Photo Credit: Our very own Michael Reaves
Jamie Drysdale’s tenure as a Flyer can be characterized as up and down. Low’s, the lows being on the injured list again, but he still remains a fan favorite in Philadelphia for good reason. He’s only 22-years-old, and the sky is the limit for this young defenseman who was thrusted into the NHL right away at the age of 18. For his efforts, he hasn’t been able to stay healthy, thus Drysdale hasn’t played many games in the NHL. He knows this, and he looks forward to a healthy offseason to train, “I’m with a new team that treated me unbelievably,” Drysdale said. “It’s a great group, and I’m really excited to be here. I’m looking forward to a healthy next few years.”
Drysdale said his focus this offseason is going to ensure that some of these injuries don’t happen again. It appears he’s going to work on physical conditioning, but he said he was banged up all year.
Everyone appreciates honesty, and maybe that’s why most fans are gravitating towards this young man. Unfortunately, he did say he might need offseason surgery, Drysdale just cannot catch a break.
The surgery though would be a big one. Flyers’ General Manager Danny Briere said that Drysdale might need surgery around the “Core Area”. Honestly, if he gets this procedure, I do not expect him to be at full health until December/January. The Flyers have a strong, bad history with these procedures, most recently, former Flyer Kevin Hayes had this procedure. If some forget how the season went for him, he couldn’t play at 100% for about half the season, he was in and out of the lineup for rest and multiple scraping surgeries or clean outs they were called.
The reason I write this is so people don’t write off Jamie Drysdale next season, a season in which he may struggle early. It’s just the Flyers have a string of bad luck with these type of procedures, with players returning healthy for the following season, with the likes of Kevin Hayes, Claude Giroux, and Shayne Gostisbehere. Giroux and Gostisbehere didn’t start playing like themselves until that February following their procedures. I warned people that offseason that Hayes might struggle, so I’m doing the same about Drysdale.
Through all this, Drysdale is as happy as ever. Drysdale can be seen walking throughout the Flyers locker room smiling and laughing. He just loves being a Flyer, “Shawsy’s been unbelievable since the moment I got here,” Drysdale said of Brad Shaw. “He has a pretty wild hockey mind, and the little thing he tells you during the game with video I’ve never heard in my entire life. I hope I can work with him for a while.
That’s the good thing, even with how well he has performed in his brief stint as a Flyer. He still has a lot to learn, and he wasn’t 100%. Just imagine if he was fully healthy. John Tortorella said that he believes he can be a rover in the future, so Drysdale has to keep on learning to make that possible.
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A young Defenseman in Drysdale is a very good skater. Actually, that’s his top asset to his game. He can transition out of the zone and up the ice with the best of them, mainly due to his speed. He hits the neutral zone with speed, and when that happens he’s hard to stop. Drysdale can rush the puck up the ice, while making plays. He uses his skating and puck handling skills, to become strong in transition. Drysdale has a good hockey IQ and sees the ice well, thus he’s able to make the right place and passes two is open teammates. That is what makes him elusive on the Power Play, he always seems to find the open man.
His bread and butter is the Power Play, as the Flyers finally now have a quarterback on the top Power Play unit. One that Danny Briere mentioned yesterday as an integral part to improving this Power Play. Drysdale indicated at exit interviews that he needs to become more consistent with the man advantage, and that he realizes that not only the team but him can improve in this area..
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He’s physically weak and injury prone. He’ll always be one hard check away from another surgury.