With Gustafsson Up, Lilja Top Candidate To Sit

He waited and waited and played five games with the Phantoms. Finally, Erik Gustafsson gets the chance to pick up where he left off. On Nov. 5, his last game with the Flyers, he was a plus-6, played a career-high 23 minutes and got his first NHL point on an assist. Then he missed almost two months of action with a wrist injury.

The Flyers called Gustafsson up on Wednesday and sent Matt Walker down to the AHL. The team has been lacking something on the blue line, not that Walker was part of the problem. He hasn’t been able to crack the lineup.

But Andreas Lilja has and he may be the one, instead of rookie Marc-Andre Bourdon, to sit as a healthy scratch. Lilja has been steadily losing ice time to Bourdon, who continues to improve and has even contributed a couple points. He had a goal in Sunday’s loss to the Senators. He seems unlikely to sit with Gustafsson back in the fold.

Some have wondered if Gustafsson has been at full strength, whether he could even take a slapshot. But he was firing from the point at Citizens Bank Park. He said that he was ready even then, but was trying not to think about a comeback to the NHL.

It was a huge disappointment for Gustafsson to miss time. When he went down injured, he was clearly playing his best hockey at the NHL level.

“It was really frustrating at the start there,” said Gustafsson last Friday. “I tried to put that aside and then when I had to have the surgery I was trying to stay positive. It was for sure really frustrating, but I’m just gonna keep working hard right now. It feels pretty good right now and I hope I get another crack at it.”

He was a plus-2 with two shots on net in the Outdoor Classic against Hershey and wants to get back to his old form. He played another game after the Outdoor Classic and registered an assist. According to Gustafsson, his conditioning was the only thing that wasn’t 100 percent. Now it will be tested at the highest level.

Flyers Place Matt Walker On Waviers…Again

Losing Chris Pronger was bad. Losing Kimmo Timonen might be worse. Timonen is officially day-to-day with an injury to his left wrist, of which the severity is not yet known. He is being checked out by doctors on Friday and likely won’t play Saturday. That means his 223-game ironman streak is probably over.

Even though Matt Walker was paired with Braydon Coburn in practice on Friday in Timonen’s place, he won’t line up with him on Saturday. According to TSN, the Flyers waived Walker Friday afternoon, for the second time this season.

Without Timonen or Walker, the Flyers would be in need of a sixth defenseman and the likely suspect is Erik Gustafsson. Gustafsson has been rehabbing a wrist injury of his own and was close to returning before Timonen went down in Thursday night’s game against Chicago. The current situation on the blue line likely hastened his process a bit.

In five games this season with the Flyers, Gustafsson has an assist and is a plus-6. The Flyers have not yet announced a corresponding roster move.

Matt Walker Clears Waivers

The Flyers can exhale. They won’t have to pay another team for Matt Walker’s services. The 31-year-old defenseman cleared re-entry waivers on Friday and is eligible to play in Anaheim against the Ducks.

Walker hasn’t been effective in three games with the Flyers this season, having only one hit and 16 penalty minutes. But the Flyers had only six healthy defensemen on their roster, so they needed an extra guy around seeing as how Chris Pronger, Erik Gustafsson and Andreas Lilja are all on the shelf.

It’s unclear whether Walker will actually be in the lineup on Friday, but his call-up could mean that the Flyers don’t need to make a trade or signing to acquire another blueliner in the interim.

In 10 games with the Adirondack Phantoms this season, Walker has one goal and one assist.

Walker On Re-Entry Waivers, McCabe Mum On Intentions

Help might be on the way for the Flyers one way or another. The team put Matt Walker on re-entry waivers on Thursday. In three games with the Flyers, he has one hit and 16 penalty minutes. In 10 games with the Phantoms, he has a goal and an assist. His hefty $1.7 million salary was one of the reasons the Flyers couldn’t afford to keep him on their big-league roster and waived him on Nov. 1.

If another team picks him up, it would only be for half price, or $850,000. The Flyers would be responsible for picking up the tab on the other half and it would also count against the salary cap. It would also count for the remainder of his contract which has one more year left after this season.

The move could mean a number of things. Most pressing is that the team is on the road out west with only six healthy defensemen. That’s dangerous. Two of the blueliners have a combined six games experience. Again with the danger. It could also mean that the Flyers tried to find a trade partner and failed. Paul Holmgren noted on Tuesday that there are others in the league looking for help at that position.

“People I that I talk to, it seems like everybody is looking for a defenseman now,” said Holmgren, “not looking to trade one.”

Mum’s The Word On Bryan McCabe

The Flyers don’t have to necessarily go for a trade, they could look to free agents. Veteran Bryan McCabe is still without a job. The 36-year-old 6-foot-2 blueliner last played for the Florida Panthers and New York Rangers last season. He had a combined seven goals and 21 assists in 67 games.

Some have linked his name to the Flyers, but his agent told Philly Sports Daily he wouldn’t comment on whether the Flyers have reached out to him and said “there isn’t much to talk about,” when asked about what his client’s intentions are of playing in the NHL again or where he would want to play.

Gustafsson, Rinaldo Recalled From Phantoms

Without Chris Pronger, the Flyers’ defense was bound to struggle. However, in his three games, Matt Walker has been even worse than some might have expected. He played only 7:20 against Montreal on Wednesday and was a minus-1. But he’ll still stay with the Flyers, according to a report from the Delaware County Daily Times.

The Flyers have recalled Zac Rinaldo and Erik Gustafsson from the Adirondack Phantoms, and to make room, they have put Brayden Schenn on long term injured reserve. Schenn has a broken left foot, which makes the call-up for Rinaldo make more sense. Schenn’s $1.69 million cap hit covers the $900,000 that Gustafsson makes in the NHL and Rinaldo’s $544,444 cap hit as well.

In four games this season with the Phantoms, Rinaldo has a goal, an assist and 11 penalty minutes. Gustafsson has played in eight games and has racked up four assists. He is a plus-3 in that span.

The Flyers were trying to mask the loss of Pronger by switching off Walker and Andreas Lilja with the team’s top four defensemen. It is unclear if the Flyers will dress Gustafsson in Thursday night’s game against Winnipeg.

In three games last season with the Flyers, Gustafsson registered no points. He played 16:06 in his NHL debut against Ottawa in February.