Flyers Playoff Player Review: Derek Grant

Grant’s regular season scoring seemingly dried up for the Flyers in the postseason.

As the Trade deadline loomed the Flyers were looking to address the penalty kill and depth at center, and they thought they had found an answer when on February 24, 2020 they traded a fourth round pick to Anaheim for Derek Grant’s services.

Grant, thought to be a penalty kill wiz, was plugged into the bottom six and was productive before the season was stopped for Covid-19 scoring four points in seven games.

Unfortunately, Grant’s offensive momentum died with the regular season, as he registered only two assists in 15 playoff games. With the bottom six in what seemed like a constant state of flux, there is blame to be shared, but Grant, who looked so energetic in the days immediately after the trade, looked out of sync and lethargic.

The advance metrics bare out what our eyes told us, with Grant registering a sub 46% even strength corsi. While not an uncommon problem with the Flyers, only three forwards broke 50% even strength corsi, Grant graded out as the 10th best Flyers’ forward in corsi. This was what one would expect. Part of the reason could have been his usage, as he was subject to prolonged minutes with Nate Thompson. Grant looked like he could have been an effective player at even strength when he was acquired, but was, at best, average.

Grant was also looked at someone that could help the Flyers forwards with penalty killing duties. Grant was used as supplemental choice on the penalty kill, playing the 5th most minutes among forwards. In his limited duties he would allow four powerplay goals.  It is hard to fault penalty killers for powerplay goals they allow, lest an egregious mistake, and Grant is no different.

Grant was solid, but far from a penalty killing upgrade the Flyers thought they were getting. Given the expectations set by the organization, Grant’s penalty killing results could be characterized as disappointing.

Grant was not awful in the playoffs, but he was rather underwhelming. This underwhelming play was not a large factor in the Flyers’ ultimate demise, but it certainly did not help things.  His sleepy play at even strength could be explained in some degree by line decisions made by the coaches, however his penalty killing was a bit of a letdown.

In my view he was not markedly better than Michael Raffl or one of the youngsters on the roster. Grant did not provide the stand out penalty killing as we were told to expect.  In the end Grant’s play was just another small thing that added up to a Flyers’ playoff exit.