New Leafs And Their Role – Emil Andrae

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Toronto Maple Leafs GM John Chayka made a major reshuffle of his roster, starting with the trade of Joseph Woll and Simon Benoit to Philadelphia last month. The club added defenseman Emil Andrae and began restocking the shelves with the signings of forwards Jack Roslovic, Teddy Blueger, Colton Sissons, Brandon Duhaime, and Zach MacEwen, and trading Dennis Hildeby to Tampa Bay for Nick Paul.

Over the next week, we will look at the players Chayka brought and look at what role they are likely to be tasked with filling under new head coach Jim Hiller next season

Emil Andrae

The 24-year-old defenseman was a 2012 second-round pick of the Philadelphia Flyers in 2020 out of the junior-level of HV71 of the SHL. After spending three seasons at various levels in Sweden, the 5’9”, 189 lb. blueliner came to North America to finish off the 2022-23 season with Lehigh Valley of the AHL.

In the last three seasons, Andrae has split time between the Phantoms and the NHL, playing 107 games with the Flyers, including a career-high 61 games last year, posting 13 points (2 goals, 11 assists), but his size and skill set did not fit with new head coach Rick Tocchet. Chayka’s main focus was to add more puck-moving and speed to Toronto’s back end, which is why he was the main piece in the trade that sent Woll and Benoit to Philadelphia last month.

The Leafs locked up Andrae on a two-year, $3.1 million deal soon after acquiring him.

Where Andrae fits with the Leafs will depend on who is available and present on the roster this season. At this point, assuming that Chris Tanev is 100% healthy and available to play and that Morgan Rielly will be on the roster, the diminutive defenseman appears to be Toronto’s seventh defenseman, but if Tanev is out of the lineup or Rielly is traded between now and training camp, he will be on the bottom pairing with Troy Stecher. This could be an issue, since both he and Stecher are undersized and would create matchup problems.