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Flyers call up forward Olle Lycksell; Noah Cates placed on injured reserve

The Flyers added some forward depth ahead of the first game of their three-game road trip which begins Thursday in Arizona.

Flyers right wing Olle Lycksell skates with the puck during a preseason game against the New Jersey Devils on Sept. 30. He led the Lehigh Valley Phantoms in goals and points at the time of his call-up.
Flyers right wing Olle Lycksell skates with the puck during a preseason game against the New Jersey Devils on Sept. 30. He led the Lehigh Valley Phantoms in goals and points at the time of his call-up.Read moreYong Kim / Staff Photographer

The Flyers announced Wednesday that they had added a reinforcement before embarking on their three-game, eight-day road trip, as they called up forward Olle Lycksell from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

The move gives the Flyers some insurance as the team has been carrying the minimum 12 forwards since Noah Cates broke his foot on Nov. 25 against the New York Islanders. The Flyers will begin the road trip Thursday in Arizona against the Coyotes before games on Saturday in Colorado and Tuesday in Nashville. In a corresponding move, the Flyers placed Cates, who is expected to miss six to eight weeks, on injured reserve.

Lycksell, 24, certainly has earned the call-up, as the Swede led the Phantoms in goals (12) and points (19) in 21 games before his promotion. A Flyers sixth-round pick in 2017, Lycksell racked up 14 goals and 45 points in 53 games for the Phantoms last season, his first in North America. He also got into eight NHL games, logging his lone assist on Feb. 21 against the Edmonton Oilers.

The call-up didn’t come as a surprise, given that John Tortorella indicated last week that reinforcements were on the way for the Flyers.

“We’ll certainly have to bring some depth when we head west,” he said Friday.

Defenseman Louie Belpedio, who cleared waivers on Tuesday, also traveled to Arizona with the team. He has not played for the Flyers since Nov. 19 as Marc Staal and Rasmus Ristolainen returned from injuries.