Philadelphia Flyers: 5 numbers that defined the 2020-21 season

-30

We’ll start with a stat that “hockey people” love to talk about how much they hate: plus/minus. Yes, it’s very imperfect, but I’m not seeing a big minus rating from players who had a good season. And so it’s no surprise that Nolan Patrick takes the cake as finishing dead last on this team with a -30 rating. Something looks very wrong with Patrick, who only produced nine points this year despite having a regular place in the lineup. One can only hope that this season was about gaining confidence after a year-long layoff due to health issues. On the flip side, he may never develop into even an average NHL player. We’ll see.

As for other players on the team who finished with a hideous plus/minus rating, Travis Sanheim, Jakub Voracek, and Philippe Myers were each double-digit minuses for the year. Again, this stat doesn’t paint a full picture of a player’s effectiveness, but it’s not nothing. At the other end of the spectrum, Scott Laughton, Ivan Provorov, and James van Riemsdyk are the only Flyers regulars who finished on the positive side of the ledger this year.

With results like this, a quick glance at the plus/minus column lets you know that this was not a playoff team.