Philadelphia Flyers Final Player Grades: Jakub Voracek

Since the 2019-20 NHL regular season is almost definitely over, we can grade out the seasons for each Philadelphia Flyers player. This time we look at Jakub Voracek.

To put it mildly, Jakub Voracek‘s nine seasons with the Philadelphia Flyers have been strange. They could also be properly classified as “eventful”, but the fact that the team has not won a playoff round since his first season in town tempers any use of that word. Still, a lot has happened since 2011.

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His time with the club has spanned three general managers and five different head coaches, while his own offensive production always seems to yo-yo up and down on an almost annual basis. He consistently looks like a dangerous player on the ice, posting good advanced metrics. But his goal scoring has always been lacking, topping out at a career high of 23 some years ago and flattening at 20 on the nose in each of the last three seasons before this abbreviated campaign. Still, a heavy assist total is almost always a given.

His time with the Flyers has been good overall, borderline great at times, but the one elephant in the room is that contract. Signed in 2015 after a well-timed breakout season when he was 25, it pays Voracek $8.25 million per year and still has four years to run. Because of this, expectations will always run higher than they should. That’s not totally fair, but it is what it is. Voracek is overpaid; even he knows it.

So can he be properly evaluated without considering the money? I’ll try.

Voracek totaled 66 points in 2018-19, which was decent for him, on the surface at least. Still, his performance left a lot to be desired, and a down year by the club as a whole really put the magnifying glass on him coming into 2019-20. Early on, things were not looking good, as Voracek was sitting at 14 points through 23 games. Even more concerning, his ice time was down over two minutes a game compared to what it had been the year before. It looked like new coach Alain Vigneault wasn’t too keen on Jake the Snake.

But despite the lack of a specific game you can point to as a turning point this year, Voracek steadily worked his way into the coach’s good graces (if he was ever really out of them), gaining more ice time and traction while pumping up his totals at nearly a point-per-game pace from Thanksgiving on.

During that time, Voracek just seemed to play his kind of game and fit better on this Flyers team than he had in years. The scoring, while fine, was complemented by the fact that he seemed more effective in Vigneault’s scheme than he had been under previous coaches. It looks like Vigneault knew how to use him after all. His ice time was down by 1:37 per game compared to last season, but the effect was a more energized player, one who bought in rather than sulking, getting lazy, or completely selling out to produce points at the expense of helping the team. He especially answered the bell over the final weeks of the regular season.

Some might say that, for over $8 million, Voracek had better bring it every night for the Flyers. And that’s correct, to a degree. While it’s hard to say if he “earned” that much this year, he definitely came closer than he had in at least three years. As a result, the team benefited. It was not a coincidence.

RW. Philadelphia Flyers. JAKUB VORACEK. B-. <strong>Jakub Voracek, given a full 82 games this year, was probably headed for a repeat of his numbers from 2018-19. But both his plus/minus and his advanced metrics were way up, showing that he was overall far better this season even if his raw point total didn’t reflect it. Voracek’s days of 80+ points might be over, but he is still an effective Flyer if he can maintain this kind of play.</strong>

dark. Next. Flyers Grades: Philippe Myers

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