Emil Andrae

October 2024 – Although Emil Andrae didn’t make the Flyers roster out of camp, he was recalled for the season-opening road trip as the team’s seventh defenseman. While he has yet to appear in an NHL game and has since been sent back to Lehigh Valley, Andrae is likely the primary call-up option in the event of an injury. James Iacovone

September 2023 – Andrae played alongside fellow Swede Helge Grans during the weekends rookie series and stood out as one of the better Flyers. Andrae has a high hockey IQ and reads the ice well. He helped quarterback the top powerplay unit and was the only defensemen on the PP1. Andrae almost reminds me of a younger, smaller, Kimmo Timonen. You can see how smart he is while out on the ice, always reading play and putting himself in the correct position. His shot gets to the goal, and he doesn’t force passes that aren’t there. He’s calm but deliberate while with the puck. Andrae is a dark horse to make the Flyers out of camp this season and his Swedish club has given him approval to play the year with the Flyers organization. While it’s likely to be with the Phantoms, Andrae seems poised to impress in 2023-24. Expect him to make a serious push to make the club outright in 2024-25. James Iacovone 

August 2023 – The Philadelphia Flyers signed Andrae to a three-year entry-level contract beginning with the 2023-24 season on March 27, 2023. He played in 51 games with HV71 of the Swedish Hockey League (SHL) in 2022-23 before coming to North America and finishing the season with Lehigh Valley Phantoms. He played in the final ten regular season games and three playoff games with the Phantoms. With the subtractions on their back end this off-season, Andrae has a good chance to make the Flyers’ opening night lineup out of training camp. Mark Henry

June 2022 – Spending the 2021-22 season in HockeyAllsvenskan, Andrae produced impressive numbers for a blueliner. Recording 33 points in 41 games, Andrae ranked second among drafted HockeyAllsvenskan defensemen in that category. An offensively gifted defenseman, Andrae will play in the SHL for HV71 next season. John Gove 

October 2020 – Andrae was drafted 54th overall by the Flyers. Andrae is expected to spend two or three more years in Sweden before crossing the pond.  Jokke Nevalainen

January 2020 – Andrae started the season at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup where he played very well and scored four points in five games. Since then, he has spent most of the season in J20 SuperElit where his nine goals and 29 points in 32 games lead the league in both goals and points among defensemen. Andrae has also played five games at the men’s level in the SHL, and even though he has averaged just five minutes of ice time per game, it is a positive sign that he has earned those call-ups. Andrae is an undersized offensive defenseman with a left-handed shot. His biggest strengths are his skating ability and hockey sense. His edge work is excellent and it allows him to be very elusive. He is a great passer who can start breakouts with short and long passes, and he is also very strong in the offensive zone. Even though he doesn’t own a heavy shot, he’s good at getting shots to the net and sneaking in close enough to score with his good wrist shot. He is a very creative player who can execute plays that most players can’t even think of. Although an offense-minded player, he is also surprisingly good defensively, especially with his active stick. There are a lot of similarities between Andrae and Erik Brännström who plays a similar style, and they both played on HV71 system for the final two years before their draft. Andrae is not quite as good a prospect as Brännström was but he’s not that far from it either. Andrae is expected to be the number one defenseman for Team Sweden at the U18 Worlds. If he has a strong performance there, he could solidify his spot in the first round of the 2020 NHL Entry Draft. There is no clear favorite for the second defenseman to go off the board at the draft but Andrae is definitely one of the top options.  Jokke Nevalainen