With some early projections being posted over X (Twitter), the Philadelphia Flyers‘ top-6 looks pretty set with the addition of Matvei Michkov. That means that for the time being, it looks like Joel Farabee will start the year on what should be the third line, which begs the question on his future standing with the organization, especially after an off-season littered with trade rumours.
When the 2023-24 season came to a close, Sportsnet insider Elliotte Friedman alluded to the idea that trade chatter had picked up on Farabee and that the Flyers were more inclined to listen, despite what was a career year. The consistency hasn’t been there as he’s either one of the best players on the ice and extremely noticeable or he’s on the opposite side of the spectrum struggling to put together a string of games where he chips in offensively. The last 2 years alone have been challenging for him from his off-season injury and subsequent surgery in 2022 to a 26-game goal drought in 2022-23 to a war of words between his agent and John Tortorella.
Currently under contract for the next 4 years with a cap hit of $5 million, the Flyers still believe in the Syracuse, New York native, and although he was present in a lot of trade rumours this summer, rumours are just that – rumours. Travis Konecny and Scott Laughton were involved in trade rumours for years on end, but both are still with the club with the former even receiving an 8-year extension.
One of the key pieces stemming from the Brayden Schenn trade in the summer of 2017, Farabee has had an interesting start to his NHL career. He has recorded two 20+ goal campaigns, including one during his sophomore season, and is coming off a relatively quiet 50-point season. It was a good rebound from 2022-23 when it was obvious he was playing through an ailment after rushing back from offseason neck surgery. However, there is still a lot to be desired from the 24-year-old who has yet to take that next step in his development.
While Friedman mentioned that we should have kept an eye on Farabee, the offseason has more or less come to a close with the draft and free agent frenzy in the rearview mirror. Farabee remains on the club, the Flyers opted to not make any trades, and they are essentially rolling back the same team as last year with the exception of Michkov’s highly anticipated rookie season. What that means for Farabee is that he will be given another opportunity to prove his worth, his value, and his contract and while playing third-line minutes might not be the best use of his talent, that hasn’t stopped him from being one of the best even-strength performers on the team.
The power play has been problematic for quite some time, and it should come as no surprise that many players on the Flyers today have very little power play production to their name. Farabee’s numbers are a little more shocking than most because he only has 7 power play goals and 21 power play points to his name across 5 seasons, effectively meaning that 87.9% of his 182 points have come while playing even-strength hockey. That in it of itself is a huge boon for the Flyers, who not too long ago had issues scoring at 5-on-5.
Furthermore, Farabee has scored 54 goals and 123 points in the last 3 seasons across 227 games. Of those 54 goals and 123 points, he has amassed only 12 power play points, which means he has scored 94.4% of his goals and 90.2% of his points at even-strength. He has seen no less than 156 minutes of power play time in a season since then as well, which highlights the ineptitude of the Flyers man advantage as a whole, but it’s still a troubling statistic as we move forward.
Last year, Morgan Frost paced the team with 11 man-advantage points, Owen Tippett led the club with just 5 power play markers, and only Frost had more than 10 power play points on the team. As a collective unit, the Flyers scored 31 times on the power play, which was 22 goals away from the middle of the table and 40 goals away from Tampa Bay at the top of the league.
The bright side is that he’s still tallying points at even-strength, but the inconsistent stretches have hurt him as well. For example, Farabee had 21 goals and 48 points through 68 games but finished the final 14 games with just 1 goal and 1 assist to his name. On the other side of things, between the 7th of December and the 6th of February, Farabee scored 9 goals and 26 points in 26 games. However, he then slipped to 5 goals and 9 points in the final 31 contests of the season with a horrendous minus-18 rating. When he’s on his game, he’s everywhere and hard to contain but when he’s off, it’s hard to watch at times.
2022-23 was similar in the sense that he went through a 26-game goal drought where he recorded just 4 assists during that span but then ended the season with 6 goals and 12 points in his next 14 games. Even leading into what became his 26-game goal drought, Farabee had went 10 games without a goal between the 29th of November and the 17th of December but then followed that up with 10 points in his next 11 games.
If the consistency ever comes to the forefront, Farabee will become a dangerous weapon within the middle of the Flyers lineup but it starts with the disastrous power play run by Rocky Thompson. If it ever figures itself out, Farabee’s 22 goals and 50 points from 2023-24 could have conceivably reached closer to 30 goals and 60-65 points. His 43 even-strength points last season put him in the top-35 league-wide, which for all intents and purposes is pretty good for a player who looked to have struggled throughout.
However, it’s still a little damning that over 85% of his points came while playing 5-on-5 hockey. Makes you wonder what could have been and what should have been if the power play scored 10-15 more goals – which would have still had them below the middle of the table league-wide.
The Flyers need to make their mark ahead of the 2025-26 campaign and figure out who belongs to their core moving forward. Farabee should be a key component but should they need to make moves to either add a centre or a defenseman, he could become expendable should his inconsistencies run amuck. If he comes out of the gates in 2024-25 and improves on his 50-point season, he should not only garner more attention from his coaching staff but the opposition as well.
