How Ronnie Attard Trade Affects Flyers Going Forward

Monday night brought us a surprise Philadelphia Flyers trade, where defenseman Ronnie Attard, one of the most promising assets in the team’s prospect pool, was interchanged with Edmonton Oilers defenseman Ben Gleason in a straight swap.

Although many fans initially dismissed this as an AHL move, there are deeper meanings to this Flyers trade, one that has evidently been in the makings for a while now.

First and foremost is the fact that top defense prospect Emil Andrae, the organization’s top defense prospect and a left-handed shooter, has made the absolute most of his Flyers call-up in the absence of the injured Cam York.

Andrae, 22, has displaced incumbent third-pair defenseman Egor Zamula just eight games into the 2024-25 season, and his strong performances and consistency have forced head coach John Tortorella to make a decision with York’s return looming.

And based on this Flyers trade, it looks like that decision has been made.

Why the Flyers trade makes sense

If you’ve done some research since the trade went down, you know that Ben Gleason, who is still young at 26 years old, is a left-handed shooter like Emil Andrae is. Ronnie Attard is not, but he had been playing left defense on the third defense pair for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms for most of the season.

With Attard gone and Andrae remaining with the Flyers for the foreseeable future, we can deduct that the Phantoms’ lineup on defense will look something like this:

Hunter McDonald – Louie Belpedio

Adam Ginning – Ethan Samson

Ben Gleason – Helge Grans

Based on Attard’s previous placement on the third defense pairing, it would appear that McDonald, Ginning, and Samson had all jumped him on the organizational depth chart. And provided that Attard is already 25 years old and had clearly regressed, the Flyers needed to move on.

John Tortorella Challenges Young Flyers Stars to Play Harder

General manager Danny Briere managed to address a clear need with Andrae making the switch to the NHL, and now each Phantoms defense pairing has one left-handed shooter and one-right handed shooter.

It is particularly interesting that Samson, a former sixth-round pick who just turned 21 on Aug. 23, displaced Attard so easily. He’s a player the Flyers are intrigued by, and he’s also one Briere called by name as a player whose development he’s excited about in his April exit interview.

Samson has a goal and an assist in eight AHL games so far this season, but he has taken a penalty in six of his last eight games. There’s some work to be done, but the Flyers clearly feel he has potential.

More potential at this point than Attard, and potentially Grans, too.

However, once Oliver Bonk joins the fold, either at the end of this year or the start of next year, that all changes again.

Consider this the Flyers’ way of rearranging the deck to play a stronger hand later in the game.

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