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Philadelphia Flyers Remain or Remove: Shayne Gostisbehere

By Benjamin Gabrych

PHILADELPHIA, PA - MARCH 31: Shayne Gostisbehere #53 of the Philadelphia Flyers warms up against the New York Rangers on March 31, 2019 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Len Redkoles/NHLI via Getty Images)
PHILADELPHIA, PA - MARCH 31: Shayne Gostisbehere #53 of the Philadelphia Flyers warms up against the New York Rangers on March 31, 2019 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Len Redkoles/NHLI via Getty Images) /
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The 25-year-old defenseman had a down year by his standards but does that necessarily mean the Philadelphia Flyers should look to deal him this offseason?

There’s no denying that Shayne Gostisbehere had his fair share of struggles through the 2018-19 campaign for the Philadelphia Flyers. The 2012 Third Round pick saw his scoring total drop a full 28 points from 65 in 2017-18 to 37 this past season. He was unable to create on the power-play as we were accustomed to seeing through his five-year NHL career due to the Flyers unit failing as a whole, but not everything went wrong for the former Union College product.

Gostisbehere ranked top three on the team in Corsi-For, Fenwick-For, Shots-For, and Scoring Chance-For percentages among skaters who have played at least 500 minutes of Time on Ice at even strength, according to NaturalStatTrick.com. His CF% was actually better than what he posted in the previous year, showing that the Flyers still out-possessed their opponent when he was on the ice.

He had no issue with creating chances in the offensive zone, either. As I said before, he was third on the Flyers in SCF% and also sixth in High Danger Chances For percentage. Where things went bad were those chances turning into goals. Ghost sat second to last in total Goals-For percentage, meaning opposing squads were outscoring Philadelphia when he was covering the blue-line. Some of this could be attributed to the Flyers goaltending woes through the first half of the season, but the extremely low percentage can’t be overlooked.

Some people in the Flyers fanbase like point out the number of times Gostisbehere turned the puck over, but I’m here to tell you it’s not as bad as they make it out to be. While they were egregious at times, Gostisbehere tied 79th among all qualified NHL defensemen in Giveaways with 53. Ghost didn’t even lead Philadelphia blue-liners, sitting behind Ivan Provorov, Travis Sanheim, and Radko Gudas in said category. Offensive defensemen will always be more prone to turning the puck over since they look to score instead of making the safest play possible, which is why guys like Brent Burns and Drew Doughty are near the top of that list.

Next. What Is Alain Vigneault Bringing to Philadelphia?. dark

The Flyers could be looking at another Justin Williams type situation if General Manager Chuck Fletcher decides to move Ghost-Bear this offseason, where we’ll have to watch Gostisbehere thrive on a different team following his departure. I think this was mostly bad season for Philadelphia as a whole and expect Shayne to bounce back in 2019-20. Fletcher could get a good haul for the 5’11 d-man in a possible deal, but he’s just too talented to take off of this team in my eyes.

Verdict: Remain

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