Midseason trades are often a surprise–especially when they involve key roster players of a rebuilding team who could, conceivably, still be contributors when said team turns the corner. In hindsight, Danny Briere’s decision to move on from Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee seems to have been the correct choice, and today we’re breaking down Farabee’s season–or, at least, the part he spent with the Flyers.
| Games Played | Goals | Assists | Points | PIM | Shots on Goal | Shooting Percentage | Average Time On Ice |
| 50 | 8 | 11 | 19 | 26 | 99 | 8.1 | 15:12 |
Health was a concern for Farabee after his disc replacement procedure, but he played 82 games in both of the seasons that followed, and 81 games in 2024-25: 50 with the Flyers and 31 with the Calgary Flames. The good news is nothing from the surgery has lingered and kept Farabee out of the lineup; the bad news is that nearly every other element of his game has suffered considerably. To refresh: Farabee started 2023-24 strong, putting in good minutes with a surprisingly competitive Flyers team and driving play at a borderline elite level for months. Then, he tapered off and that season ended with a whimper; we hoped he’d bounce back at the start of the 2024-25 season, but it didn’t work out that way.
In 50 games with the Flyers, Farabee put up eight goals and 19 points. That’s borderline replacement level production, and unacceptable from a player picked 14th overall in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft. It’s such a shame to see how far Farabee has fallen after a promising pandemic-shortened season where he led the team in goals, and that burst of excellence in 2023-24, but the mounting evidence is that the current version of Joel Farabee may be the real one.
| Goals-For Percentage | Expected Goals-For Percentage | Corsi-For Percentage | High Danger Chances-For Percentage | PDO |
| 39.62 | 50.17 | 47.18 | 53.88 | 0.958 |
As underwhelming as Farabee’s box scores were, his statistics under the hood weren’t a total disaster. He posted positive metrics in expected goals-for and High Danger Chances-for percentages. That’s good! Then, there’s his 39.62 actual goals-for percentage and 47.18 Corsi-for percentage. That’s bad! Granted, most of the team finished below 50 percent in both metrics, but Farabee’s goals-for percentage was far and away the worst among Flyers skaters with over 500 minutes of ice time. Part of that can be attributed to an awful on-ice shooting percentage: 7.14, again the lowest among players with that many minutes. Farabee’s career-low 8.1 shooting percentage didn’t help matters, either, and the only forwards of consequence with a lower shooting percentage were Nic Deslauriers (8%) and Olle Lycksell (0%).
| Points Per 60 | Shots Per 60 | Shot Attempts Per 60 | Expected Goals Per 60 |
| 1.2 | 7.8 | 12.7 | 3.12 |
Among Flyers forwards with at least 150 minutes of ice time, only two finished with fewer than Farabee’s 1.2 points per 60: Deslauriers and Lycksell, as you’d expect. Farabee’s 3.12 xGF/60, however, was sixth on the Flyers; he should’ve been scoring a lot more than the box scores show. The lack of finish was a Flyers problem in general, but those low shooting percentages made Farabee look terrible even though his 7.8 shots per 60 ranked third on the team behind Owen Tippett and Matvei Michkov. As snake bitten as Travis Konecny was down the stretch, Farabee could make a case for having even worse luck.
Three Questions
Did he live up to expectations?
Not in the slightest–it was a tough year for us Fara-believers. If Farabee had lived up to expectations, perhaps he would still be a Flyer. The change of scenery didn’t help him much, either, with six points in 31 games with the Flames. This was a miserable season by almost any metric, even if the fancy stats demonstrate much better work than the box scores show and some of the worst puck luck imaginable.
What can we expect from him next season?
Nothing, really, as he’s no longer a part of the Flyers–but here’s hoping Farabee finds his game with the Flames. All that positive play driving and the pucks have to start going in the net at some point, right? Right??
How do we grade his 2024-25 season?
Just awful and deeply disappointing. If we graded solely on analytics, we could maybe justify a Gentleman’s C, but results matter, too–and they just weren’t there at any point this year. It’s a real bummer Farabee’s time with the Flyers ended the way it did (maybe a different coach would’ve fostered him better?), but the inconsistencies made it clear that Farabee would probably never find success in Philadelphia. Happy trails, Beezer–may you score many Joals.
