Party on, Wayne

After 543 games, 203 goals, and 784 penalty minutes, Wayne Simmonds, the emotional backbone of the Philadelphia Flyers and embodiment of everything we’ve come to love from hockey players who don the orange and black, has been traded to the Nashville Predators for Ryan Hartman and a conditional 2020 draft pick.

BSH has already published a thank you piece to No. 17, so I don’t need to go over all of that again, but I do want to take this space to pay some tribute to a guy who represented Philadelphia as well as he could for eight seasons.

Simmonds scored at a 29-goal per season pace while rocking the Flying P. He took on all comers and never backed down from any challenger. He avenged his teammates and did his damndest to energize them.

I own a Wayne Simmonds jersey. I don’t believe I’ll be replacing it any time soon. He’ll be one of “our guys” for a long time, much like another No. 17, Rod Brind’Amour. Even if Simmer goes on to greater success in Nashville with another of our old pals Peter Laviolette, and even if he moves on again after that, I think everyone who watched him play on a nightly basis can be proud to say “Wayne is a Philadelphia Flyer.”

So Party on, Wayne. And good luck in the playoffs.