The Philadelphia Flyers have made a pair of recalls from the American Hockey League.
Defenseman Emil Andrae and forward Jacob Gaucher have been called up from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms ahead of the Flyers’ two-game road trip. For Gaucher, this is his first NHL recall after signing a two-year contract on December 12th.
Flyers General Manager Daniel Brière spoke about the pair during his press conference on Saturday morning.
“We’re excited about Jake Gaucher, and this is really a wonderful story,” said Brière. “So if you don’t know with him, he wasn’t drafted. We signed him on an AHL deal and he started playing the full year [2022-23] in Reading in the ECHL. After that season he kind of played up and down between Lehigh Valley and Reading last year. He played big time, big minutes, scored a big goal in the playoffs in Lehigh Valley. And he signed another AHL deal to start the season and he just proved to be one of our better players in the first half of the season in Lehigh Valley. So we decided to sign him. He’s a big center that just keeps getting better and we signed him to an NHL deal, and now with the situation we felt it was time to give him a look. So he’s coming up to play tomorrow in Colorado.”
Gaucher currently leads the Phantoms in goals with 14 and has tacked on 13 assists in 44 games. The 23-year-old is also tied with Olle Lycksell for second on the club in points (27). In his most recent outing he posted 2 assists in the Phantoms’ 9-2 thrashing of Bridgeport on Wednesday. The Longueuil, Québec native had previously gotten a decent look from the Flyers during training camp, appearing in four preseason contests in the fall. Standing at 6’3” and 185 pounds, Gaucher will now draw into the lineup as the Flyers need another center after Morgan Frost was traded along with Joel Farabee to Calgary late Thursday night.
Andrae, who impressed earlier in the year with Philadelphia, will also be playing.
“He really surprised us, had a really good stint when he came up with us earlier in the season,” said Brière. “Went back down and he was hurt, got hurt a few weeks ago. Took a couple weeks off, just came back. We wanted to give him a few more games. We took a look at Adam Ginning, we wanted to give him a game and see where he was. But now we’ll bring Emil back and he’ll play tomorrow in Colorado as well I believe.”
Andrae was one of the Flyers’ best defensemen during his earlier stint with the team this season. He scored his first NHL goal, tacked on 4 assists, and was +3 to accompany 28 blocked shots, 22 hits, and 10 takeaways in 20 games while averaging 19:18 of ice time. He also maintained a 54.2 even-strength Corsi-For Percentage which leads all Flyers defensemen, and a 5.9 Expected +/- which is good for fifth on the team. With the Phantoms this season, Andrae has recorded 2 goals, 7 assists, and is +4 in 15 games. Like Gaucher, Andrae also recorded 2 assists in the Phantoms 9-2 win over Bridgeport on Wednesday.
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