Acquired at the trade deadline and playing a total of 18 games for the Flyers, Brendan Lemieux was arguably the most useless element of the roster this year. Of course, it wasn’t his fault. He was shipped to Philadelphia at the tail end of a meaningless season. No one expected him to be a superstar. No one expected the team to do a 180. In fact, the acquisition of Brendan Lemieux was largely overlooked and overshadowed by the wide-scale disappointment with Chuck Fletcher’s inability to shed some expensive contracts while he had the opportunity.
Basic Stats
Interestingly, Lemieux’s production with the Flyers far exceeded his production with Kings. This year’s 27 games in Los Angeles amounted to 0 goals and a mere 3 assists. Thus, despite the small sample size, one could argue that Lemieux was a good fit with the Flyers, who somehow unlocked some more offensive potential.
The biggest problem with Lemieux is more a problem with the Flyers as a whole–namely, he doesn’t provide what the Flyers truly need. Again, this isn’t Lemieux’s fault. The Flyers simply have too many missing pieces, none of which beg for another bottom-six winger.
Three Questions
Did they live up to expectations?
It’s safe to say that Lemieux played as well as everyone thought he would. However, if there were expectations to begin with (a big “if”), the expectations were fairly low. Very few people maintained devout interest in Flyers hockey as the season wound down, and even fewer were immensely interested in the progress of Brendan Lemieux. To his credit, he was more reliable than other fourth-liners, but that’s a low standard and a kind of moot point.
What can we expect from next season?
Will the Flyers re-sign Lemieux? Should they? Many will point out that Lemieux is a not-too-old veteran who comes with a cheap price tag. That is certainly true, and the Flyers will undoubtedly be in cap trouble if they fail to do away with some more expensive pieces of the roster. However, Brendan Lemieux isn’t going to singlehandedly solve the Flyers’ cap issues, nor is he going to make the team drastically better. The Flyers need to turn their attention toward top-6 forwards. In my opinion, there is really no justification for prioritizing Lemieux’s contract over other young players in the system.
How do we grade their 2022-23 season?
Though Lemieux provided nothing of note to the roster, it seems unfair to penalize him for the few games he played. With that said, he feeds the mediocrity that plagues the team. We will call it a draw and keep this one neutral.
C
