Photo Credit: Gabe Washel
James van Riemsdyk has been a player that could produce more, and show more in Philly. He’s a goal scorer and can be streaky at times. Somehow even with his streakiness the majority of the time he ends up with 20 to 30 goals per season. This year is a year that he was searching for consistency, and then boom he got hurt. van Riemsdyk came back, and Tortorella praised him, ”He’s a seasoned pro, he gets it. Before he got hurt he was playing really well,” Tortorella said earlier in the year.
JvR is in the last year of his $7 million contract, and he was not traded, per Elliott Friedman. This has to be one of the biggest botches in Flyers trade deadline history.
Seattle made a late push to acquire JvR, and a deal broke apart with the Detroit Red Wings. The Kraken look to hope to make a statement in this upcoming playoffs, but Fletcher couldn’t make the trade come to fruition.
Check out our Flyers Nitty Gritty Store
Believe it or not, JvR was actually favored by Tortorella. JvR is great at deflecting pucks, and he seems to be skating better while making himself look bigger:
“He’s a pro. He’s a steady influence for us,” John Tortorella said about James van Riemsdyk on December 11 before the game.
He needed a bounce back year to prove that he is not dead weight. JvR was very inconsistent last year, but managed to pot over 20 goals again somehow. He even registered nine Power Play goals last season, so he couldn’t have envisioned a better start to the season before he got hurt, “We all like the team that we have, and I think we have a good of chance as anyone and now we have to go out there and execute and show it and play to our potential,” JvR said back in training camp. “Ultimately, we are all excited to be a part of a team like this and that is the most important part.”
van Riemsdyk is a class act, and he knows full well that there was another gear he could get to while donning a Flyers sweater. This is his moment to turn make fans believers. Sports is a crazy business. One moment a player could be down in the dumps, and the next he/she could have a bigger role. Enter JVR, a guy who knows how to put the biscuit in the basket. This is now JVR’s chance at redemption in another city he will call home.
The Middletown, NJ native can be a force to be reckoned in front of the net. In fact, camping out in front of the net is van Riemsdyk’s bread and butter. He has some of the best hand-eye coordination in the league, and it was on a big stage earlier in the season before his injury. With all this being said, we wish JvR nothing but the best of luck in Seattle.
Patrick Brown to Ottawa
A native of Bloomfield Hills, MI, Brown stands at 6’1 and weighs 210 pounds. He can be physical at times, and Brown has NHL experience. Brown has played 87 games the Flyers, and has tallied six goals and 10 assists for his efforts. He brings leadership to the locker room, and always appears to be a happy person.
Brown, 30, is a former captain of Boston college hockey, the Charlotte checkers, and the Silver Knights. Brown is highly respected, and can win crucial draws.
The Flyers get a sixth rounder in 2023 for Brown.
The worst shape the Flyers have been in since 1967. Embarrassed by the Rangers and Devils the past 2 games. And Chuck Fletcher thinks they way to turn it around is a 5th round pick, a 6th round pick and Claude Lemieux’s son.