The Philadelphia Flyers have held pretty steady in their defensive pairs this season.
Cam York and Travis Sanheim are holding things down on the top pair, with Nick Seeler and Jamie Drysdale primarily playing together as the second pair. That’s left Noah Juulsen, Emil Andrae, Egor Zamula, and Adam Ginning to rotate in on the third pair.
Each of those top two pairs has played over 220 minutes together at 5-on-5, per MoneyPuck, and it appeared as if the new third pair was going to stick with Andrae and Juulsen up to 91 minutes together.
But Rick Tocchet broke up the second pair for the first time in a while during Thursday night’s comeback win against the Blues with an interesting new wrinkle.
Tocchet liked what he saw during mid-game shakeup
Drysdale started the game with Seeler but played just 4:55 of his 18:15 with the defensive defenseman, per Natural Stat Trick. He then got a look with Andrae, and that turned into nearly 12 minutes together (11:48, to be exact), with the Flyers scoring both of their 5-on-5 goals with those two on the ice.
The two defensemen are a bit smaller and lean more to the offensive side of things, so it was a bit surprising to see Tocchet put them together. However, the former Canucks coach saw what a player like the 5-foot-10 Quinn Hughes could do in Vancouver, and is giving the 5-foot-11 Drysdale and 5-foot-9 Andrae a chance to play together.
“You take one of the best players, Quinn Hughes, not the biggest guy. He won the Norris with his brain, his quickness, his puck ability, and his breakouts,” Tocchet told the media after practice on Friday. “So they can defend that way. If they’re going against bigger guys in the cycle, corners and stuff to squash plays, it might be a little difficult, but I think with your brain and your quickness and your patience with the puck, you can work around that.”
Of course, Hughes is one of the best defensemen in the league and not an apples-to-apples comparison to Drysdale or Andrae, but the thought process behind it makes sense. Size matters in certain situations, but outskating and outthinking the opponent can work just as well.
“So we’ll see if it’ll work. I think it’s something that you got to try,” Tocchet continued. “A perfect example, Emil on the Foerster goal. He doesn’t just catch it on the blade; he moves.”
It was only a matter of time. #STLvsPHI | #LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/wxF7mLWHNO
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) November 21, 2025
“That’s good defending. We have the puck and we score a goal. We’re not back in our end,” Tocchet said. “So I think that’s why we wanted to give it a shot.”
Andrae-Drysdale pair sticks together at Flyers practice
The pair was together at practice on Friday, per PHLY’s Charlie O’Connor, with Zamula seeing time with Juulsen. It sure looks like Andrae and Drysdale are going to stick as a pair for Saturday night’s game against the Devils.
And Tocchet will give them a long enough leash to see how things work out.
“I think they deserve a chance. First two shifts, if they get hemmed in and they get knocked around in the corner, I don’t think it’s fair to ‘Hey, let’s break them up.’ They need a little bit of runway,” he said. “But I think it’s important that they stick to their characteristics.
“I like when Andrae goes. He wants to wheel the puck. That’s what we want our D — he doesn’t just rim it, he has a plan. Yeah, he’s going to make mistakes, but I think it’s important that you have guys like that back there.”
Pairing Andrae with Drysdale would’ve been viewed as a defensive nightmare last season. There were tons of question marks around Drysdale’s defensive game, and Andrae was still finding his footing for the most part. But now? Drysdale has shown that he can take on that type of defensive responsibility.
“I really, really think his 5-on-5 play — the overall, since training camp, his 5-on-5 play has been good. I came in with open eyes,” Tocchet explained. “I heard he wasn’t a good defender, and I heard all this stuff. I think he’s really taken it to heart. I think he’s been a really good 5-on-5 player.
“He’s going to make mistakes, and we’re asking a lot from him. He’s playing power play, sometimes on the PK, and he’s playing 24 minutes. He’s going to have some dips. He’s probably not used to playing that much in this type of role, so I think he’s handled it really well, and I think he can really help Andrae, or whoever he plays with.”
Drysdale leads all Flyers defensemen with an on-ice expected goals share of 52.58%. That is the result of 2.42 expected goals for per 60 minutes, right between Sanheim and York, and a unit-best 2.18 expected goals against per 60. He’s been doing it on both sides of the puck.
Not only that, but Drysdale’s +5.27 xGF% relative to his teammates is the 28th-best in the league among 121 defensemen with at least 300 minutes played.
Being able to roll out a pair with two puckmovers like Andrae and Drysdale could be huge for the Flyers’ breakouts. They’ve struggled to string together zone exits and entries at times, so having two guys who can do it on the same pair might make the opposition think twice. There will surely be some defensive bumps, but the overall result could very well be a positive.
And if there’s a situation to put a pair like that together, it’s at home against an injured Devils team. Tocchet will be able to control how Andrae and Drysdale are deployed, and the injury to Jack Hughes takes away one of New Jersey’s key offensive weapons.
If this pair works out, it could put the Flyers in a good position long term. They could then keep the top pair together and have Rasmus Ristolainen slot in beside Nick Seeler on the third pair when he’s healthy and ready to go.
We’ll see how things go, but it’s at least worth a try given how the pair played on Thursday night.