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Philadelphia Flyers Activate Felix Sandstrom, Loan Samuel Ersson To AHL

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The Philadelphia Flyers have announced a change to their current goaltending picture, as they have activated Felix Sandstrom off of season-opening injured reserve. In a corresponding move, Samuel Ersson was sent down to the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

Sandstrom, 25, has been a member of the Flyers organization since the 2015 draft, where he was made a third-round pick of the team, getting selected 70th overall. Sandstrom spent the bulk of last season as AHL Lehigh Valley’s primary netminder, posting a .902 save percentage in 44 games. Sandstrom also got five games of NHL action, going 4-1 with a .910 save percentage.

The Flyers clearly believe that he’s ready to make the jump to the NHL and become Carter Hart’s backup, hence the move here he install Sandstrom in that role and send Ersson down.

As for Ersson, the 22-year-old goalie made his North American professional debut last season, playing five games for the Phantoms and posting a .893 save percentage. Before that, Ersson was a starting netminder in his native Sweden’s top league, the SHL. The 22-year-old goalie will now head to Lehigh Valley to compete with veteran Troy Grosenick for time in crease at the Flyers’ AHL affiliate.

Hayden Hodgson, Anthony Angello Clear Waivers

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Saturday: Both Hodgson and Angello cleared waivers, Friedman reports.  They have both been assigned to the minors.  No one was placed on waivers today.

Friday: Two players hit the wire today, as Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports that Hayden Hodgson of the Philadelphia Flyers and Anthony Angello of the St. Louis Blues have been placed on waivers.

Earlier today, Flyers head coach John Tortorella didn’t hold back with his comments, telling reporters including Charlie O’Connor of The Athletic that he didn’t think Hodgson had a good camp, and that he wasn’t ready to play last night.

Even in a game where the team lost Owen Tippett early, Tortorella gave Hodgson fewer than five minutes of ice time. Placement on waivers shouldn’t surprise anyone, though it is a little disappointing after such a great story last year.

Undrafted, the 26-year-old Hodgson grinded his way through several years in the ECHL and then was outstanding for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, earning himself an NHL call-up. He scored three points in six games and looked like a classic late-blooming bottom-sixer. Unfortunately, that run won’t continue just yet, as he’ll be heading to the minor leagues if he clears.

Angello, meanwhile, was always expected to start in the AHL but had been injured and started the year on season-opening injured reserve. A waiver placement suggests that he’s ready to resume playing, and will head to the Springfield Thunderbirds should he clear. The 6’5″ forward has just 31 games of NHL experience under his belt, four of which came last season with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Flyers Place Owen Tippett On IR, Recall Olle Lycksell

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Flyers winger Owen Tippett left Thursday’s season-opening victory against New Jersey after just four shifts and it appears he’ll be out for a little while at least as the team announced (Twitter link) that they’ve placed him on injured reserve which means he’ll be out for a minimum of a week.  In a corresponding move, Philadelphia has recalled forward Olle Lycksell from Lehigh Valley of the AHL.

Tippett was a key part of the return that the Flyers received in the swap that sent Claude Giroux to Florida back at the trade deadline.  He made a good first impression with Philadelphia down the stretch, picking up seven points in 21 games to push his full-season totals to 10 goals and 11 assists in 63 contests.  The 23-year-old signed a two-year bridge deal in late July that carries a $1.5MM cap hit, a contract that allows the team to get a better sense of his upside but that will have to wait a bit until he’s able to return now.

As for Lycksell, the Flyers signed him back in May 2021 but he spent all of last season with Vaxjo of the SHL where he collected 14 goals and 20 assists in 47 games while averaging over a point per game in Champions League play.  He had four points during their rookie camp and saw action in four games in the preseason, primarily in a top-six role and appears to have made a positive impression on the coaching staff to get this early recall.

Linus Sandin Clears Unconditional Waivers

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Oct: 14: Sandin has cleared waivers, had his contract terminated, and is now eligible to sign overseas.

Oct 13: The Philadelphia Flyers placed Linus Sandin on waivers two weeks ago, when it was clear he wouldn’t be making the team. After passing through unclaimed, he was assigned to the minor leagues. Now, his stint in the AHL will come to an end, as the Flyers have placed him on unconditional waivers for the purpose of a contract termination according to Charlie O’Connor of The Athletic.

This will make Sandin an unrestricted free agent and allow him to sign somewhere else, a move that is usually followed by a contract overseas. The 26-year-old forward has just one NHL game under his belt and failed to register a point.

It would certainly make sense for the undrafted Sandin to return home. He was a strong contributor in the SHL before coming to North America, scoring 19 goals and 36 points in his final full season with HV71. The older brother of Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Rasmus Sandin, Linus was good-not-great in his time in the minor leagues.

It is somewhat interesting that the Swedish forward has chosen this route, given he was the one to agree to a two-way contract in May. The deal included a minor league guarantee of $285K, meaning he at least must have known there was a chance he would end up back in the AHL. Should he clear, it would be highly unlikely that he finds another contract in the NHL this year, as you can’t get much more affordable than his league-minimum deal.

Philadelphia Flyers Recall Jackson Cates

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As Charlie O’Connor of The Athletic suggested a couple of days ago, Ronnie Attard’s days on the Philadelphia Flyers roster were numbered (for now). The young defenseman has been loaned to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms this morning, with the team recalling forward Jackson Cates in his place.

Attard, 23, did not play in the team’s season-opening win against the New Jersey Devils, with young Egor Zamula getting the start in his place. If Attard isn’t going to play, he might as well go to the AHL to continue his development and polish his game. That’s not something he’s familiar with, after going right from the college ranks into the NHL lineup last season.

There’s plenty of time for the Western Michigan alum to make it back to the NHL on a more regular basis, and you will likely see Attard back up if the team suffers any additional injuries on the back end. With Rasmus Ristolainen only out day-to-day, even Zamula’s time with the big club might be numbered.

Cates meanwhile will join his brother Noah Cates who played more than 19 minutes last night, seeing time on both the powerplay and penalty kill. The older of the two, Jackson played in 11 games with the Flyers last season and scored his first NHL goal. The two showed incredible chemistry in the preseason (as one might expect) and were one of the leading storylines.

Unfortunately, the recall of Cates might also suggest some more negative consequences from last night’s game. Owen Tippett left after just four minutes of ice time with an upper-body injury, and Cam Atkinson didn’t dress at all. The recall will give the team some extra forward depth in case they need it tomorrow when they welcome in the Vancouver Canucks.

Philadelphia Flyers Sign Travis Sanheim

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5:30 PM: CapFriendly has detailed the full structure of Sanheim’s deal. It runs as follows:

Year 1: $5.125MM + $3MM signing bonus
Year 2: $5.125MM + $3MM signing bonus
Year 3: $5.125MM + $3MM signing bonus
Year 4: $6.125MM
Year 5: $1.875MM + $3MM signing bonus
Year 6: $1.875MM + $3MM signing bonus
Year 7: $4.875MM
Year 8: $4.875MM

Of note is also that Sanheim will have a full no-trade clause for the first four years of the deal, and then the clause will become a twelve-team no-trade for year five through year eight.

4:45 PM: The Flyers have now officially announced a contract extension for Sanheim. The deal is an eight-year pact with an average annual value of $6.25MM. Flyers GM Chuck Fletcher gave the following statement regarding the signing:

We’re extremely happy to have Travis under long-term contract and see him as a key piece of our team’s future. Travis has improved each season to become a highly reliable player and key contributor on our blueline. Furthermore, he is someone who has developed his entire career with us and has grown into a valuable leader for our team.

1:45 PM: The Philadelphia Flyers are once again showing that they have no interest in a rebuild. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports that the team is making progress on an extension with Travis Sanheim, who is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the year. The long-term deal would pay Sanheim around $6MM per season, though Friedman can’t confirm the actual figure that is being discussed.

It’s been five seasons in the NHL now for Sanheim, the 17th overall pick from 2014, and while he didn’t turn into the superstar defenseman that some early returns suggested, he is arguably the team’s most consistent player on the back end. Averaging close to 23 minutes a night last season, almost exclusively next to Rasmus Ristolainen, Sanheim recorded seven goals and 31 points, racked up 142 blocks, and was one of three regulars who finished the year with a positive goal differential (+9, to lead the team).

An extension in this case makes sense for the 26-year-old, who likely is just entering his true prime as an NHL shutdown defenseman. He was given heavy defensive deployment last year and will likely get much of the same this time around as Ivan Provorov and Tony DeAngelo are given offensive touches and youngsters like Egor Zamula and Ronnie Attard are sheltered.

The biggest question, though, is whether or not the Flyers can actually turn things around without stripping down the roster first. Signing their players to big-money extensions only reduces the amount of surplus value they can offer, and a $6MM cap hit for Sanheim would mean the team has five defensemen over the $5MM mark for next year. One of those is Ryan Ellis, whose career is completely up in the air at this point, but even with him on the shelf it is a lot invested in a group that has struggled.

The Flyers were 27th in goals against last season with 294 and finished 29th in the overall standings. Over the summer they failed to really change the lineup very much, outside of adding DeAngelo and some toughness up front. While John Tortorella seems to have the group motivated for the upcoming challenge and players like Kevin Hayes are at a much better place health-wise, the question remains over whether the team would be better off trading away some of these expiring assets instead of extending them.

Regardless, Flyers fans should be excited about the fact they likely will get to watch Sanheim, a player they drafted and developed, for another several years. The big defenseman will start his season tonight against the New Jersey Devils, though partner Ristolainen is out with an injury for the season opener.

Philadelphia Flyers Recall Tanner Laczynski, Wade Allison, Egor Zamula

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The Philadelphia Flyers needed to work around the salary cap to get the opening day lineup they wanted, and that meant several transactions today. Sean Couturier has been moved to injured reserve, Bobby Brink, Patrick Brown, and Felix Sandstrom to the injured non-roster, and most notably, Ryan Ellis to long-term injured reserve.

That last move gives the team enough flexibility to officially recall Tanner Laczynski, Wade Allison, and Egor Zamula from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Ellis is not expected to play this season.

Laczynski, 25, has dealt with his own injuries over the last couple of seasons and has just six NHL games under his belt to this point. The Ohio State standout is still looking for his first point at that level but does have 27 in 42 career minor league matches.

Allison, 24, has done a little better at the highest level, racking up four goals and seven points in 15 career games. All of those points came in 2020-21 though, as Allison was limited to just 29 professional games last season.

It is Zamula who is perhaps the most interesting among the three, if only because of his upside. The 22-year-old defenseman went undrafted out of the WHL but quickly made an impact at the pro level and was playing minutes with the Flyers in 2020-21. After an excellent season with the Phantoms last year, where he scored 29 points in 58 games, Zamula looks like he could be a long-term piece to the back end.

Still, with such little experience, each of these players will be tested at the NHL level and could find themselves back in the minor leagues at some point. The Flyers aren’t expected to contend for the playoffs – but don’t tell them that. John Tortorella is trying to set a “new standard” with the organization and will be doing everything he can do make them as competitive as possible.

Training Camp Cuts: 10/10/22

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A very happy Thanksgiving to all of our readers who are celebrating! Today marks the deadline for NHL clubs to become cap compliant and submit their opening night rosters. More specifically, the 5:00 pm ET deadline is now less than six hours away. With that in mind, we expect to see plenty of players sent to the minor leagues, returned to juniors, or released from their PTOs today, and we’ll keep track of them here.

Arizona Coyotes (via team tweet)

D Cam Dineen (to Tucson, AHL)
G Jon Gillies (to Tucson, AHL)
F Laurent Dauphin (to Tucson, AHL)
F Bokondji Imama (to Tucson, AHL)

Buffalo Sabres (via team tweet)

D Lawrence Pilut (to Rochester, AHL)
G Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (to Rochester, AHL)
F Olivier Nadeau (to Gatineau, QMJHL)

Carolina Hurricanes (via team release)

F Jack Drury (to Chicago, AHL)
F Jordan Martinook (to Chicago, AHL)

Colorado Avalanche (via team tweet)

D Wyatt Aamodt (to Colorado, AHL)
F Mikhail Maltsev (to Colorado, AHL)

Columbus Blue Jackets (per team release)

F Emil Bemstrom (to Cleveland, AHL)
D David Jiricek (to Cleveland, AHL)

Detroit Red Wings (per team release)

D Jeremie Biakabutuka (released from ATO)
F Kyle Criscuolo (to Grand Rapids, AHL)
F Taro Hirose (to Grand Rapids, AHL)
G Jussi Olkinuora (to Grand Rapids, AHL)
F Givani Smith (to Grand Rapids, AHL)

Edmonton Oilers (via team tweet)

D Jason Demers (released from PTO)
F James Hamblin (to Bakersfield, AHL)
F Devin Shore (to Bakersfield, AHL)

Los Angeles Kings (per team release)

G Pheonix Copley (to Ontario, AHL)
F Rasmus Kupari (to Ontario, AHL)
F Andre Lee (to Ontario, AHL)
D Jacob Moverare (to Ontario, AHL)

Montreal Canadiens (via two team tweets)

F Rafael Harvey-Pinard (to Laval, AHL)
F Jesse Ylonen (to Laval, AHL)
D Justin Barron (to Laval, AHL)
D Otto Leskinen (to Laval, AHL)
G Cayden Primeau (to Laval, AHL)
D Arber Xhekaj (to Laval, AHL)

Nashville Predators (via team release)

F Jimmy Huntington (to Milwaukee, AHL)
F Mark Jankowski (to Milwaukee, AHL)
F Philip Tomasino (to Milwaukee, AHL)
D Kevin Gravel (to Milwaukee, AHL)
D Jordan Gross (to Milwaukee, AHL)
D Roland McKeown (to Milwaukee, AHL)

New York Rangers (via team release)

D Matt Bartkowski (released from PTO)
F Julien Gauthier (to Hartford, AHL)

Ottawa Senators (via team tweet)

F Ridly Greig (to Belleville, AHL)

Philadelphia Flyers (per Olivia Reiner, The Philadelphia Inquirer)

F Jackson Cates (to Lehigh Valley, AHL)

Seattle Kraken (via team tweet)

F John Hayden (to Coachella Valley, AHL)
D Michal Kempny (to Coachella Valley, AHL)

St. Louis Blues (via team release)

F Josh Leivo (to Springfield, AHL)
F Jake Neighbours (to Springfield, AHL)

Toronto Maple Leafs (via team tweet)

F Kyle Clifford (to Toronto, AHL)
F Adam Gaudette (to Toronto, AHL)
F Pontus Holmberg (to Toronto, AHL)
D Filip Kral (to Toronto, AHL)
D Victor Mete (to Toronto, AHL)
F Nick Robertson (to Toronto, AHL)
F Wayne Simmonds (to Toronto, AHL)
D William Villeneuve (to Toronto, AHL)

Vancouver Canucks (via team tweet)

F Linus Karlsson (to Abbotsford, AHL)

Vegas Golden Knights (via team release)

F Pavel Dorofeyev (to Henderson, AHL)
F Sakari Manninen (to Henderson, AHL)
F Jonas Rondbjerg (to Henderson, AHL)
D Jake Bischoff (to Henderson, AHL)
D Kaedan Korczak (to Henderson, AHL)
G Michael Hutchinson (to Henderson, AHL)

Washington Capitals (via team tweet)

F Henrik Borgstrom (to Hershey, AHL)
D Lucas Johansen (to Hershey, AHL)

Winnipeg Jets (via team tweet)

D Ville Heinola (to Manitoba, AHL)

This post will be kept updated throughout the day.

Sean Couturier Returns To Skating, Still Week-To-Week

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Good news for Philadelphia Flyers fans will be shining beacons of bright light this season, given the team’s expected poor performance on the ice. Good news is exactly what they got today, though, at least on the health front. Sean Couturier, when it was originally speculated he could miss the entire season with a back injury, returned to the ice today, albeit skating on his own.

Waivers: 10/07/22

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It’s an important day for waivers as the regular season approaches, and several potential targets are available. With the preseason wrapping up, teams will try to sneak players through at the last second and keep them in the organization for the time being.

Many of these placements are due to salary cap restrictions or LTIR machinations to give teams maximum flexibility as the season begins. Everyone from yesterday’s list cleared.

Here is today’s group of waiver additions:

Carolina Hurricanes

Jordan Martinook

Dallas Stars

Anton Khudobin

Edmonton Oilers

Mattias Janmark
Dmitri Samorukov

Minnesota Wild

Steven Fogarty

New Jersey Devils

Andreas Johnsson
Brian Pinho

Philadelphia Flyers

Kevin Connauton
Troy Grosenick

St. Louis Blues

Martin Frk
Klim Kostin
Matthew Highmore

Vancouver Canucks

Justin Dowling

Winnipeg Jets

Johnathan Kovacevic

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