Emil Andrae Emerges As Real Solution to Flyers' Defensive Carousel
Unsurprisingly, the Philadelphia Flyers may have finally stumbled on an answer to their defensive woes, even if it's only temporary.
Continued struggles prompted the Flyers and head coach Rick Tocchet to make a change on defense, with Egor Zamula getting swapped out for Emil Andrae, who was only just called up from the AHL Lehigh Valley Phantoms, against the Florida Panthers on Monday night.
Andrae, 23, played just 10:22 - the second-lowest amount of ice time on the Flyers, against the Panthers, but that is, to a degree, a byproduct of needing to earn Tocchet's trust.
With Andrae on the ice at 5-on-5, the Flyers actually out-attempted the back-to-back Stanley Cup champs by a 7-1 margin, according to Natural Stat Trick. Andrae's astounding 87.5% Corsi share at 5-on-5 was tops on the Flyers by over 16%.
On paper, the heavy and physical Panthers were a nightmare matchup for the 5-foot-9 Swede, but instead, he stood tall in the limited minutes Tocchet gave him. First test passed.
"Yeah, that's a tough situation for him to come into, first game coming up from the minors," Tocchet said of Andrae after the game. "I thought he did a really nice job. Give the kid a lot of credit."
Andrae's placement in the lineup may not be permanent, as Cam York's return from injury looms, and Rasmus Ristolainen is expected to eventually come back, but he was a lineup staple for the Flyers last year even when those two were healthy.
How Tocchet chooses to arrange his blueline in that scenario remains to be seen, but Adam Ginning and Noah Juulsen have continued to struggle to move the puck and make plays.
With Andrae, that's not a concern, and that's why he played against the Panthers. That gamble paid off in spades as the Flyers ran off with an impressive 5-2 win in their home opener in front of a raucous crowd.
The 23-year-old didn't give Tocchet and the Flyers any reason to remove him from the lineup, so expect Andrae to continue to build on a very solid season debut at the NHL level.
What’s different about the Rangers this season?
The New York Rangers have started off the 2025-26 regular season with a 2-2-0 record and a plus-five goal differential, and while their opening game against the Pittsburgh Penguins was a 3-0 dud, the team has looked like a more complete squad with head coach Mike Sullivan behind the bench and J.T. Miller now wearing the “C.”
On Monday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton are joined by DFO’s Morning Cuppa Hockey co-host Jonny Lazarus for another edition of “The All 32” to discuss the Rangers’
Tyler Yaremchuk: Everyone is throwing around the buzzword “culture,” but I guess my question is: With Miller and Sullivan “in charge” of the room, what’s different about the Rangers?
Jonny Lazarus: For me, the biggest thing is a little detail: When you look at that game in Pittsburgh a few nights ago, Mika Zibanejad getting in the mix threw me off. Between whistles, roughing it up a bit, I think that was missing last year, that sort of “Give an F” attitude.
The year they won the Presidents’ Trophy, the whole conversation around Matt Rempe was that he gave them some sort of scare tactic, because no one was afraid to play the Rangers and he was the one guy who could change that. This year, they want
After the first game, the home opener against the Penguins was rough, it didn’t seem like the execution or effort was there. But I think it was more so Pittsburgh playing a great game.
In the last three games, the effort and energy has been there. Maybe they hadn’t been able to finish as consistently as they like, but you could feel the excitement and energy back in the room.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…
