Flyers Midseason Report Card: Jakub Voracek has been a constant presence on the ice

Jakub Voracek is a weirdly controversial player for the Flyers. Despite having been fairly consistent in each of his years with the team, he always seems to draw ire from a lot of Flyers faithful. While admittedly, his pass-first mentality can be frustrating to watch sometimes, he constantly puts up solid point totals, with this year being no exception.

Having hit the 500 career assists milestone a short while ago, Jake’s season this year has been especially fruitful as he’s tallied three goals and 13 assists in his 20 games. The scoring emergence of Joel Farabee, as well as a return to form from James van Riemsdyk, has helped Voracek put points on the board in more contests than he hasn’t.

While the powerplay for the Flyers has certainly had its struggles this season, it is far from Jake’s fault, with his advanced statistics showing him as solid on the power play, which is backed up by the eye test. He always has his head up looking for plays, and while they don’t always work, his plans create a good number of chances.

His biggest flaw is his defensive play, and it shows in a lot of his numbers. His horrendous 14 giveaways are good for second-most on the team, and he can at times visibly struggle in the defensive zone. More than anything he seems to often try and pass one too many times, something that can produce brilliant plays or terrible turnovers in the offensive zone.

Additionally, Jake has had a tendency to get points in bunches, cooling off for several games at a time. This season, however, may be in part to the smaller number of games, Jake has only not recorded a point in back-to-back games once. With the defense being a question mark most nights, his offensive consistency is important to keep the team in games.

Just for fun, I looked at Jake’s EA NHL 2021 overall grade and compared him to other players around the league. Jake’s 86 overall puts him on par with Chicago’s Alex DeBrincat who himself is having a great season this year. This means absolutely nothing, but I believe his 86 overall is pretty fair.

I believe that he has been a big part of Farabee’s explosive sophomore season. Jake is a high-end scoring talent, and while he hasn’t been great at finding twine himself much this season, he’s been a constant presence out there, usually for good.