Sam Ersson back at Flyers practice, Helge Grans demoted to AHL

VOORHEES — Good news for the Philadelphia Flyers on the injury front meant bad news for one of November’s biggest pleasant surprises on the back end.

Goaltender Sam Ersson made his first appearance at a full team practice since leaving practice a few minutes early on November 13. It’s believed that Ersson suffered a recurrence of the lower-body injury that caused him to miss a week earlier in November, and this time, the Flyers would take no chances, ultimately placing him on injured reserve and sitting him down for two and a half weeks.

It appears that Ersson’s time out of the lineup will soon be at an end. But in order to accommodate Ersson’s looming return to the 23-man active roster, the Flyers needed to excise a player. Thus explains the news that 22-year old rookie defenseman Helge Grans — who did not participate in Monday’s practice — had been reassigned to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms in the AHL.

Grans performed admirably in six NHL games after earning his first recall to the Flyers on November 18, picking up an assist and posting a strong 53.73 percent 5-on-5 expected goal share (per Evolving-Hockey). But Grans did sit as a healthy scratch on Saturday against St. Louis (Egor Zamula returned to the lineup in his place), and given his waiver-exempt status, could be sent to the AHL without risk of losing him to another club on waivers.

Therefore, Grans — through little fault of his own — goes down.

“He just played, wasn’t afraid of the moment, “John Tortorella said on Monday. “He played a lot of good minutes. Really interesting to us.”

But with Cam York back in the lineup, Emil Andrae establishing himself as a nightly lineup staple (and above-average NHL top-four defenseman), and Egor Zamula’s continued NHL development still being prioritized by the Flyers — not to mention Jamie Drysdale’s eventual return to action — Grans simply didn’t have a clear-cut path to consistent playing time with the big club. He’ll head back to Allentown, and look to hold his spot as the team’s preferred injury call-up on the back end.

As for Ersson (0.902 save percentage in 11 appearances), while he technically remains on IR and didn’t make any promises regarding his availability for Thursday’s game against the Florida Panthers, it certainly appears to be trending in that direction.

“We’ll see,” Ersson said with a laugh, when asked about his chances of a Thursday return.

Ivan Fedotov and Aleksei Kolosov have performed admirably in Ersson’s absence, with Fedotov posting a 0.901 save percentage in five appearances and Kolosov an even-better 0.914 save percentage across four outings of his own. But Tortorella made it clear Monday that nothing has changed regarding the hierarchy of his netminders when Ersson is healthy.

“Sam is our No. 1 guy,” Tortorella confirmed. “We’ve got to figure out what happens after that as we push through here.”

In other words, a healthy Ersson is back at the top of the Flyers’ goalie depth chart. But the statuses of Fedotov and Kolosov remain in question, as the Flyers don’t plan to carry three healthy goalies for the rest of the season. But for now, that’s what they’ll do — even though he acknowledges it’s a temporary solution to a problem without an easy answer.

“It’s not ideal to have three around all the time. I think eventually we’re going to have to figure this out, depending upon health,” he said.

More roster decisions are looming for the Flyers, as Drysdale remains on IR and a return to the active roster would require one more player to be excised. For now, however, they’re compliant with NHL rules — and with their No. 1 netminder nearing a return.