Latest Flyers Roster Move Sends a Terrible Message

As more players get healthy, more roster spots are required, but what the Philadelphia Flyers did with their latest transaction was simply the wrong move, and it sends a terrible message to the future of the team.

In anticipation of Owen Tippett and Travis Konecny returning from injured reserve, the Flyers needed to cut one player from the roster to make adequate space, with Jacob Gaucher having already been sent back to the AHL Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

That one player was inexplicably Hunter McDonald, the brolic rookie defenseman whose physical play has quickly endeared him to Flyers fans, teammates, and coaches alike... or at least we thought.

McDonald, 24, filled in admirably for the Flyers in the face of injury, appearing in five games, including two of the team's three wins on the year, in a depth role on the bottom defense pair.

In his second game of the year against Buffalo, the 6-foot-4, 240-pounder laid a vicious open-ice hit on Sabres forward Ryan McLeod, prompting Mattias Samuelsson to chase him down the ice and initiate a fight.

In the third period, nursing a 3-1 lead, McDonald's physicality was valuable, as Samuelsson's instigator penalty gave the Flyers two minutes of power play time to help sand away the remaining time on the clock.

That 3-1 win was the last win of a three-game streak: the Flyers' only three wins of the season, led by the youth.

Then, in the very next game against Anaheim, McDonald did the same, taking a big chunk out of Ducks forward Sam Colangelo along the wall. Colangelo got tagged for roughing, and A.J. Greer got tagged for instigating.

The Flyers got a 5-on-3 from the pair of penalties, and Matvei Michkov and Porter Martone scored on the ensuing 5-on-3 and 5-on-4 opportunities, respectively, to give the Flyers a 2-0 lead.

Of course, the Flyers eventually blew the game and lost 5-4 in regulation, but a good team seals the deal, and McDonald's play would have effectively bought them a win with those two power play goals.

This isn't a good Flyers team, though, and despite their insistence on a rebuild and a youth movement, it isn't happening.

In his brief stint with the Flyers, especially while playing in a limited role, McDonald did everything the Flyers could have reasonably expected of him.

Instead, after seemingly establishing himself in the role he will play as a full-time NHLer in the future, the Flyers demoted McDonald back to the AHL outright, while veteran journeyman Simon Benoit returns to the lineup for the first time since the aforementioned Buffalo game.

Aside from the fact that McDonald has been straight-up better than Benoit this season, the Flyers should be prioritizing NHL reps for their young players.

Seriously, they are 3-8-4 and sit 30th in the NHL with 10 points in 15 games.

Despite that fact, 22-year-old David Jiricek, if indeed a healthy scratch on Sunday vs. Utah, will sit for his fifth game in a row, and McDonald is now headed back to the AHL, where he's already over 160 total games.

McDonald's demotion sends a terrible message from the Flyers to their young players. You can do everything the coaches and the team ask, seek improvement on small details, such as fighting, and out-perform peers, but still not get rewarded because of roster politics.

The Flyers talk a lot about having to earn a spot, and how nothing is guaranteed, but actions speak louder than words, and they just showed the fans and the players themselves the exact opposite.