It was only a matter of time before the Philadelphia Flyers solved their logjam on the blue line with a move, and that turned out to be a rather controversial one with the team deciding to send down Emil Andrae. Andrae started the season in the AHL, played one game with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, then got recalled due to various injuries on the Philadelphia blue line.
Andrae looked the part as he ascended up the lineup, and his underlying numbers are still some of the best on the team, but recent defensive struggles resulted in becoming a healthy scratch and now sent back down to the Phantoms.
Flyers head coach John Tortorella was asked about the team’s decision to send down the young defenseman.
“It’s a no-brainer. It’s gotten too rich for him, easy part of the process. He gets a little bit up here, plays really well, starts falling off,” he said. “We are not going to keep putting a kid into a spot where we’re hurting him. He struggled against LA — hell of a spot I put him in against a really good team. But this is part of the process.”
While there was some speculation that the Flyers may have sent down Andrae to bank some cap space over the holiday break, Tortorella made it clear that those things didn’t factor in.
“I’m going to tell you all right now: It’s not that complicated in our decision-making. This is the right thing to do for him. There’s no secret stuff going on to get him through Christmas break,” Tortorella gestured. “He needs to go down and play because there’s been some struggles in his game. He made some good outlet passes against LA, it’s one of his strengths, but as far as defending and some of the other things that comes in his game, he needs to go back down and play, and we’ll see where we go.”
Andrae has now played 20 games with the Flyers this season. In 325:55 at 5-on-5, he leads the team with an expected goal share of 60.25%. The Flyers also have 54.7% of the shot attempt share (326-270) with him on the ice.
While Tortorella might look for a response from some players after being a healthy scratch, namely Matvei Michkov, that wasn’t the case with Andrae. The defenseman returned to action on Thursday night against the Kings, but that was only due to the poor play of Cam York.
“I wasn’t looking for a response. When a defenseman comes up from the American League — started off really well. But when you watch and the adrenaline wears off and things start getting caught up, all the conversations with Emil is what is best for him?” Tortorella explained. “So I take him out because I thought it was just a bit of a struggle for him. I wasn’t happy with Cam’s game, put Emil back in, wasn’t planning to put Emil back in but I thought Yorkie’s game has struggled so badly that we try Emil. And again, the strength of his game is going to be outlet passes, I thought he made some of those, but it’s a major struggle defensively.”
Andrae is probably one of the Flyers’ best six defensemen as it stands right now. He’s shown a lot more than Egor Zamula and has plenty of room to grow. If the Flyers were in a win-now mode, perhaps they’d be more amenable to sheltering Andrae and playing him to his strengths. But they’re still very much in a rebuild and helping Andrae reach his potential is more important right now.
“So I wasn’t looking for a response. That’s part of the process for a young defenseman from the American League to sit out some games, get back in, if he played well he probably wouldn’t have been sent down,” Tortorella continued. “But we’ve had these conversations now for a couple of weeks on Emil, what’s best for him. To me, and it may not be the right word to use, it’s an easy decision because it’s what’s best for him to help him develop. We’re still in that part of our phase as a hockey club is to try to help these guys develop. This is the right thing to do.”
Andrae returned to AHL action on Friday night with two shots on goal and a plus-one rating in the Phantoms’ 7-2 win over the Toronto Marlies. Lehigh Valley plays again tonight but not again until a back-to-back next weekend on December 27th and 28th
