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Photo Credit: Our very own Rob Windfelder
Joel Farabee’s 2023-24 season can be described as up and down, as he finished with 22 goals and 28 assists. He proved that he was healthy enough to withstand the rigors of an 82 game season, following an up and down 2022-23 season that was marred by injury.
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He managed to finish the 2022-23 season with 15 goals and 24 assists, but there was a sense of frustrations at times after a dry spell of points. This type of season was to be expected after having major summer surgery on his neck that Summer. However, Farabee is a perfectionist and he knows his craft well, so when he can’t perform at a level he knows he can play at, a sense of frustrations obviously ensued.
Through all of this, what Farabee has proven to the fans of Philadelphia is that the Flyers should build around him. Drafted by the Flyers in 2018 at 14th overall, Farabee has seen action with the AHL Lehigh Valley Phantoms and the big club, where he torched his opponents.
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Farabee’s style of play resonates with Philadelphia and Flyers fans in particular. He plays a 200 foot game, and is just so darn good at killing penalties. It becomes very attractive to stay up with the big club for good, based off those reasons alone. Killing penalties is a crucial attribute to have, and Farabee does it well.
What Farabee also brings is skating, and typically you know if he is a confident player with the way he skates. Farabee can skate at top speeds to push the play up the ice. He’s proven time and time again he is an excellent skater, with the agility and edge work to get by defenders in one-on-one situations, and he also possesses a great first step. Farabee is an outstanding playmaker off the wing, who possesses great vision of the ice. He is also a good defender, as Farabee remains focused and poised at killing penalties.
Farabee looks good in the pre-season, following a four point performance in the team’s first exhibition game against the Washington Capitals (1g,3a). He’s got that “Wow” factor back with taking the play up the ice, reading plays properly, and finishing it off with a snipe. Farabee is shooting well, and just looks like a player that is determined to prove his naysayers wrong.
The young 24-year-old in Farabee stayed in Voorhees, NJ all Summer, once again. This time he was fully healthy, as opposed to recovering from an injury. That’s a big difference, especially if one can properly train. Finally, he didn’t have to rehab, so Farabee appears to be ahead the eight ball with the season around the corner.
One last thing to note of Farabee is that he does not forget the ones that helped him get to this point at the NHL level, and it’s pretty cool of him to use a pay it forward system sort of speak for the youth that are trying to become mainstays at the professional level, “I think since I got here the older guys treated me great. Kevin, Scott Laughton, Michael Raffl really took me under their wing, let me stay with them, dinners. Now that I have a place in the city, I thought I would house a few young guys,” Farabee said. Young guys, such as, Tyson Foerster and Bobby Brink.
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