Flyers maintain high hopes for prospect Emil Andrae’s future: ‘He’s a special package’

ALLENTOWN — Emil Andrae had just finished playing almost 12 minutes in the Flyers’ 3-2 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Oct. 24 when he was pulled aside in T-Mobile Arena.

The defenseman was being sent down to Lehigh Valley after skating in four games with the NHL squad. He wasn’t happy with the decision and believed he could show more than he did in the 13 minutes of ice time he averaged. But he also felt it was a “great situation” because he would get more playing time and an uptick in responsibilities with the Phantoms.

“When I grabbed him and I told him, I loved his attitude about it,” Flyers general manager Danny Brière told The Inquirer in May. “You could tell he wasn’t happy, but at the same time, he’s like, ‘All right, I’m going to go. I need to play a lot of minutes. I’m going to go and I’m going to prove to you guys that I belong back up in the NHL.’

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“I really, really love his demeanor and how passionate he is. So it’s a matter of time. We just need to be patient.”

It would appear it’s not a matter of if but when the 22-year-old Swede will become a mainstay on the Flyers’ blue line. Brière and Co. were impressed with Andrae’s game at training camp last September. But now, the general manager said it is important for Andrae to “find out how far he can push it and when it’s time to wait for the game to come to him and when is it time to attack it.”

This past season, the 5-foot-9 puck-moving defenseman scored five goals and 32 points in 61 AHL games, with three of his goals coming on the power play. Andrae showed his speed and quickness in creating offense during the postseason as well, especially on the man advantage. He tallied two power-play goals and an assist in six playoff games, including a crucial tally in a potential elimination game in the Eastern Conference semifinals against eventual Calder Cup champions Hershey.

Aside from seeing him step up his game, Phantoms head coach Ian Laperrière also noticed something else from his blueliner.

“He’s got grit,” Laperrière told The Inquirer with a grin, adding that Andrae is not afraid to block shots. “For a little guy, he’s not the biggest guy, but he loves to throw those big hits. It’s something that he’s learning, that some guys you can’t really throw your body at because they’re bigger — way bigger than you — and guess what, at the next level are way, way bigger and stronger than you, but it’s part of the growth and the adjustment that he needs to make. But yeah, he’s a defenseman whose compete level is through the roof.”

According to Flyers assistant general manager Alyn McCauley, “One of the things we love about him is his compete, and his energy, and his want to make a difference.” But a high-compete level can come with complications. Laperrière, who recently signed a two-year contract extension, was a rugged winger who finished his NHL career with the Flyers and had more penalty minutes (1,956) than games played (1,083). Although his style and role were quite different, the grizzled coach sees some similarities between himself and the young blueliner in terms of learning to handle the emotions of the game.

“Sometimes he was getting frustrated on the bench and snapping in Swedish, and I don’t speak Swedish,” Laperrière said. “He’s not mad at anybody on the ice. He’s not mad at any of his teammates. He’s mad at himself, but that’s something he’s got to learn. He’s only wasting energy. Bottle that energy and put it all there instead.”

Andrae has put a lot of pressure on himself, and expectations have been high since he was selected in the second round of the 2020 NHL draft. But it’s not a race, and he’s working on not being “too high or too low over a season because that’s going to eat you up.”

Andrae’s approach was tested in more ways than one this past season. After playing a combined 64 games in 2022-23 — 51 with HV71 in the Swedish Hockey League and 13 combined regular season and playoff games for the Phantoms — the defenseman skated in 71 total games between the Flyers and Phantoms. It is the most he has ever played in the pros; back home in Sweden, it was closer to 50, and that was without the three games in three nights schedule the AHL plays.

“It took me like maybe 40 or 30 games to understand a little bit more about my mental side of it,” Andrae told The Inquirer in May. “I feel like at the beginning, I was trying a little bit too much in every game. I felt like after the first half of the season, I kind of calmed down a little bit and saw the last 30 games as, I wouldn’t say one game, but a little bit like, I don’t have to be the hero every game.

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“I tried to slow down a little bit, don’t be too high or too low, and like relax a little bit more. And I think that helped me at the end to be playing better every game and be more consistent.”

Andrae would have played even more games this past season had he not missed about a week after sustaining an upper-body injury in his second game back in the AHL. Looking back, he thought the injury hindered his momentum and consistency, but he has learned about his game — and himself — and feels he is more prepared for the upcoming season.

“I have to be better in my skating, and I need to be faster to be more productive out there, I feel like sometimes,” he said, adding that he’ll use on-ice and off-ice training to work on his game. “I feel like I have a pretty good hockey IQ, and I can use my passing and my hockey sense, but if I can be more lethal and more active that’s going to help me a lot. And if I can get more explosive and faster out there, I can be more involved, I feel like. I think that’s going to come to me [by] preparing during the summer.”

Andrae aims to stay in the NHL for more than a cup of coffee in 2024-25, but whether he can usurp someone in the top seven — Cam York, Travis Sanheim, Jamie Drysdale, Nick Seeler, Rasmus Ristolainen, Egor Zamula, and Erik Johnson — is to be determined. And if that doesn’t happen right now, everyone is comfortable because once he does it’ll be for a long time.

“There’s games where he’s excellent, some games he still makes those little mistakes,” Brière said. “But we’re still happy with him. There’s still a lot there. He’s still an important prospect for us that we’re trying to develop. I don’t have a timeline on him, but we definitely love [him]. He’s a special package. Patience is the key.”