As an organization, the Philadelphia Flyers can never seem to catch a break and things just somehow find a way to get worse.
After being one game away from the Conference Finals in the playoff bubble, things have gone from promising to bleak in a matter of a few seasons. 2020-21 was surrounded by the sudden retirement of Matt Niskanen, the Flyers’ front office standing pat with their roster, and then several veterans butting heads with the coaching staff, which ultimately led to a disappointing finish.
2021-22 was surrounded by a random blip of positivity after Chuck Fletcher went to work before the draft and acquired Ryan Ellis, Rasmus Ristolainen, and Cam Atkinson at the expense of draft picks and disgruntled veterans. Then that was coupled by the injuries to Ellis, Sean Couturier, Kevin Hayes, and a myriad of other players, on top of the hanging cloud that was a Claude Giroux trade. Ultimately, the Flyers finished near the bottom of the standings in an even worse season.
Then we had the offseason of 2022, where the Flyers hired John Tortorella, signed depth pieces, traded for Tony DeAngelo, kind of bungled the Johnny Gaudreau situation, and have remain near the bottom of the standings because several key players remained injured and Fletcher and company have been M.I.A. Tortorella benched Travis Konecny and Kevin Hayes early in the season, which ignited Konecny but upset Hayes. He also gave the same treatment to Morgan Frost, Owen Tippett, Wade Allison, Rasmus Ristolainen, and Travis Sanheim, but when he actually scratched Hayes ahead of a game against the Columbus Blue Jackets the hockey world went up in arms claiming it was a ridiculous move to bench your top scorer. That then brought about a discord that there was tension between coach and player.
Since then, Hayes’ name has popped up on the trading block and credible trade boards ahead of the trade deadline, Ivan Provorov and the Flyers seemingly have an irreparable relationship, and now Joel Farabee is upset over how he has been treated this season under his new head coach.
Reportedly, Farabee’s camp didn’t take too kindly to some of the comments that John Tortorella made in regards to his offseason injury, specifically the bit about how he wasn’t going to let the player “hide behind that” in case he was slow out of the gates or going through offensive woes, which is exactly what has happened.
On the season, the soon-to-be 23-year-old has 9 goals and 26 points in 59 games. You can make the argument that due to the severity of his offseason surgery and the injury alike, if he was going to play at all this season, it was going to be a tough one regardless. He was supposed to miss the first 2-3 weeks of the season when the initial diagnosis took place, but he miraculously was ready in time for the season opener and has played in every game to date. He started off the season with 2 goals in his first 9 games, followed that up with 3 goals and 9 points in his next 13 games, before enduring a stretch of 37 games – to date – where he has 4 goals and 12 points, including 0 goals and 1 assist in his last 16 games.
What has really sparked Farabee’s camp has been his string of ice time over the last 3 games where he went from 10:21 against the Vancouver Canucks to 3:52 against the Calgary Flames – benched from mid-second period all the way to the end of the game – and then played 12:27 in their most recent loss to the Edmonton Oilers. He has been relegated at times to the fourth line during this run of 16 games, but Tortorella is doing to him as he has done to several marquee players over the season. If you struggle and continue to not make an impact, you will either get relegated, benched, or scratched.
Most recently, Travis Sanheim was scratched ahead of a game against the Flames with a lot of family and friends in attendance. He even took part in the warmups and it was supposed to be a special night due to the fact that he played in Calgary during his junior years. Tortorella had pressed on him to improve a few weeks ago, he hadn’t done that, and eventually got the brunt of the deal. He came back the following game and was placed right back on the same pairing as Ivan Provorov and played 20:33.
Let’s also not forget that Farabee did take a very ill-advised penalty at the end of the first period in the Edmonton game that ended up in the back of the net only 3 seconds later. In the offensive zone and battling in front of the net for positioning, Farabee almost took a swing of sorts on Evan Bouchard with 6 seconds remaining with Provorov sending the puck high and wide from the point. The Flyers held a 1-0 lead at that point and held the Oilers without a shot for almost 15 minutes before they won the faceoff and tied the game in quick order. Stuff like that has given Tortorella reason to bench players or lessen their ice time, not just Farabee.
There has been no formal trade request made by Farabee or his representatives, but as Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli pointed out, they are seeking solutions to this problem because they are aware that Tortorella is not going anywhere any time soon. He mentions that the Flyers don’t want to trade him and especially not right now with his trade value at the lowest of his short career.
His training was limited this offseason due to the disk replacement surgery he underwent and he probably rushed his return and it’s shown this season. He’s scored 37 goals in his previous 2 seasons with 20 coming in the shortened 2020-21 campaign, and he’s gone through the ebbs and flows of inconsistencies that goal scorers tend to follow over his career. But this season he’s had minimal impact, he’s been nearly invisible most games, and has given his coaching staff reason to keep playing him in important situations.
He signed a 6-year extension that kicked in this year with a $5 million AAV, the Flyers believed in him enough to offer a long term deal, and he’s trying to recover from a tough injury, but Tortorella wants answers in a season full of questions.
