The Philadelphia Flyers made the first trade of the NHL offseason, swapping some players with the Toronto Maple Leafs, ostensibly to upgrade their goaltending by replacing Sam Ersson with Joseph Woll in the process. But the most interesting player in the deal is Emil Andrae, whose future development will ultimately tell the tale if this trade loses some luster or even looks downright bad in the years to come.
For now, though, it’s a move that had to happen from a Flyers perspective.
Emil Andrae could develop into a solid NHLer elsewhere, but trading him was a worthwhile risk for the Flyers right now
The clock is ticking a bit for the 24-year old Andrae, who looked like he could be a lineup staple for the Flyers just 18 months ago. He had a strong showing during the first half of the 2024-25 season, his first taste of extended NHL action, but an injury sidelined him for a few games and he was sent back to the minors for a time when his play didn’t rebound.
He was up with the team for the final month-plus of that lost campaign but, even then, he saw decreased usage and frequently didn’t hit 15 minutes a night. It was a far cry from just a few months before when a confident Andrae logged over 19 minutes per night and often surged past 21 minutes and beyond.
We didn’t know for certain what the Flyers’ decision to hire Rick Tocchet would do for Andrae’s game, but unfortunately it didn’t seem to unlock anything with him. With his minutes down again, Andrae got into 61 games, managing just two goals and 11 assists and then falling out of favor near the end of the season.
On the positive side and perhaps most notably, he finished second on the team with a +15 rating on the year, largely a byproduct of the coaching staff being careful with his matchups as they leaned on the likes of Travis Sanheim and Cam York in the most critical situations. But it was rare that Andrae’s overall play stood out on any given night.
Even though Andrae’s 2025-26 season ultimately landed somewhere between “nondescript” and “acceptable”, his size and style of game just weren’t going to work on the Flyers long-term, not with the way their blueline is currently constructed.
With two smaller defenders in York and Jamie Drysdale already playing prominent roles for the team, a player like Andrae will always be redundant unless he can provide you with something like the ability to act as a power play quarterback. Andrae never got a fair look in that spot, and it’s plain to see that the Flyers want to keep trying with Drysdale and are also intrigued by David Jiricek and/or Oliver Bonk to finally be the answer from the point on the man advantage.
As a result of lacking any special skills that make him stand out, Andrae was a prime candidate to be moved as the team trims its defensive unit down for next year, making his departure pretty unsurprising.
Briere: "Emil, we loved his competitive edge, but it did make our defense a little small at times, with Yorkie and Drysdale there, so the three of them wasn't ideal."
— Charlie O'Connor (@charlieo_conn) June 16, 2026
None of this is meant to bash Andrae, who still looks like he can be a nightly regular for an NHL club. The Maple Leafs will do their best to determine that, and they have every reason to give him a lot of leash as they pile the playing time on him next season. He’ll be due a raise as a restricted free agent this summer, but he will still be a manageable asset in the near future for a rebuilding Maple Leafs team that will be wheeling and dealing to find the right roster mix. It’s a move that makes sense for them as much as the goaltending upgrade did for the Flyers.
Ultimately, Danny Briere and the Flyers can’t live in fear of making the organization's next Shayne Gostisbehere-level mistake. This was a move to shore up the goaltending situation right now, and the Flyers are subsequently trusting their organizational depth on the blueline to mitigate any issues with losing Andrae since they also have players like Hunter McDonald and Ty Murchison who are expected to play a role. If Andrae ends up outpacing all of them in Toronto or wherever else he ends up, then full credit to him, but the Flyers shouldn’t be scorned for taking a necessary risk to help the team right now.
His former organization is wishing for Emil Andrae to find success, just not so much success that there will be any tinge of regret when we look back on this trade years from now.
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