After calling up David Jiricek and Oliver Bonk two days ago, the Philadelphia Flyers called up five players from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms of the American Hockey League. With the Phantoms season over and now playoffs for the club on the horizon, the Flyers decided this quintet would get the nod to join the big club.

Announced by the team on Wednesday morning, the Flyers have recalled goaltender Carson Bjarnason, forwards Oscar Eklind and Jacob Gaucher, and defensemen Hunter McDonald and Helge Grans.

Transactions: We have recalled the following players from the @LVPhantoms (AHL):

• Carson Bjarnason (G)
• Oscar Eklind (F)
• Jacob Gaucher (F)
• Helge Grans (D)
• Hunter McDonald (D)

— x – Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) April 22, 2026

That’s a whole lot of depth and some insurance for the Flyers, as they now lead the first-round series against the Penguins 2-0 and could need all the help they can get to add some bodies as black aces.

Bjarnason was briefly called up last week and was primarily used in practices to give the tandem of Dan Vladar and Sam Ersson some down time in preparation for the playoffs. Meanwhile McDonald and Gaucher played Philadelphia’s final game of the regular season, with McDonald getting a point in his first NHL game against Montreal on April 14, a 4-2 win. Eklind, Bjarnason, and Grans saw no action with Philadelphia in the regular season.

Flyers nursing some injuries

Philadelphia, who host Pittsburgh in Game 3 Wednesday night, have some banged up players, so the call-ups are a precautionary measure should the Flyers run into a rash of injuries. And it will add more “black aces” the team’s practice roster. Defenseman Emil Andrae missed Game 2 on Monday night due to an upper-body injury. He was replaced by Noah Juulsen who did an admirable job on the third pair alongside Nick Seeler.

During morning skate ahead of Game 3, Andrae was seen skating during practice. There’s no official word, but as the Flyers continued the morning skate, he was not included in the lines and it was Noah Juulsen next to Nick Seeler as the team’s third pairing — the exact same lineup as Game 2.

Lines and pairs:

Konecny – Dvorak – Martone
Foerster – Zegras – Bump
Barkey – Cates – Michkov
Glendening – Couturier – Hathaway

Sanheim – Ristolainen
York – Drysdale
Seeler – Juulsen

— Charlie O’Connor (@charlieo_conn) April 22, 2026

Although head coach Rick Tocchet did mention that Cam York took a shot in the ribs in Game 2, but he should be good to go as he was in the morning skate lineup but must still be hurting. Elsewhere, forward Owen Tippett — who won’t be on Anthony Mantha’s Christmas list this year — is also banged up and wasn’t at Wednesday’s practice. Tippett was cut, punched, and cross-checked in the final three minutes of Game 3. Minutes prior, he was blowing by Erik Karlsson and the other Penguins in the third on a breakaway before Karlsson hooked him, resulting in a failed penalty shot. But, Tippett did also miss morning skate ahead of Game 2, so we won’t know if he is going to miss the first playoff game in Philadelphia since 2018 until warmup. Alex Bump took his spot in the lineup for morning skate, alongside Trevor Zegras and Tyon Foerster.

As long as the Flyers remain healthy, it’s doubtful any of these callups would see action, but it’s never a bad thing to just bring some guys along for the experience.