Andrew MacDonald coping with life in the minors

Shayne Gostisbehere sat in his locker stall at PPL Center with an orange hardhat behind him.

This is the Lehigh Valley Phantoms’ team award given to the player of the game after a win. Gostisbehere, the Flyers’ most prized defensive prospect, got the honors for scoring his first professional goal against the St. John’s IceCaps.

His defense partner looked proudly from across the room.

“I just assumed he would have scored last year,” Andrew MacDonald said last week, “but then I remembered he was injured, so last game it was good to see him get that first one.”

Despite his NHL experience, MacDonald is not the star of this minor-league team. Far from it. With prospects like Gostisbehere, Sam Morin, Taylor Leier and Nick Cousins on the roster, he takes a back seat despite being the highest-paid player in the American Hockey League.

On Oct. 5, the Flyers placed MacDonald and the remaining five years of his six-year, $30 million contract on waivers. None of the other 29 teams picked him up, as they would have had to foot the bill for the remainder of his contract. When he cleared, he was sent to the AHL.

When general manager Ron Hextall told MacDonald, the defenseman was in such shock he doesn’t even remember what Hextall said. Now that he’s settled in, he can’t help but wonder how much longer he’ll be stuck in the minors.

“It’s certainly crossed my mind, but I’m a hockey player. I love to play hockey and it’s basically in their hands what they want to do,” MacDonald said, “but I’m still lucky to play and still want to play. Obviously I want to play at the NHL level. It’s important to just keep working hard and do the right things.”

When MacDonald looks for a point of reference, there has been only one player to make more money in the AHL than him. Wade Redden had a salary cap hit of $6.5 million with the New York Rangers and they stuffed him down in the AHL with the Connecticut Whale for two seasons before they used one of their amnesty buyouts in the 2013 collective bargaining agreement to break ties.

“I’m not sure exactly how his played out,” MacDonald said, “but he would probably have an idea what that felt like.”

In a recent ESPN article, Redden was quoted as saying he bought his teammates iPads for game-winning goals and other incentives because he felt guilty about how much more money he made than everyone else.

While MacDonald hasn’t made any trips to the Apple Store recently, he’s been picking up some team dinners and trying to be a good teammate.

“He’s been great,” said Phantoms coach Scott Gordon, who worked with MacDonald when they were together with the New York Islanders a few years ago. “Just from what I knew of him in New York, I didn’t expect anything differently.

“Usually guys that come down here from his type of situation, it usually isn’t good. They end up not wanting to play. They don’t play, and I said to him, ‘I don’t think that’s going to be the case with you. I know your character and I know what your make-up is so you’ve just be yourself and if you’ve got to play, this is a great place to play. You’re not that far from Philadelphia. Your family is an hour away.’”

MacDonald has made many trips down I-476 to his Philadelphia apartment to be with his wife Hali and son Mason, who was born in May. With the AHL schedule that often includes three games in three days, it's not always easy. He’s been staying at the hotel attached to the PPL Center, hoping he can return to NHL life.

The Flyers save only $950,000 by having MacDonald in the minors, but that’s how cap strapped they are. They probably would have preferred to recall him over Davis Drewiske Wednesday with Evgeny Medvedev flying back to Philadelphia with an “upper-body injury,” but they can’t afford him.

“It’s not gonna do yourself or anyone else any good to get pissed off that you are where you are,” said MacDonald, who has four points in eight games with the Phantoms. “The situation is what it is. The only thing you can control is how you play and how hard you work and how you hold yourself off and on the ice.”

MacDonald often thinks about his contract and despite how hard he worked to get it, how it’s holding him back from playing in the NHL. He’s trying not to look too far down the road, but doesn’t foresee approaching Hextall in hopes of a trade.

“I don’t think I’d go in there asking for anything,” he said. “You definitely want to play in the NHL. Obviously everyone here wants to do that. It’s tough.”

For now, he’s coping with being an AHL player and trying to enjoy being Gostisbehere’s defense partner.

“It’s something that I never really thought I’d find myself in this type of situation but I am and there’s not a whole lot I can do about it, really,” MacDonald said. “Just work hard, work on my game and help some of these young guys if I can.”

Dave Isaac; (856) 486-2479; disaac@gannettnj.com .