Emil Andrae Flyers

How Emil Andrae saved the Philadelphia Flyers

Emil Andrae has had season changing impact for the Philadelphia Flyers. And while this wouldn’t be immediately obvious to anyone, the young Swede’s play might have franchise saving ramifications.

Let me clarify what that means. It doesn’t mean that Emil Andrae is superior to Cale Makar and that he singlehandedly changes the game. In this franchise, only Matvei Michkov has the talent to do something quite so supernatural as that.

But that doesn’t mean that the outlook of the Flyers isn’t radically different by having this version of Emil Andrae in the lineup, and by having this player as a potential stalwart for years to come.

If “you are what your record says you are,” then the Flyers are being absolutely rescued by the play of Emil Andrae.

With Emil in the lineup, the Flyers are 10-3-2. They’ve accumulated standings points in 12 of the 15 games he’s been in their lineup. Since being elevated beyond the top pair, they’ve went 7-0-2.

The Flyers are 10-3-2 with Emil Andrae in line-up

That, of course, means the Flyers are 5-10-1 without the presence of Emil Andrae in their top-4. That’s a record eerily similar to the Predators and Blackhawks, the two worst teams in the league to date.

And it isn’t hard to see in the numbers why these records are so disparate.

Per Evolving Hockey, Emil Andrae is in a virtual tie with Cam York for a team-best expected goal share of 58% at 5 on 5.

His actual goal share at 5 on 5 is 65%. He’s riding slightly above expectations by outscoring the opposition 11-6, but as you can see, he could shave some of that off and still be an immense positive to the team. His on-ice save percentage is somewhat high, meaning he probably should have allowed another goal or two along the way.

That doesn’t sound like franchise-altering dominance on its face, but allow me to walk you through the Flyers’ paradigm before he got here.

Cam York and Travis Sanheim are being outscored 8-11 and 19-23 at 5 on 5 respectively. They’ve long allowed more goals than expected goals as a pair, because their partnership comes alongside some very real communications issues as both step all over each other’s toes when deciding if they want to pinch or activate in the offensive zone. It’s a massive part in both of their games, and an asset to the team, but perhaps not an asset to their partnership.

Regardless, in York and Sanheim, you have two excellent top-4 defensemen who you’re essentially forced to pair together as long as they’re your only top-4 defensemen. When they aren’t giving up ill-advised counterattacks due to communication mishaps, they have the capability of outscoring the other team. Which is why they consistently have positive possession metrics.

The problem for the Flyers? They were getting pummeled in the minutes of every other defenseman.

  • Jamie Drysdale has been outscored 11-5 at 5 on 5.
  • Egor Zamula? Outscored 16-8.
  • Nick Seeler? Outscored 10-7.
  • Erik Johnson? Outscored 6-7.

All together, these 4 Flyers defensemen were being outscored 43-35 at 5 on 5. Their team goal differential of -10 in all situations is entirely explained by the abhorrent play of the blueline in the absence of Emil Andrae.

Some of these players can be easily moved on from. Most of them don’t figure to be part of a future. The one exception is Jamie Drysdale.

Jamie Drysdale was supposed to become a core piece of the Flyers’ future blueline. In the words of Daniel Briere, he was a future “top pair defenseman.”

That outcome isn’t necessarily off of the table, but it was hard to rely on a person who’s being bludgeoned this brutally to actually become an upper-crust NHL defender.

What makes matters worse? Given the price they paid to acquire Drysdale and the fact that there was no easy replacement waiting in the wings, they were almost forced to pray that he simply figured things out eventually. And if he didn’t? There was very little recourse for the team.

Now, there’s a backup plan.

That backup plan is Emil Andrae. Not only does he repair the issue of good defenseman play NOW, but he provides the hope of a defenseman that grows to become what Drysdale should have been… if Drysdale does not.

Andrae is the same age as Drysdale and has less NHL experience. There’s reason to believe this isn’t close to his ceiling.

Now, the Flyers can still hope Drysdale lives up to his original projection, but they’re not wholly dependent on such an outcome. They’ve had their bets hedged with the presence of Andrae.

I’ll get deeper into how he’s doing this later down the line, when I’ve had more time to compile clips on the superb play of Andrae. In the meantime, though, I want to provide a primer for how he’s doing this.

Precise, fearless puck-moving.

Emil Andrae has drawn a lot of comparisons to Kimmo Timonen, probably because of their shared diminutive stature and their European heritage. But stylistically, Emil reminds me very little of Kimmo. This isn’t to disparage either. Rather, I see them as master craftsmen in two very different trades.

As a pure matter of style, Emil Andrae rhymes a lot more with fellow Swede Victor Hedman. Given that one is a six and a half feet tall, you’re probably ready to drug test me. But I need you to hear me out.

Andrae is unlikely to have the ceiling of Hedman. It’s virtually impossible, actually. Hedman simply has physical abilities that Andrae does not. One is six and a half feet tall, after all. And the better skater accolade also goes to the gargantuan human.

Hedman is also one of the best finishing defensemen of all time with that devastating shot of his, and Andrae is not that, whatever his finishing ability may be.

But the core of Hedman’s game isn’t his stature. It isn’t his skating or his shooting. Those are all assets, and they’re certainly part of how he reached the top of the NHL mountain, ultimately becoming someone who I believe to be one of the best defensemen of all time.

But the core of his game could always be summarized with one trait. His passing. Hedman is one of the very best passers of recent times, regardless of position. We can call that his first pass, but if he makes any other passes? He’s the best at those, too.

Hedman is a puck-moving defenseman of the highest order despite not being a Cale Makar carrying threat because he’s a passing savant nearly on the level of his teammate, Nikita Kucherov.

Even as Hedman begins to lose his mobility, his puck-moving game remains among the elite in the NHL because of this trait. It may propel his playing career into his 40’s if he so desires that.

Combine that with Hedman’s aggression and ambitiousness as it pertains to setting airtight gaps, and you got the feeling that the Lightning always had the puck when 77 was on the ice. And it’s because that was largely true.

He got the puck back quickly by forcing dump-ins with aplomb, and then he made damn sure that his team never surrendered it with passing abilities the envy of NFL quarterbacks.

The core of Emil Andrae’s game is the same. An aggressive mindset backed up by sublime passing ability creates a world where the Flyers find it hard to surrender the puck in his minutes.

Andrae does a good job forcing the turnover here even if a rangier or fleeter of foot defender would have caused a dispossession with more emphasis. Once the Flyers recover the puck, he makes himself available on the weak side of the ice for a breakout pass.

He carries just long enough to find a passing lane to Owen Tippett that isn’t exceptionally brilliant. Plenty of defenders see this pass, but most defenders don’t provide a pass that could be easily handled by a Flyers forward not wearing 11 or 39.

Andrae can make that pass with enough touch in a good enough spot to give Tippett a clean reception, and that clean reception creates a speed differential between him and the defender assigned to him. In a roundabout way, Andrae created the advantage that led to the defender wiping out on this rush chance.

Andrae’s ability to make a play hardly comes with the qualifier of “time and space.” He makes plays to advance the puck into the offensive end in the absence of either of those qualities. Two forecheckers are simply not sufficient.

Andrae is determined and ballsy on the ice, willing to make a tough play to push the puck in the right direction. He’s not afraid of mistakes. He really believes in his own abilities.

He also thinks like Hedman in this way. He’s not afraid to jump into the play or to carry a puck through a defender, but he’s not aiming to do this. He’s a true rearguard, making plays from the backend. He’s tilting the ice as a true backline guardian.

He’s ideologically far removed from another young defenseman whose game I praised effusively in Lane Hutson.

Lane Hutson was built to be a fourth forward, flying in the face of how we understand positions on the ice. He’s futuristic to his core. Emil Andrae is a throwback. His game is modeled off of the game as it was previously understood, even for undersized players. His style reminds me of a defenseman drafted in 2008.

But it’s no less effective today than it was then. Evan Bouchard tilts the ice, even as Oilers fans lament his existence because of low on-ice save percentages that still don’t sink his goal differential to the negatives.

Andrae himself isn’t very fast. But the puck moves faster than any player.

What’s the necessity in skating 25 miles per hour to create a breakway between two defenders when you can do all of that with the perfect pass?

That’s the essence of Emil Andrae’s game, displayed eminently in the very first game he played.

And that’s how Emil Andrae saved the Flyers.

Join The Chase

Read More

Comments (0)

Leave a Reply

Back To Top

Discover more from The Liberty Line

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading