Flyers Name Valtteri Filppula, Andrew MacDonald Alternate Captains

(Kate Frese/SB Nation)

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

With the departure of Mark Streit at the trade deadline and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare at the Expansion Draft, the Flyers once again were set to name a new alternate captain.

Actually, two of them.

The Flyers named both Valtteri Filppula and Andrew MacDonald as alternate captains of the team, after a players vote in a meeting held on Tuesday. Both players will split duties between home and road games. Filppula will be the second alternate captain at home games and MacDonald will be the second alternate captain for road games, joining captain Claude Giroux and first alternate captain Wayne Simmonds.

Filppula was acquired in the trade that sent Streit to the Tampa Bay Lightning at last season's trade deadline. He scored five goals and added three assists for eight points in 20 games.

Filppula is entering his 13th season in the NHL, and has previously served as an alternate captain with the Lightning.

MacDonald is entering his 10th NHL season and fifth with the Flyers. He was acquired at the 2014 trade deadline in a deal with the New York Islanders.

Last season, MacDonald scored two goals and had 16 assists for 18 points in 73 games.

The Flyers open the 2017-18 regular season on Wednesday night against the San Jose Sharks at 10:30 p.m.