One of the top free agents has made his choice. Winger James van Riemsdyk has agreed to terms on a contract with the Flyers, reports TSN’s Frank Seravalli (Twitter link). ESPN’s John Buccigross adds (via Twitter) that it’s a five-year, $35MM deal.
The move represents a return home, so to speak as Philadelphia initially drafted van Riemsdyk second overall back in 2007. He spent three seasons with the Flyers before he was dealt to Toronto in exchange for defenseman Luke Schenn back in the 2012 offseason.
The 29-year-old has really emerged as a scorer over the last several years, scoring at least 27 times in four of the last five seasons. He took that to another level in 2017-18, tallying a career-high 36 goals despite seeing his ice time cut to just 14:54 per game. It’s doubtful that he will see that type of ice time in Philadelphia, who will be poised to hand him a spot in their top six and a bigger role overall.
In his career, van Riemsdyk has played in 609 games between Toronto and Philadelphia, scoring 201 goals while adding 192 assists. His 393 points rank ninth overall among all players selected in 2007.
GM Ron Hextall had been on record saying that he wasn’t looking to give a max-term deal in free agency and this certainly accomplishes that. It’s likely that they paid a little more in terms of the AAV to get him to leave a couple of years on the table which is probably a prudent decision. We had projected a six-year, $42MM contract for him (a $6MM AAV) while ranking him second overall on our Top 50 UFA list.
Heading into today, the Flyers had just shy of $21.75MM in cap space to work with, per CapFriendly. While this deal takes away about a third of that, they still should have plenty of room to continue to be players in free agency. However, Hextall has also stated that the team is mindful that top youngsters Ivan Provorov and Travis Konecny are in need of new contracts next summer so it’s unlikely that Philadelphia will use all of their remaining cap space on multi-year commitments.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
JVR was a top six for the leafs with a lot of PP time. i wouldnt except him to repeat last year with philly cause marner wont be there with highlight reel set up plays. I think JVR is a great 2nd line winger though who should give them 25 goals a year but 0 defense. bit of an overpay for 7mil a year.
Giroux and Voracek are two of the best passers in the league. Patrick also has soft hands. He will get plenty of easy goals.
I must say, I didn’t think Hextall had it in him, thought he would be scared of pulling the trigger on a move like this.Wish we could get our hands on a Rh dman for our top 4 as well.