A Look At Joel Farabee’s “Down” Year For Flyers

The year started off badly for Joel Farabee. The Flyers’ forward was going to miss time. In the offseason, he injured his neck while skating. The injury was kind of a shock and took the Flyers by surprise. Afterall, the 22 year old forward, coming off of year where he scored 17 goals, was expected to shine with a new head coach at the helm.

However, he shocked everyone. He arrived at camp and many people thought that he might miss a few games, even a few weeks, before he was ready to go. Nope, he hopped right into the first game of the season. More than that, he was one of just three players to play all 82 games this year, with Noah Cates and Ivan Provorov being the other two.

This year, Farabee was really hot and cold. It took him five games before he finally scored. And in that game, he had a goal and two assists. Two games later, he put up another multipoint game. He had scoreless streaks of six, ten, and nine games. At one point he even went 20+ games without a goal, but he would also go on stretches, as in March, when he scored seven points in five games. So, yes, he was streaky and inconsistent.

Then there were rumors that he had expressed his unhappiness of playing under new coach John Tortorella. The story seemed legit enough as other players, such as Kevin Hayes and Tony DeAngelo expressed some frustrations this past season. But it turns out, it was his agent saying those things. Both Tortorella and Farabee were quick to deny the rumors.

For the season, Farabee scored 15 goals. That is down from 17 last season and 20 from the year before. He scored 20 goals in a COVID shortened season and 17 last year. Again, he played in every game this year, and scored fewer goals.

But dive into the numbers deeper. He had 24 assists this year. That is a career high. His 39 points were also a career high. He put up 41 penalty minutes, down from 50 the year before, but also scrapped a few times this season. He did pretty much double his giveaways (22 to 40) in one season, but more responsibility was given to him.

Farabee may not have had the ideal season this past year. It was a year of transition and recovery from his injury. But overall, it wasn’t a bad year. He also seemed to get more confidence as the year went on and his numbers improved the more the season progressed.

If that is the case, than Farabee will be an integral part to this team next year. And if he can regain his scoring touch on a more consistent basis, the Flyers will be all the better for it. And remember, he just turned 23. His future is still very bright.