Flyers loan Emil Andrae back to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms

Emil Andrae – The clown car that is the Flyers’ front office keeps driving full-steam ahead. Most people who cover this team won’t say that, because they’re getting paid to provide quotes and can’t burn their sources. It’s turned them into a gaggle of conduits for glorified Flyers press releases. An extension of org narrative-making, rather than an enterprise intending to cover the hockey team for the benefit of the fans.

Flyers loan Emil Andrae back to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms

Transaction: We have loaned defenseman Emil Andrae back to the @LVPhantoms (AHL).

— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) December 20, 2024

Here’s the reality of this situation: with the way the Flyers have currently constructed their roster, the NHL roster freeze forced them into a bad move.

They only have 12 forwards, and will only have 12 forwards until December 27th, unless they did something drastic like they just did. They couldn’t recall a forward if someone got injured in practice, for example, because their roster was full.

I’d be remiss not to tell you that isn’t a contributing factor to their decision. I’d also be remiss to tell you that this makes it okay. Because they put themselves under this gun. They forced this ridiculous decision with their own lunacy in the summer.

There was NO REASON to sign Ivan Fedotov… our current third goaltender… to a $3.25M contract. They got lost in sentimentality and taken to the cleaners. Now, after the coach has directly called him the number three multiple times, we are literally incapable of placing him on waivers and allowing Emil Andrae to keep his roster spot.

While the org was busy using beat reporters as a conduit to cudgel Alexei Kolosov into negotiations this summer, I was pointing out that Fedotov was likely just a placeholder for a more talented goalie anyway. Lo and behold, I was right. In fact, I was so right that Kolosov usurped him on the depth chart immediately.

They’ve thrown caution into the wind with Kolosov’s development, a move I’m not sure will bear fruit to be honest with you, because they’re so desperate not to see Ivan Fedotov tend the goal for them.

A foreseeable outcome, and yet they paid $3.25M for the privilege of keeping him around and forcing Emil Andrae to the Phantoms during a damn roster freeze.

They could have preempted the roster freeze by placing someone on waivers before it went into an effect. A decisive front office who made decisions to avoid problems rather than court them probably would have, but we don’t have that. We have Daniel Briere, he who struggles to close.

A “narrative,” by the way, that I’m told by people who cover this team only exists as “rage takes that lack nuance” promulgated by Elon Musk’s algorithms of hate, or something.

Twitter always had rage takes lacking nuance but after the changes over the last couple years it's a feature, not a bug. Kinda just best to ignore it if it's not your thing

— Charlie O'Connor (@charlieo_conn) December 20, 2024

Of course, even if they felt hamstrung into making a move because their number one goalie has a questionable capacity to remain healthy, they could have preempted this with a different move.

Send Egor Zamula to waivers. He’s unlikely to be a long-term contributor to the Flyers at this stage, but such decisive action has long been beneath this front office, because “Danny can’t close” isn’t actually a narrative born of X-rage-posts.

Here’s another option: don’t sign Erik Johnson, who is currently on the roster and would require waivers but hasn’t played in forever… don’t worry, though, he’s doing magic for “the room.”

Is “the room” not sufficiently safeguarded the presence of “A Flyer,” the key piece to your team identity, Nick Seeler?

Here’s the reality I’m going to keep brief: The Flyers were technically “forced” into making this move in order to preserve maximum flexibility during the roster freeze… or, as my dad and I know this period… Danny Week, where every GM in the league gets to act like our illustrious executive who can’t close. Without recompense!

Emil Andrae being loaned to Phantoms was more about flexibility for Flyers' roster, according to a source. Flyers have only 12 forwards, so if they need one to come up, they'll have spot available during roster freeze.

— Jordan Hall (@JHallNBCS) December 20, 2024

But the reality is that they could have handled their roster construction in a manner that avoided this ridiculousness altogether. They didn’t have to handle it this way. You won’t hear this by the glorified PR team who sees fit to throw out subtweets and little digs at me for crafting the “narrative” that our illustrious GM can’t close.

It remains true.

They are only now forced into this decision because this is the consequences of prior bad decisions, much like a chess player who made a faulty move seven moves earlier and now has to choose between surrendering their bishop or opening up the capture of their queen. It’s ridiculous. Nobody forced you to align your bishop and queen and open it up to a discovered attack by the opposing rook.

You chose to do that, either unaware or uncaring of the consequences to come. And that’s a pretty good summary of where the Flyers are at, led by the illustrious front office and its wonderful GM who you’re NOT allowed to say can’t close.

Editors Note: Pretty sure Danny Briere is basically a terrorist. Just a thought. – Drew

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