Flyers keep Scott Laughton, demote Andrew MacDonald

On Monday, the final day of waivers before opening-night rosters must be set, the Philadelphia Flyers waived defenceman Andrew MacDonald and the Calgary Flames waived Mason Raymond amid a flurry of transactions.

After a huge $30million contract that was signed past year, MacDonald has been hugely disappointing.

Had the Flyers elected to waive Brandon Manning rather than MacDonald, the team would have gained $625,000 of cap space before Laughton’s deal was figured in and wound up with just $345,000 – not even enough to call up a player making the National Hockey League minimum of $575,000 – in the case of a non-LTIR injury. “He’s an National Hockey League player, but we’re in a tough jam here with a roster spot and cap issue but we also have to put our best team on the ice Thursday night”.

“He moves the puck well, he’s solid defensively and a great teammate so, who knows?” Maybe he’ll be playing. He’s been a disappointment and has been benched at times for poor play.

Laughton played 39 games with the Phantoms last season, having been demoted from the Flyers in mid-February after suffering a concussion. Upshall, 31, is a 12-year veteran and had 15 points in 63 games with Florida last season.

In five games of preseason action, Laughton recorded two assists and posted a 46 percent success rate on faceoff attempts. “When you have the leadership of a guy like Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek, I don’t want to say the Flyers are in the fast lane, but they’re certainly in the right lane on getting this thing back to where Flyers fans would want it”.

Forwards Sam Gagner and Vincent Lecavalier remained the “extra two” skaters in practice and appear destined to be healthy scratches in Thursday’s opener. Nikitin has one year left at a cap hit of $4.5 million; Scrivens has a year left at $2.3 million.

VOORHEES Andrew MacDonald’s going down on the farm.