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Quick Hits: June 24, 2023
1) Philadelphia Flyers blueline prospect Emil Andrae will be in Voorhees for Development Camp, which starts next weekend. Where the defenseman plays during the 2023-24 season -- in the NHL with the Flyers, the AHL with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms or in Sweden for one more season HV71 Jönköping -- remains to been. Speaking with the Swedish media, Andrae himself said he was unsure of whether he'll be playing in the USA or in Sweden.
Andrae signed an entry-level contract with the Flyers on March 27, 2023. The deal kicks in for the 2023-24 season. After his 2022-23 SHL season concluded, Andrae finished the 2022-23 campaign with the Phantoms on an AHL professional tryout deal. He dressed in the final 10 regular season games (2g, 4a, 6 points) and all three games of the Phantoms first-round playoff series loss to the Charlotte Checkers.
Many, including myself, assumed that Andrae was free and clear to play wherever the Flyers see fit for him to play in 2023-24. That, however, is not necessarily the case. It's complicated but I will attempt to explain the situation as clearly as possible.
Back in April 2022, the NHL signed a new transfer agreement with the Swedish Ice Hockey Federation (SIF for short). The new agreement amended several facets of the previous agreements. One key change was a significant bump-up in transfer fees (roughly a 45 percent increase). The other key change pertained to a "return policy" for many -- but not all -- NHL prospects drafted from Swedish clubs. It depends on their age, the round in which they were selected in the Entry Draft, and whether their NHL club (once signed to an entry-level contract) opts to keep them on the parent club roster or to loan them to a club in another league.
All first-round picks are exempt. Once signed to an NHL contract, the parent team has full control over whether the player is assigned to a minor league farm team or perhaps loaned back to their Swedish team. The NHL team has total control.
For players selected after the first round -- Andrae was a second-round pick (54th overall) in 2020 -- it depends on whether the player makes the NHL team for opening night. If he's in the NHL, that takes precedence. If, however, the player does not make the NHL roster, the decision-making power on whether he plays in the AHL or the SHL shifts to the Swedish Hockey League parent team.
There's also an age component involved. Under the terms of the old agreement, the NHL club gained decision-making power to assign a Swedish team affiliated draftee to the AHL at age 21 or older. Thus, under the old agreement, the Flyers would have had the lone say on Andrae's destination for 2023-24 regardless of whether he makes the NHL team. Under the new agreement, the age rule is bumped up to 24.
There's a grandfather clause in the new agreement -- any player who signed an ELC under the old rules remains exempt even if he is younger than age 24. This exemption does not apply to Andrae because the new transfer rules were in place by the time he signed his contract with the Flyers.
Andrae told the Swedish press that he and his agent will talk this offseason both with Flyers general manager Danny Briere and HV71 general manager Kent Norberg. Briere is already aware of the situation.
There are potential workarounds to new regulations. The player could be released from his SHL contract or the Swedish team general manager could give permission for the player to play in the American Hockey League rather than returning to Sweden for the season. Again, if the player makes the NHL club, none of this is necessary: the player's NHL deal takes priority.
What happens if Andrae is compelled to return on loan to HV71 for the 2023-24 season? The contract would still count against the NHL 50-contract limit and the first season of Andrae's three-year entry-level deal would still burn.
What happens if Andrae makes the opening night NHL roster, spends some time with the Flyers but the organization decides he'd benefit from further development (for example, if head coach John Tortorella does not believe Andrae is ready to handle regular ice time and the organization thinks he'd be better off playing bigger minutes on an every-game basis)? I am fairly certain, but am not 100 percent positive, that the control over where Andrae would go for the rest of the season would then revert to HV71. I've seen nothing about the creation of an automatic threshold the Flyers could trigger as an end-around by starting him on the NHL roster mainly for purposes of controlling an AHL assignment or SHL loan shortly thereafter.
The Flyers, like any NHL organization, want what's best for the player in the long-term. Having him around as a frequent healthy scratch solely to avoid sending him back to the SHL is counterproductive. Again, as long as Norberg and HV71 agree to it first, Andrae remains AHL eligible. If he does go back to the SHL next season, i's hardly the end of the world.
Training camp will be a big factor, of course, in determining Andrae's destination. From his late-season AHL games, he looked NHL ready in terms of triggering breakouts and executing on the power play. However, on the defensive side and in terms of not getting himself into situations where he has to take a penalty to prevent his check from getting away, I'm not so sure that he could immediately play to the standards that Tortorella would expect. Further development over the course of a season may be helpful in that regard.
Andrae has said to the Swedish media -- and I'm sure he will repeat in English to the local media that his main focus is to get to the Flyers and stick at the NHL level as quickly as possible. Whether that requires AHL time beforehand or an additional season in Sweden remains to be seen.
2) This is something that seems to come up every year at Development Camp time in the summer and especially during training camp in September: many folks are unaware of how the NCAA rules work in terms of collegiate players attending NHL camps. If you think the parameters of the NHL-SIF transfer agreement described above are confusing, the arcane rules governing camp attendance make it seem simple by comparison.
In a nutshell, an NHL draftee can only attend ONE development camp with the team that drafts him and cannot attend Rookie Camp in September due to a rule that the collegiate academic calendar takes priority (this includes summer classes). A few years ago, I wrote a PhiladelphiaFlyers.com article that attempts to break down the many NCAA rules governing NHL rights and maintaining amateur eligibility into bite-sized pieces.
3) Specific to the Flyers' 2023 Development Camp and training camp, it seems almost inevitable that a segment of the fanbase will freak out when Cutter Gauthier is not at either. It happens every year that people fret over a collegiate draftee's non-attendance and assume it means the player won't sign an ELC and is angling to go elsewhere via trade or free agency. In reality, the two things are unrelated.
Gauthier attended Development Camp last summer, so he cannot attend again unless turns pro immediately. He considered doing after his freshman season at Boston College. Ultimately, he and the Flyers both agreed that a second season of collegiate hockey would benefit the long-term plan of developing him as a center rather than a left wing. A second BC season would also give him the chance to play for a season with the likes of Will Smith, Ryan Leonard and Gabe Perreault; all of whom are incoming BC freshmen in 2023-24.
In all likelihood, Gauthier will sign an entry-level contract within a few days of the conclusion of his 2023-24 season. Then he can get his pro career underway as soon as possible. The odds of him playing a junior and senior year as a ploy to become a free agent on Aug. 15, 2026 are miniscule.
4) Former Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher was the guest earlier this week on Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek's 32 Thoughts podcast. Fletcher was very relaxed and forthcoming during the conversation. It's a worthwhile listen. Some of the most interesting tidbits:
* Fletcher vehemently denied that the Flyers senior advisors wielded any sort of undue influence on major decisions let alone direct decision-making power. (Those of us who are close to the team already knew this but perception is often more powerful than reality). Fletcher also expressed regret that he only briefly got to work side-by-side on a regular basis with former GM/ former team president Paul Holmgren. Homer was only around irregularly after retiring from the team president role and becoming an advisor.
* Fletcher said there a lot off-ice issues with the team during his tenure. The issues were not fully patched up. He didn't go into specifics.
* Fletcher identified Northeastern University defenseman Hunter McDonald, an older prospect drafted by Philly with the 165th overall pick of the 2022 Draft, as an under-the-radar draftee whom he expects will eventually play in the NHL. McDonald, a physical, shot-blocking defenseman (he was near the top of the NCAA in the shot-blocking category) as a 20-year-old freshman in 2022-23, will play his sophomore season in 2023-24.
5) The new episode of the Broadcasters Roundtable Podcast is now available on the Flyers' official YouTube channel. The panelists are Tim Saunders, Jim Jackson, Jason Myrtetus and Brian Smith. Watch below:
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