Joel Farabee will be a healthy scratch for the Flyers as the Anaheim Ducks visit Philadelphia Saturday night.
This is the first time the 24-year-old left winger will not be in the lineup under John Tortorella, therefore ending an ironman streak of 216 games. Farabee’s streak of games played was the longest active streak on the Flyers’ roster. Maybe more than anyone, the Flyers head coach has gotten familiar with what Farabee can do in the NHL, but he has decided to keep him out for a game and let him watch from the press box.
On Saturday morning, Tortorella explained his decision to leave Farabee out of the lineup.
“Up until probably a couple of weeks ago, I liked his game,” Tortorella said via NHL.com’s Adam Kimelman. “The production wasn’t there, but he was involved. We break tapes down, and we have all sorts of information after games, and he’s involved in a lot of the offense. Unfortunately doesn’t score. Sometimes guys he fed didn’t score. But the past couple weeks, it’s gotten stale. So, he’ll sit out tonight. I’m not sure what happens after this. There were some other candidates too, but Joel is coming out tonight.”
On the season, through 42 games, Farabee has scored just six goals and 14 points, and in the last 10 games, the only points he was able to put on the board were back-to-back games where he scored one single goal. Two points in 10 games and it has been periods of zero production from Farabee throughout this season. And this is coming off a career-best season where he scored 22 goals and 50 points last year.
With this lack of production and general lack of a real place on this team — since both Tyson Foerster and Owen Tippett have leaped him on the left winger depth chart — Farabee’s name has popped up in trade rumors. Most likely, people thinking that he could return to a 50-point guy somewhere else and with a contract through the 2026-27 season at a $5-million AAV, some team might want to take that bet and could reap the rewards for having a winger locked at a financial number.
Well, Tortorella quickly has put those rumors to bed, as well.
“He wants to be here. He’s a name that’s been bounced around for the [trade] deadline. I’m not gonna give up on him,” the Flyers coach said.
While for most teams, the head coach saying that they aren’t giving up a player typically means nothing when it comes to future potential trades, we do know that Flyers general manager Danny Briere and president Keith Jones truly value Tortorella’s input on his players and take his opinion into consideration for any changes they make to this roster. So, should we just let all national media members know that Farabee shouldn’t be on their trade boards anymore?
Now, as Tortorella said, where do we go from here? Will it be a wake-up call for the young winger? Or, should he really have been put in better situations than on the third line for the entire season, if they wanted him to produce like last season?
It only gets more interesting as the season goes on.
