the lowest defenseman in the depth chart, having just returned from starting his season with the Phantoms already, and was promptly sent back.
If anything, Andrae returns to the Phantoms, keeps his head down and keeps playing strong. In his one appearance in the AHL so far, the young defenseman earned two assists and looked dominant. It should definitely put him at the top of callups again for the Flyers should one of their defensemen get injured or if Zamula continues to play as mediocre (or worse) as he has thus far. Andrae certainly didn’t do anything to embarrass himself on Monday night. In fact, it might have made the leash that much shorter for Zamula in the coming weeks, particularly if Rasmus Ristolainen is getting a bit closer to returning. The Russian defender should be looking over his shoulder given what Ginning and especially Andrae seem capable of doing.
