Andrew MacDonald placed on waivers

The Flyers plan to waive defenseman Andrew MacDonald Monday at noon, general manager Ron Hextall annnounced. I thought MacDonald might benefit from Hakstol’s system with his solid passing and skating, but he has lost the coach’s favor this preseason nonetheless. They are both expected to be in the lineup on opening night.

Nikitin has one year left at a cap hit of $4.5 million, while Scrivens has a year left at $2.3 million. The 6th round pick from the 2006 draft hits the waivers with his $5million salary but the Flyers will only save $950,000 from their salary cap.

It was a tough decision. “We also have to put our best team on the ice Thursday night”.

The Flyers acquired MacDonald from the New York Islanders late in the 2013-14 season. “To be able to play with them for half the year last year and be familiar with them, I think that takes a lot and I’m just comfortable with the puck and things like that”.

After acquiring MacDonald, then Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren signed him to a long-term deal.

VOORHEES Andrew MacDonald’s going down on the farm. “It was a tough decision”.

“Mac’s a good player”, Hextall said.

“Is it what we wanted to do?” No. If we could have avoided it, we would. “We’ll get by it and move on …” “We can’t forget that and I’m convinced he’s going to be back in the National Hockey League and be a productive player at a few point”. “The dollars that everybody has, you have to balance your cap and everything else and sometimes you need to make decisions like this one”. That would only happen if there were an injury. Other young players such as Brandon Manning and Scott Laughton have earned a spot on the team, although only Scott Laughton was waiver-exempt.

“It’s opening night roster and Scotty pushed hard”, Hextall said. He had to come in here and really make us better. Thus far that’s what he’s done. “And we also got to put our best team on the ice”. Give the kid credit.

It never made much sense for the team to waive Schenn.

Manning will start the season at right defense with Michael Del Zotto. It’s extremely unlikely that a team would pick up MacDonald, who has $25.75 million left in real money on his contract for another five years. “He’s been good for us”. Flyers fans should still keep an eye on their twitter feeds, because Hextall is probably still looking for longer term solutions.