Quick Hits: July 19, 2021
1) The Philadelphia Flyers protected seven forwards, three defensemen and goaltender Carter Hart in the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft. The Seattle Kraken have until Wednesday to finalize their selections from the 30 participating NHL teams.
The only suspense beforehand was whether the organization would opt to protect James van Riemsdyk or Nicolas Aube-Kubel from selection by the Seattle Kraken. In a move geared less toward ensuring Aube-Kubel remains part of the Flyers' lineup for the long haul and more toward trying to steer Seattle general manager Ron Francis to take a high cap-hit player with their selection off the Flyers' roster, Philadelphia opted to leave van Riemsdyk exposed to the Draft. Also unprotected were the likes of Jakub Voracek, Shayne Gostisbehere, Justin Braun and Robert Hägg.
On the Flyers' official website, I ran down the
salary cap ramifications of Seattle selecting one of JVR, Voracek, Gostisbehere, Braun or Hägg with nothing coming back to Philadelphia by way of a side deal with Seattle itself or a de facto three-way trade involving a third team.
2) A few weeks ago, Voracek gave an
interview in Czech with Radio Zurnal broadcaster Pavel Necas. Voracek confirmed what Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman reported about the state of the relationship between the player and the Flyers. Voracek, who has spent 10 seasons in Philadelphia, said that he has no hard feelings no matter happens this offseason. Voracek said that he considers Philadelphia to be his second home and he's still happy being a Flyer but realizes that everything eventually comes to an end and that professional hockey is a business with salary cap considerations.
Personally, I have no problem if the Flyers decided to move on from Voracek, either via the Expansion Draft or via trade. This is for reasons of cap space and changing the mix hockey-wise. However, I will also take note of the fact that there's going to be a replacement cost if he departs and risk involved no matter which direction this ends up going.
I want to address several criticisms that often get levied at Voracek by his critics. Some are legitimate, others are unfair. In general, Voracek isn't a perfect player. He's been a productive offensive performer in Philadelphia. You take the good with the bad. Overall, I think the positives have outweighed the negatives over the years.
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"He's never won anything." Teams win, not individual players. During the first four years of the Ron Hextall era in particular, the organizational emphasis was placed on a farm system rebuild (understandably, because that needed to happen) and not on trying to position the team immediately for a maximum shot a deep postseason run.
Enough was kept in place for the Flyers to be a bubble team. In alternating years, they made/missed the playoffs but never really had enough quality pieces around Claude Giroux, Voracek, Sean Couturier and Wayne Simmonds to be a real threat to come out of the East. The GM's emphasis was always a couple years down the line, at least until he signed van Riemsdyk in 2018. I have a hard time individually blaming any of the guys who were the team's best players in these years.
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"He doesn't score enough." Voracek has always been much more of a playmaker than a goal scorer. His shot has never been anything special. Most of his goals, if they aren't scored by powering direct to the net or getting the goalie to commit early one-on-one, are scored off broken plays or loose pucks near the net. He's managed to score 20+ goals six times, never reaching 25. But he doesn't have to. He's a playmaker and a very good one.
Across the entire NHL, Voracek is eighth in assists and 15th in points (604, which is five more points in 10 fewer games than 16th-ranked Joe Pavelski) over the course of his 10 seasons as a Flyer. Whether that's been worth his $8.25 million cap hit can be debated but no one can fairly say he hasn't been one of the better offensive players in the NHL.
The Flyers have a lot of pass-first players on the team, starting with Giroux and Voracek. Kevin Hayes also fits that description. Travis Konecny often prefers to pass than shoot. Individually, that's fine but in terms of the mix on the whole, Philly could use another shoot-first player or two.
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All he does is put up empty stats late in blowout games. On a leaguewide basis over his years in Philadelphia, Voracek is in the top 40 in terms of his points percentage tied to the first goal of a game, a game-tying, game-winning or go-ahead goal. I'd like to have seen the Flyers as a team ultimately win more consistently than they have in most seasons after 2011-12, but Voracek has generally held up his end of the bargain. And don't give me the "too many secondary assists" blanket statement, either. A secondary assist can be THE play that created a scoring chance in the first pace. Voracek's been on the "tic" end of tic-tac-toe goals, especially ones that ultimately went into Wayne Simmonds', Scott Hartnell's, Brayden Schenn's, and James van Riemsdyk's goal column.
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"Voracek doesn't play a lick of D." Voracek's two-way commitment, on the whole, has been inconsistent from season to season. I think that's fair to say. There are times when he sets his mind to back-checking, providing weak-side assistance and not exiting the defensive zone too early. Other times, those elements are missing. Voracek had a solid all-around season in 2019-20 (probably sacrificing some points to do it but still posting 56 points in 69 games). He definitely was one of players who took a significant backward step in 2020-21. On the whole, he's never been the second coming of Jere Lehtinen as a two-way winger but, again, you take the good with the bad.
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Voracek turns over the puck way too often. Some of this goes hand-in-hand with criticisms of Voracek's all-around game. He is an aggressive player with the puck. Sometimes, Voracek forces low-percentage plays that simply aren't there and the puck ends up rapidly going back the other way on an odd-man rush. On a statistical basis, however, Voracek's turnovers on a year-to-year basis are in line with many other skill players who frequently handle the puck and rack up a lot of assists. He gambles; sometimes excessively but, in his better seasons, more often within the realm of acceptable risk. No one complains when it works.
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Voracek is lazy and nonchalant. I've never seen Voracek as a player who lacks work ethic and doesn't care. Others may disagree, but that's how I see it. I've seen a few players come through here who've had negative attitudes and most of them didn't stay around for long. If anything, I think Voracek gets overly emotional at times and prone to letting frustration dictate his action. He talks about the need to be patient against top opponents -- and he's right -- but I think Voracek has always been most prone to forcing the play when things aren't clicking and the frustration bubbles over. It's never hard to read Voracek's emotions.
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Voracek has a bad attitude. See above. Voracek is an emotional guy who reacts spontaneously. There's no filter to what he says. Then it's over and done, as far as he's concerned. Most of the time, actually, he's pretty laid back. I like the guy. The only time in 10 years that I've ever seen him carry something over was the Mike Sielski situation, which I don't needs to be rehashed at length. I will only say that those of us who were in the room on the day in question were taken aback by Mike's subdequent column, and privately told Voracek as much after the next practice. I'd rather Jake and Mike had it out one-to-one in short order afterwards and then let it be water under the bridge (it was nothing personal for Sielski but clearly not to Voracek). It didn't work out that way, unfortunately, and it played out publicly on a media postgame conference call this past season.
If things do work out that Voracek ends up elsewhere next season -- of which there appears to be a significant chance, one way or another -- I won't react in a knee-jerk way. I'll wait and see how the Flyers roster as a whole comes together by opening night and whether the retooled team gels on the ice.
After last season, changes are definitely needed over and above the Ryan Ellis acquisition. Moving Voracek out is probably part of that picture. I think it's needed but I'll never make Voracek the scapegoat. He's been a good player during what's largely been a frustrating era for the hockey team.
3) I have heard the same rumors that others have about the upshot of a Voracek departure ultimately being Vladimir Tarasenko ending up as a Flyer, one way (a post-Expansion Draft trade) or another (a three-team trade at the Expansion Draft on Wednesday). I've also heard that it's far from a lock to happen.
On Crossing Broad, Anthony San Filippo reported that he heard of a potential deal in which Seattle takes Tarasenko from St. Louis, selects a player other than Voracek from Philadelphia (ASF has heard that it'd be Hägg taken. I still think the Kraken would set their sights a little higher on the depth chart and then flip Tarasenko to the Flyers for Voracek and asset(s).
I blogged the other day about the pros, cons and not-insignificant risk factors of such a trade if it comes to fruition. There would be a slight cap management benefit to the Flyers, as Tarasenko has one less season left on his contract and makes $750,000 less in terms of cap hit (although his remaining real-dollar salary is higher than his cap hit). Voracek is a little bit older than Tarasenko, but is also healthier than the Russian forward (who has had three shoulder surgeries and missed a lot of games). From a hockey standpoint, it'd be a swap of a playmaking winger for a shooting winger.
I guess we'll see what happens. For what it's worth, I still think Shayne Gostisbehere is the best fit for Seattle from contractual (two seasons left in his contract, $4.5 million cap hit), age (28) and role (potential PP1 guy and top six D) standpoints. JVR might also be a fit.
4) On today's edition of Flyers Daily on the Flyers Broadcast Network, Jason Myrtetus and I went in depth on the Ryan Ellis trade, the Flyers remaining needs (RD2, two-way forwards, backup goalie, more of a shooting mentality and a higher competitiveness level on a consistent basis). We also discussed some of the names tied to the Flyers in the rumor mill, including Tarasenko. To listen,
click here.
5) July 19 in memoriam: Jack "Bucky" McIlhargey, a Flyers two-tenure player, assistant coach and scout, passed away one year ago today at the age of 68.
6) July 19 Flyers Alum birthday: Tomas Divisek (1979).
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