Oct. 26: The Flyers have confirmed the move this morning, also announcing they’ve recalled defensemen Louis Belpedio and Victor Mete from Lehigh Valley. Recalling the two veterans will give them an extra defenseman on the active roster.
Oct. 25: Earlier this week, Flyers head coach John Tortorella told Jeff Neiburg of the Philadelphia Inquirer that he wasn’t sure if their current approach with defenseman Emil Andrae was the best for his development. It appears a decision has been made on that front as CapFriendly reports (Twitter link) that Philadelphia has assigned the young rearguard to AHL Lehigh Valley.
The 21-year-old originally started the year rotating games with Yegor Zamula but with Marc Staal now set to miss the next six weeks or so with an upper-body injury and Rasmus Ristolainen having a setback in his recovery from an undisclosed injury, both youngsters have been in the lineup for the last couple of games. Rather than continue using Andrae in limited action – he’s logging just 13 minutes per game – the decision has been made to get him more playing time with the Phantoms. He only played in ten games there late last season after spending most of the year in the SHL.
At the moment, Philadelphia has just five defensemen on its active roster but, with an extra forward, they’re still compliant with the minimum roster requirements. The Flyers are back in action on Thursday, however, so someone will need to be recalled. Ronnie Attard, Adam Ginning, and Victor Mete were among their final cuts earlier this month which could have one of them poised to get the promotion.