Philadelphia Flyers' Top Priority is Getting Voracek Going

Jakub Voracek is one of the Philadelphia Flyers’ most influential players, and languishing on the third line and not scoring is simply not an option

For my money, Jakub Voracek was the Flyers’ MVP last season. On many nights, he was easily their best skater, and yes, I’m including Claude Giroux in that calculation. His start to the season this year with only one goal in 30 games, along with a -11 rating seems inexplicable.

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Voracek signed a massive 8 year, $66 million contract in the offseason based on those performances last year. The contract doesn’t begin until next season, but the Flyers and Voracek are already in bed together no matter what. Therefore it’s everyone’s problem when he’s not producing.

In truth, Voracek’s dry spell began last season. In a disturbing statistic, Voracek now has only one 5v5 goal in his last 62 games.

Given this depressing stat, and with the Flyers offense struggling badly, it made a lot of sense to split up Giroux and Voracek. The question then becomes, so where does Voracek play?

Hakstol made the surprising choice to play Voracek with two decidedly defensive players. Fringe fourth liners last year, Bellemare and VandeVelde have earned spots on what is effectively the Flyers’ third line this year, but no one will confuse them for even occasional offensive contributors. They may, in fact, be the least offensively talented forwards on the roster.

Their effect on Voracek’s stats this season was immediate and dramatic.

(In the chart above, 50 equals an even +/- for the game)

As you could probably guess by looking at the chart, Voracek’s first game with Bellemare and VandeVelde was on November 25. The results rebounded for a few games, but are lagging again. Even worse is the effect on Voracek’s ice time.

It is difficult to comprehend a player as talented as Voracek getting so little ice time. In fact, before the line switch Voracek often led the team in 5v5 ice time. After the switch, he usually had the fewest minutes of top-9 forwards.

After 9 games with his new linemates, the stats paint a bleak overall picture.

Voracek was seeing a dramatic drop off in not only team goals and shots while on the ice with Bellemare, but a shocking rise in shots and goals against. Anyone’s stats will suffer when losing a linemate as talented as Giroux, but something is wrong with that picture.

To sum it up in just a stat or two, Voracek is a 45.9% Corsi player when on the ice with Bellemare. He’s a 55.5% Corsi player in all other situations. In over 100 5v5 minutes with Bellemare, he didn’t manage a single point.

The news today that Voracek is likely shifting to a line with Couturier and Simmonds is encouraging. This move will require Voracek to play an unfamiliar side as left wing, but these players should complement his skills much better.

Voracek is coming off 3 consecutive 20 goal seasons (one of those even being a strike-shortened season), but he remains more of a playmaker. With his size, speed and skill, he’s great at carrying the puck and holding off the defense. It has always been his shot that lets him down. Playing with a defensively responsible puck distributing centermen like Couturier and the net-crashing Simmonds should be a much better fit.

Jan 29, 2015; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia Flyers right wing Jakub Voracek (93) celebrates a win over Winnipeg Jets with right wing Wayne Simmonds (17) at Wells Fargo Center. The Flyers defeated the Jets, 5-2. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

In hindsight, one has to wonder what Voracek was ever doing down there with Bellemare and VandeVelde. Voracek wasn’t scoring at the time of the demotion, but he still had a great Corsi and was being entrusted with a ton of ice time, as mentioned above. For those reasons many presumed it was more of a line “shake-up” than a demotion of Voracek, but perhaps the latter is a more accurate description.

Whatever the reason for the initial change, the line stayed together for so long surely because Hakstol didn’t want to disrupt the top 2 lines. The Couturier line with Read and Simmonds put up several dominant games at this time, while Giroux has 7 even-strength points over the 9-game stretch with Schenn and Raffl. And this doesn’t even mention the Flyers actually piling up a few wins along the way.

It was never going to be a long-term solution to have an $8 million man on the third line, putting up zero even strength points. The Philadelphia Flyers simply must find a way for Voracek to be a key contributor, and it is incumbent upon the coaches to find the best place for such a player in the top-6. Such is the only tenable long term solution, and really shouldn’t be too hard given Voracek’s abilities.

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