2023-24 Player Review: Jamie Drysdale is happy to be here

Jamie Drysdale arrived in Philadelphia under less than ideal circumstances. He was the return in the trade that sent hotshot prospect Cutter Gauthier to the Anaheim Ducks, and Drysdale himself had only just recovered from injury before being traded--and maybe wasn\'t all that recovered to begin with (but more on that later).

The good news in all this is that Drysdale only just turned 22 and, as Flyers brass has said several times, is a \"project\" player--someone they think they can mold into an elite defenseman. It\'s not as improbable as you might think: Brad Shaw and Tortorella turned Rasmus Ristolainen into an acceptable NHL defenseman, which nobody seemed to think was possible, and rehabbed cap dump Sean Walker into a 1st-round draft pick at the trade deadline--and Cam York and Travis Sanheim have taken exceptional strides toward being top-pair players. If there\'s any coaching duo who\'s earned the chance to show what they can do with a developing defenseman, it\'s Torts and Shaw, and they did it before in Columbus with Zach Werenski.

It\'s also worth mentioning that one of the Flyers\' senior advisors is Bob Murray, who was the Anaheim Ducks GM that drafted Drysdale in 2020, and Murray seems to have a knack for picking defensemen: his picks include the likes of Cam Fowler, Hampus Lindholm, Shea Theodore, and Brandon Montour to name a few. Murray likely had a hand in pushing for Drysdale, and his successful blueline picks point to a keen eye for what makes a quality player, even if his tenure as Ducks GM was underwhelming in other ways.

There\'s also an argument to be made that Drysdale may\'ve entered the league before he was ready--especially physically--but he\'ll be given plenty of runway on this rebuilding Flyers squad. The fact that it\'s the Flyers helps, too: the Ducks teams Drysdale played on in Anaheim were abysmal, teams that were eliminated from playoff contention by Christmas, and for the first time in his career he\'s on an NHL team that had a legitimate playoff push. In a way, Jamie Drysdale can be the face of the Flyers\' rebuild mentality: that developing young talent in meaningful games--and not tanking--can elevate players in a way that cellar dwelling teams can\'t. Anaheim and Philadelphia are polar opposites in that regard and, if Drysdale succeeds here, lends credence to how the Flyers are trying to execute this rebuild.

Drysdale immediately became one of the Flyers\' top-four defensemen (there\'s a reason John Tortorella was running 11-7 every night) and had a real chance to establish himself as the power play guy. Things started well enough: Drysdale registered two points in his first two games (both assists), and we all saw the potential in his skating and offensive instincts--but Drysdale scored only three more times by season\'s end (two goals, one assist), and missed all of March due to injury.

The fancy stats didn\'t tell a much better story: according to Natural Stat Trick, Drysdale had a 5-on-5 expected goals for percentage of 45.46, a 49.54 shot attempt percentage, and an 0.894 PDO--and that CF% was the highest of his career. Woof! Not the kind of numbers you want to see from a player in their fourth year in the NHL, and certainly not what you want to see from a player that cost a lot to acquire.

Drysdale had zero primary assists at 5-on-5, and only one of his goals came at even strength. That\'s some bad hockey. At least his expected goals aren\'t quite as awful.

Three Questions

Did they live up to expectations?

No--but with the caveat that we now know how injured Drysdale was for most of the season. Still, he came into Philadelphia in a tough situation and had to learn a new zone defense system; at the very least, we can understand why things didn\'t go so hot. If your organization\'s losing one of the best prospects in hockey (Gauthier), you want a high-end player in return, and Drysdale wasn\'t that out the gate. That\'s a tough equation for fans to balance: losing a stud and getting another team\'s cast off, but that\'s not Drysdale\'s fault.

What can we expect from them next season?

A lot more, hopefully; the organization seems to think Drysdale\'s a player with top-pairing upside, and the good news is that Drysdale has plenty of time to get things going in a positive direction. On the downside, he\'s four years into his NHL career and doesn\'t have a whole lot to show for it outside of being a great skater--but Drysdale can make it easier for fans to come around on him by getting fully healthy and showing us why the organization\'s so high on him; he was taken sixth overall just a few years ago, after all. There\'s a wealth of potential in Drysdale as a player, and it\'s up to the Flyers to get it out of him and for Drysdale to rise to the occasion.

How do we grade their 2023-24 season?

On a steep curve is how we grade it. Drysdale admitted in exit interviews that he was never fully healthy during the season, and may even need corrective surgery over the summer. If he was still able to skate and move like that despite an injury, we could be in for a treat when he returns healthy for 2024-25--but since we\'re talking about 2023-24, we have to be honest and say passable, but underwhelming.

Grade: C

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2023-24 Player Review: Jamie Drysdale is happy to be here

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