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A-Mac’s Back: Flyers recall $30M man MacDonald

New York Rangers v Philadelphia Flyers - Game Six

Andrew MacDonald

Getty Images

One of the most expensive players buried in the AHL has been dug up.

On Monday, the Flyers announced they recalled veteran d-man Andrew MacDonald from AHL Lehigh Valley, just one day after announcing fellow blueliner Luke Schenn would miss the next two weeks with an ankle injury.

MacDonald, 29, was waived prior to the start of this season and, upon clearing, was sent to Lehigh Valley, where he has 13 points in 23 games this year.

A veteran of nearly 400 NHL contests, MacDonald’s demotion made big news at the time -- in large part because he’s in the second of a six-year, $30 million dollar deal with a $5M average annual cap hit.

At one point considered one of the NHL’s best bargains -- he was a staple on the Isles blueline a few years ago while carrying a $550,000 hit -- McDonald had a rough ’14-15 campaign with the Flyers, sitting as a healthy scratch on a number of occasions.

Following the year, he expressed his dismay with how things went.

“It was disappointing,” MacDonald said, per the Philadelphia Inquirer. “Obviously, it’s not nearly the way I envisioned things going and I was pretty disappointed in myself and my own play, and just felt like things kind of snowballed throughout the year and really just didn’t work out.”

MacDonald -- who’s cap hit played a key role in getting demoted -- failed to make a different mark on the organization and new head coach Dave Hakstol this preseason. That said, GM Ron Hextall recently explained the club would prefer to have MacDonald at the NHL level.

“Quite frankly, we’d like to get him back up,” Hextall said in late October, per Philly.com. “It’s a situation right now that’s partly out of our hands and his hands.

“It’s certainly not the way you script it. You don’t want to have a guy making a ton of money here. That’s not the way you plan things. Obviously, sometimes you have to adjust.”