Emil Andrae is back with the Phantoms, he’s been given a significant role to work with, and he’s taking it all in stride. From the get-go, Andrae was given the expected high volume of minutes at even strength, as well as deployment on their top power play unit, but along with that, as something of a newer development, he’s been getting some work on the penalty kill. A lot of work on the penalty kill.
There is the plain fact of that matter that, by virtue of the Phantoms continuing to take the staggering number of penalties as they have been to start the season — they’ve been shorthanded 25 times over four games, the most of any team in the league — there will be a lot of penalty kill minutes up for grabs, but more often than not Andrae has been the first one over the boards for the Phantoms when a shorthanded situation arises for them. Now, some of this is additionally contextual, as the Phantoms are currently without two of their would-be top penalty killers (with Adam Ginning up with the Flyers and Ethan Samson sidelined with injury), but given the Phantoms coaching staff’s already clear willingness to throw him out there in high-leverage situations at even strength, it doesn’t come as a terribly big surprise that Andrae would also be leaned upon here too, with all of these shorthanded minutes up for grabs. It’s a larger role than he’s used to, but it’s one that — in spite of some apparent concerns from the coaching staff up with the Flyers about his ability to be used in shorthanded situations — by and large, he’s excelling in.
In his last two games, Andrae was available for 11 shorthanded situations for the Phantoms — they were shorthanded 13 times in total but two of those were calls on him — during which he was given 14 shifts to work with (including two while down 3-on-5 and two 4-on-6), and those shifts tended to be neither low nor high event for the Monsters, and generally low danger. That is, with Andrae on the ice, the Monsters were able to put up 19 shot attempts, but they were overwhelmingly kept to the outside, creating just four scoring chances and one high danger chance (while also allowing one scoring chance on a controlled breakout).
The low point of this weekend’s showing came as Andrae was on the ice for the lone goal the Monsters were allowed to score on the power play (they went a quite impressive 12/13 on the weekend otherwise), but it’s hard to find anything one might have asked Andrae, or any of the Phantoms’ penalty killers to do better on that play — they had limited to Monsters to passing the puck back and forth along the blue line, and when they did finally put a shot in the direction of the net, it came from the point but managed to sneak perfectly through the handful of bodies making up the traffic in front of the net and past Carson Bjarnason cleanly. It was, all in all, more tough luck for the Phantoms than anything else.
But outside of this blip, Andrae was able to deliver some quite positive impacts — the stats tell this story, and they line up nicely with what the eye would tell us.
— Madeline Campbell (@madelinecampbll) October 22, 2025
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The most notable takeaway from that dataset is how effectively the Phantoms were able to keep the Monsters to the outside with their offense, and this was without a doubt a strong collective effort, but Andrae was also taking a very active role in keeping those Cleveland players to the perimeter. It began with a ton set immediately on their zone entries, and Andrae stepped up nicely in his rush defense.
And this became something of a go-to play for the Phantoms and Andrae — there was less of an emphasis on trying to stand the Monsters up at the blueline and outright deny a zone entry, but rather in using their own downhill momentum against them, squeezing the puck carrier along the boards and giving him no choice but to get rid of the puck into space. Here, we see Andrae gapping up nicely, going first into the corner with the puck carrier and forcing him to make an area pass, and Helge Grans was able to step up in support, dropping behind the net to jump on that loose puck and send it out of the zone.
— Madeline Campbell (@madelinecampbll) October 22, 2025
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And in more established cycle settings, too, this type of play was one the Phantoms were often employing. With the Monsters facing more active pressure at the points from the forwards on the Phantoms’ unit, they were left to dump the puck down into the corner to alleviate some of that pressure, and from there, Andrae was again the first one in, delivering a hit in the corner to loosen up the puck enough for it to skitter over to Grans, who again came up with it to clear it down the length of the ice.
— Madeline Campbell (@madelinecampbll) October 22, 2025
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But, of course, the Phantoms’ success on the weekend came from their ability to show some flexibility within their penalty killing scheme, in avoiding letting it become too rote and predictable. Equally, they saw their forwards stepping up in to loosen those pucks up along the boards and because they have a defenseman so mobile and confident as a breakout player, he could easily step in and carry the puck out of danger. In this case, Jacob Gaucher lined up for the hit along the boards to force the turnover, and Andrae jumped into the space opened up for it to grab the loose puck and skate it out for a more controlled breakout, and even took a hit at the redline for his troubles.
— Madeline Campbell (@madelinecampbll) October 22, 2025
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When the Monsters were allowed to get set up in the Phantoms’ zone, though, Andrae found his spot defending at the front of the net, and despite lacking some in the size department, he still did his share to ensure that any Cleveland player looking to set up there was going to have a difficult time with it. Like here, while waiting in space while his man hoped to receive a pass into the crease, Andrae was right on him, disrupting his stick to make any potential receptions less clean and delivering a crosscheck for good measure, asserting a bit in the way of physical presence while he was at it.
— Madeline Campbell (@madelinecampbll) October 22, 2025
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His stick work — noticeable across the full scope of these shifts — also served as an impactful tool for him in his penalty killing duties. It didn’t always make for the flashiest play, but he came up with a good handful of instances like these when he was able to use a bit of reach and get a stick into a passing lane to break up a first attempt, what would be the most dangerous option, and forcing the Monsters to regroup, or in this case, become scattered enough to outright allow for the Phantoms to jump on the loose puck and get themselves a breakout.
— Madeline Campbell (@madelinecampbll) October 22, 2025
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And even when the execution wasn’t completely there for him, the idea was clear, and Andrae was still working nicely to try to make a positive impact. There’s a lot to like in this play, where, even though it still ends in the Monsters regaining possession and ultimately putting a shot attempt in the direction of the net, Andrae’s aggressive play to chip the puck off of the stick of the carrier right on the entry was a good one.
Across the board, though, Andrae was doing a lot to look the part of an effective penalty killer. On top of these plays, he was able to stay on top of the even more subtle, less clip-able plays — getting in front of shots with some good body positioning to take away lanes, showing flashes of nice mobility and jumping up from the net front position to challenge shooters more directly, but also using an active stick to disrupt passing or deflection attempts when this wasn’t possible. And along with that, he made a couple of nice additional breakout plays, one after jumping on the rebound of an initial blocked point shot, and another after breaking up an initial entry, but both ending in the puck sent the length of the ice to kill even more clock. It wasn’t all highlight reel stuff emerging from him, but it was all really nicely poised and solid.
Now, this is again just a two game sample that we’re working with here, and things could certainly change as an extended run of games in this role is put together, but the fact remains that these early returns really are quite promising. And this points to the broader takeaway that Andrae is putting in a lot of positive work to carve out a role for himself as a player who can truly be depended upon in any game situation. How this will all translate for him at the next level is yet to be seen — because doing all this as well as he is down in the AHL up at the NHL level is another challenge entirely — but if there are any question marks lingering for the Flyers’ front office about his dependability in particular areas of his game, it’s clear that he’s putting in all the work he has to eliminate the possibility of those lingering much longer.