Nic Deslauriers might be the biggest victim of the Philadelphia Flyers being a surprisingly good hockey team. The 33-year-old bruiser saw his role decrease and what he brought to the hockey club mean a little bit less to the actual on-ice product. Out of everyone on this roster, Deslauriers was probably the first guy to wish that the team was a little worse so he could be out there a little more.
During the 2022-23 campaign, Deslauriers suited up for 80 games and somehow managed to score six actual goals and 12 points. It is beyond us to ever remember just how this fourth-line puncher got double-digit points, but he certainly did.
This year, with a 20-game drop and a third of the points he was able to earn, it is definitely clear just how less of a role Deslauriers had on this team. While he was a regular in the lineup previously, throughout the season, as players had their roles more established and young players come up to try their might, the experienced fighter was a semi-regular healthy scratch. And, well, no one can really argue that it wasn’t warranted for anything he did during actual gameplay and not post-whistle.
Yeah, the other team was simply the better team whenever Deslauriers was on the ice. It wasn’t abhorrent results during the approximate 489 minutes he played this past season, but it is below the 50 percent line enough to make note of it — no oh maybe it was just bad luck or bad linemates here.
The Flyers managed to score nine goals at 5-on-5 with Deslauriers on the ice, but the other team scored 15, and it was a deserved 15 goals.
Deslauriers isn’t out there to drive play or be an underlying performer, anyways.
Yeah, we can’t really discuss individual production rates at 5-on-5 when it comes to this guy. Some numbers might look favorable, but it is just because of the lack of minutes and maybe lack of competition with some fourth line vs. fourth line matchups.
Let’s get to the juicy stuff.
Deslauriers fought a total of nine times this season — a decrease from last year’s 11 fights, but in 20 more games — and while most of them were kind of objective stinkers, the above bout against the young rookie Matt Rempe was a signature battle of this past season, for those fight enjoyers.
What else can you really say about Deslauriers? A team that wants to win hockey games doesn’t really give a massive role to a fighter, so from here on out, it will only be more interesting as the second half and his final two years in Philadelphia begins.
Three Questions
Did he live up to expectations?
As with other depth players on this team, we didn’t have significant expectations for Deslauriers heading into this past season. What, did you really think this dude was going to score 15 goals or something?
Maybe, if anything, we thought that if the team was bad (like most of us thought) that we would see Deslauriers break a record for most fights in a season or something, or have some historic battle against the other heavyweights of the league. Well, he at least did a little bit of that.
Otherwise, Deslauriers, as loveable as he is, didn’t really make much of an impact and we didn’t think he would.
What can we expect from him next season?
More of the same, if anything. If we see this team start a similar way, with things actually going in their favor and young players making another step to being regular top-line contributors, then we might see Deslauriers play even fewer games. Could we see him sit for more games than he actually plays, for the 2024-25 season?
We are generally expecting his on-ice play to regress even further and his role on this team come to a point where he is just a good-vibe connoisseur and not someone who does anything on the ice.
How do we grade his 2023-24 season?
God, I don’t know.
Grade: D+
