Flyers, Emil Andrae Would Benefit Massively from Potential NHL Waiver Wire Reunion

In the 2026 offseason, the Philadelphia Flyers sought to upgrade their defense, but the one transaction they completed just left things worse for wear. Fortunately, the NHL waiver wire has again presented management with an opportunity to fix things.

In the only real move the Flyers made this summer, goalie Sam Ersson, defenseman Emil Andrae, and a third-round pick were traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs for goalie Joseph Woll and defenseman Simon Benoit.

Benoit, 28, has struggled to establish himself for the Flyers as a rotational veteran, temporarily falling behind Hunter McDonald on the depth chart while also ceding reps to prospect David Jiricek early in the season.

A historically limited player offensively, Benoit has no points in 12 games for the Flyers this season, and has just six goals and 30 assists in 364 career regular season games.

The Flyers, who already produced little offense as it is, are going to need much more from their blue line in order to make something of this season.

Fortunately for them, the good news is that Andrae, still just 24 years old, is available for free on the NHL waiver wire.

The 5-foot-9 Swede has struggled to find his footing this season, having featured as a depth piece for the Columbus Blue Jackets, who picked him up as an auxiliary asset in the Kirill Marchenko trade that sent the star Russian winger to Toronto.

Despite that, though, Andrae has produced two points in five games, assisting on Matthew Knies's first Blue Jackets goal on Oct. 1, and picking up another helper against the Maple Leafs in his most recent appearance for Columbus on Oct. 20.

The unfortunate reality for Andrae is that he's not going to surpass Ivan Provorov, Zach Werenski, or Denton Mateychuk on the depth chart to earn playing time on the left side of the defense, leaving him to play a seventh or eighth defenseman role as a 24-year-old.

If the Flyers were to claim Andrae from waivers for a reunion, though, the undersized defenseman could presumably slide right back into his bottom-four role on defense, and it undoubtedly helps that Andrae already knows Rick Tocchet's system and the majority of the players on the team.

While things weren't perfect at times under Tocchet, Andrae still enjoyed a breakout campaign last year with the Flyers, playing in a career-high 61 games and scoring two goals, 11 assists, and 13 points with a +15 rating, which was the second-best mark on the team.

He doesn't contribute much on special teams, but Andrae is undeniably an upgrade over Benoit and Jiricek, and probably an aging Nick Seeler, too.

His puck-moving skills would help ease the Flyers' overreliance on players like Travis Sanheim, Jamie Drysdale, and Oliver Bonk, who have been working overtime in offensive situations with the Flyers frequently in need of a goal or two... or three.

As things stand, the Flyers are the fourth-worst team in the NHL with their 4-9-4 record and 12 points, which makes them, by extension, the fourth team in the waiver order.

If they want to reunite with Andrae and upgrade the defense for free, only the Los Angeles Kings, Chicago Blackhawks, and Vancouver Canucks have higher waiver priority.

Originally trading Andrae to the Maple Leafs in the Woll deal was the cost of doing business for the Flyers, who had been counting on having the defenseman in their plans until that deal came along.

In fact, they even had Hometown Remix gear made for Andrae that went unused!

But again, now that Andrae is on waivers, the Flyers have a golden opportunity to reunite with a player they never necessarily wanted to lose to begin with, and it couldn't come at a better time in the season than now.