The Philadelphia Flyers are bringing up one of their young blueliners down in the AHL as an insurance policy for Monday night’s game against the Colorado Avalanche.
As announced by the team on Monday morning, they have recalled defenseman Helge Grans from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on an emergency basis. In a coinciding move, the Flyers have placed goaltender Sam Ersson on the Injured Reserve list.
Injury updates: Goaltender Samuel Ersson (lower body) has been placed on the injured reserve. Defenseman Emil Andrae is out tonight vs. Colorado (mid-body).
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) November 18, 2024
Additionally, defenseman Helge Grans has been recalled on an emergency basis from the @LVPhantoms (AHL). pic.twitter.com/pCfjzSns57
An emergency recall is used when a team cannot put six defenseman (or 12 forwards or two goaltenders) in the lineup. With Emil Andrae unavailable and Cam York not back quite yet, the Flyers had to make this move.
Grans, 22, is in his second season with the Flyers organization after being the one prospect that came over from the Los Angeles Kings in the three-way Ivan Provorov trade, that sent the former Flyers defenseman to Columbus. In the 70 games he has played with the Phantoms across two seasons, the right-handed defenseman has scored two goals and 11 total points. Offense is certainly not Grans’s game — he would rather be the lengthy defenseman that can break up plays instead of an agile power-play quarterback.
According to PHLY’s Alexander Appleyard, this promotion has been deserved for Grans. After having a disappointing first season in the Flyers organization, he has looked like a completely different player and has had an increased role down in the minors. At 6-foot-3, he has all the tools of someone who can be a steady, bottom-pairing defenseman in the NHL, but it just depends if his hockey brain can work at the top-level speed.
The Flyers’ blue line is a little bit of a mess right now. With Jamie Drysdale and Andrae out for at least the beginning of this week, and York still questionable to return, we have to put this puzzle all together to just find out who is going to be on the ice each game.
And speaking of players in and out of Injured Reserve, the Flyers have officially put goaltender Sam Ersson on the shelf. After suffering an undisclosed injury at practice last Wednesday, Ersson has been out of the lineup and backup Ivan Fedotov has taken over (and has pleasantly surprised as a capable NHL netminder). While it was just an absence and nothing official was filed, the Flyers have finally put Ersson to the IR list to make this Grans recall work.
Without putting injured Andrae on the IR, this was the only transaction that could have the Flyers have a full six-man blue line, if York is unavailable. That is essentially good news about Andrae’s injury, but also means that Ersson (unless they make it that the goaltender was put on the IR retroactively to a certain date) will be out for at least the next seven days. Meaning, that he could miss the upcoming games against the Hurricanes and Blackhawks later this week.
This entire Flyers roster feels so uncertain with players going on and off the Injured Reserve list that it is just so hard to keep track of. We’ll see who is on the ice at puck drop on Monday night against Nathan MacKinnon and his crew, we guess.
