Flyers shuffle defensive corps with roster moves ahead of Thursday night game vs. Minnesota

On Tuesday morning in Las Vegas, Flyers coach John Tortorella hinted at possible changes coming to the team’s blue line.

Emil Andrae, the 21-year-old Swedish prospect, was struggling a bit and only playing third-pair minutes. Veteran Rasmus Ristolainen, meanwhile, had suffered a setback.

A shuffle of sorts appeared to be on the horizon.

After the team got back to Philadelphia following its two-game road trip through Dallas and Vegas, the shuffle started. The team sent Andrae to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, officially placed injured defenseman Marc Staal on injured reserve, and recalled Louie Belpedio and Victor Mete from the AHL ahead of the Flyers’ Thursday night game vs. the Minnesota Wild at the Wells Fargo Center.

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The Flyers have been pretty transparent about their desire to develop their young blueliners the right way. Right now, that apparently means getting Andrae more minutes at the professional level. After playing 16 minutes, 27 seconds in his NHL debut during a 5-2 loss in Ottawa, Andrae was playing about 12 minutes per game over his last three.

“It’s too much for him right now,” Tortorella said Thursday morning. “The speed of it, how quickly you have to make decisions, I think the size of the rink. You just weigh it out, is this good for him right now? We felt it wasn’t.

“To play those few minutes and to have those struggles going on, it does not help. So we want to get ahead of this right away because we think he has a future.”

Why Belpedio and Mete and not, say, Ronnie Attard or Adam Ginning, two players who seemingly were on the NHL bubble before camp broke? Tortorella said it was Belpedio and Mete who were playing the best with the Phantoms, and called it a “wake-up call” for prospects like Attard.

“They have not played well enough to warrant a call-up,” Tortorella said. “As much as we want kids all the time, you have to do your work down there, too.”

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At Lehigh Valley, Andrae, Attard, and Ginning can play big minutes in bigger roles while continuing their development.

Regarding Andrae, Tortorella reiterated that “this isn’t a negative thing.”

“This is what we’re going to do,” Tortorella said. “It’s going to happen to other people, too, I’m sure, along the way this year. Instead of playing him eight, 10, 11 minutes, he’ll play 20-plus down there. It’s so important as far as developing players.”

Mete, 25, and Belpedio, 27, have more professional experience. Mete has played in 247 NHL games. Belpedio has mostly been an AHLer since turning pro in 2018, including an entire season with the Phantoms last year. He joins the Flyers having played in four NHL games, all with the Wild. It was Belpedio who was slated to play in Thursday night’s game, while Mete would be scratched as the seventh defenseman.

Belpedio and Mete would require waiver placement to be sent back down to Lehigh Valley when the Flyers get healthy again. They previously got through waivers before being assigned to the AHL ahead of the season starting.

Not calling up Attard or Ginning, and even sending Andrae down, does not rule them out from being up with the Flyers in the near future. Tortorella has multiple times implied that the Northeast Extension could be busy with players going to and from Allentown throughout the season.

It’s unclear how long Ristolainen will be out with an undisclosed injury. Staal, meanwhile, is out for a few more weeks with an upper-body injury.

Center Morgan Frost was slated to be a healthy scratch for the fifth consecutive game Thursday night. ... With Staal going on injured reserve and the Flyers recalling two defensemen, the team still has the anomaly of having three goaltenders on the 23-man roster. ... Thursday night kicks off a four-game home stand for the Flyers, who host, in order: the Wild, Ducks, Hurricanes, and Sabres.