Keith Yandle is currently ten games away from tying the iron man streak for most consecutive games played in NHL history. He has played in 954 straight games and trails only Doug Jarvis for the record. However, his current play for the Philadelphia Flyers dictates that maybe there is too much importance on his streak with an emphasis unwritten rules when it comes to certain players and certain milestones. No coach wants to be the bad guy to end a player’s milestone right at the cusp of achieving it; unless you’re Mike Babcock.
As a veteran defenseman with offensive upside, Yandle has made himself a career as a power play specialist, in essence another Shayne Gostisbehere type player. With his offensive upside, the caveat is his lack of defensive capabilities. However, usually playing third pair minutes, the good and the bad generally balance out.
Coming to Philadelphia on a one-year, $900K deal, his signing brought about excitement because of his offensive capabilities and bettering an abysmal power play. He was coming off 5 seasons with 40+ points (with last season being a projected 40 points due to the shortened season). Before his signing there was a chance that Cam York or Yegor Zamula would battle for that 6th and final spot, but the veteran edged them both out.
During the regular season opener he was slotted on the third pair with Justin Braun, giving the Flyers a legitimately good defensive corps with Ivan Provorov, Ryan Ellis, and Travis Sanheim ahead of them with Rasmus Ristolainen waiting in the wings. At the very least, it was a huge upgrade from their defensive struggles from last season. He had a great start with 5 assists in his first 3 games and everything seemed peachy. He made a few mistakes being too aggressive but the defensive-minded Braun was always back there to back it up.
Then Ellis got injured and has only played in one game since, which has drastically changed the landscape of the Flyers defense. Losing any of your six NHL-ready defensemen will alter the lineup and the pairings but when you lose your best defenseman or your top pair, then it starts a trickle down effect.
With Ellis on the mend, the Flyers boosted Braun from the third pair to the top pair with Provorov, keeping the Ristolainen and Sanheim pairing intact. In doing so, the veteran Yandle has been paired up with Nick Seeler or Kevin Connauton since. For a little bit the pairings were working, especially because Braun and Provorov played quite a bit together last season but as the season has unfolded, two of the defensive pairings are crumbling at the seam.
Yandle has not been the same since Ellis’ injury, which is ridiculous to think about considering he’s a third pair defenseman who excels on the power play. However, being paired with Seeler or Connauton has done the offensive dynamo no favours as he has made far too many mistakes with no one being able to back him up.
After registering 5 assists in his first 3 games, he went 18 games without a point and finally snapped the drought with an assist in Alain Vigneault’s penultimate game as Flyers head coach. Since Mike Yeo was named interim coach, he has 5 points in the 10 games since, but his inability to play a strong defensive game is starting to hamper the Flyers.
It’s expected from a player like Yandle and it’s tougher when he’s paired up with players like Seeler and Connauton, who on most teams would represent a 7th or 8th defenseman. The thing that probably brought down his confidence and morale the most was the abysmal power play and former assistant coach Michel Therrien always finding a way to put Provorov on the top unit instead.
The power play struggled, Yandle struggled, the defense struggled, and the Flyers struggled as a whole. Normally with his consistent struggles, he would’ve found himself in the press box at some point, but the Flyers lack defensive depth and both general manager Chuck Fletcher and assistant general manager Brent Flahr have been hesitant on breaking the development of certain young players.
They were hesitant with Morgan Frost but his struggles in the pre-season aided their decision. Both Fletcher and Flahr have mentioned that they don’t want to bring a skilled player up just to stick them in lineup for the sake of having them on the NHL roster, which was the biggest reason to keep Frost in the minors at the start of the season.
They feel the same way with Zamula and York and even if they decided to bench Yandle or Seeler/Connauton, York and Zamula would find themselves in a crippling situation. It seems like Sanheim and Ristolainen are penciled in as the second pair, understandably so, meaning York or Zamula would either slot in on the third pair with Yandle, or somehow on the top pair with Provorov if the Flyers decide to pair up Braun and Yandle.
If you scratch Yandle, then you have the same issue with York and Zamula either stapled in with Seeler or Connauton on the third pair, or with Provorov on the top pair. Being on the third pair with a lesser defenseman will most likely cripple their development a little, most likely because they will have to be the better of the two defenseman on that pairing. You put them up with Provorov and then they’re playing heavy minutes against the top lines of the opposition, which would be too much too soon for a young defenseman.
Apart from Zamula and York, the Flyers don’t have much else going in the pipeline for NHL ready defensemen, and their AHL affiliate doesn’t bode any better with Adam Clendening being the oldest of the bunch at the ripe age of 29.
Lack of depth aids the argument to keep Yandle in the lineup, but the potential upside of his offensive abilities is another reason. We know he is capable of producing offense but he is currently hampered by several different issues, some his own fault, some the fault of his partners. With Ellis’ return still up in the air, possibly becoming an even lengthier stay on the IR than expected, Yandle is going to have to figure out his issues on the fly and as soon as possible.
The only way to combat the loss of Ellis is to make a trade for a legitimate defenseman, but those types of players don’t grow on trees in the modern NHL. If the Flyers reconfigure their defensive pairings and split the second pairing up, then maybe they can find a way to spark Yandle’s game, but for the time being, he is stuck with Seeler or Connauton on very limited minutes.
If Yandle can get back to his game and be the power play quarterback the Flyers desperately need, then all this talk about his iron man streak being extended for the sake of the streak will all come to an end. No head coach or team wants to be the one to bench him with the streak only 10 games away, and with the lack of organizational depth at the defense position, the Flyers have no choice but to hope he breaks out and remains a mainstay on the backend for the remainder of the season.
