If there is one non-free agent Flyers player whom the decided majority of folks do not expect to see back in orange and black next season, it's Kris Versteeg.
Even if he had been a little more consistent in his play after coming over from Toronto, the need for a goaltending upgrade and the team's limited cap space could have put the organization in a position of having to move Versteeg in the offseason. The 25-year-old forward will carry $3.08 million cap hit next season before becoming a restricted free agent.
Few would dispute the notion that Versteeg was a disappointment after his acquisition. During his time with the club, he justified neither his salary nor the first-round draft pick the Flyers had to part with to bring him in without sacrificing a roster player. Moreover, the player sustained an abdominal injury that required offseason surgery. The exact nature of the injury was not disclosed but it was reportedly similar to a sports hernia, differing a little from the most common form of the injury.
Apart from his two-goal game against his former Toronto teammates, Versteeg never truly got in synch with Mike Richards -- pairing the two on a line was the primary purpose of acquiring Versteeg in the first place. Versteeg struggled with his decision-making with the puck and did not regularly show the bursts of speed and all-out hustle the club hoped to see from him. The type of injury he was playing through almost certainly had something to do with it, but there were also times where Versteeg seemed perfectly content to make low-percentage plays and hang out along the perimeter.
There were quite a few times where the extra-long stick that the 5-foot-10 winger uses seemed to work more to his detriment than his benefit. It may have contributed to some of his turnover issues and probably cost him some would-be goals, too. I can think of one play in particular in Game 1 of the Boston series where Versteeg made a great move to beat a guy one-on-one and had Tim Thomas leaning the wrong way with no chance to recover. Unfortunately, by the time Versteeg pulled the stick all the way back to deposit the puck in the net, he got checked and the scoring chance went awry.
However, things like sticks, helmets and skate preferences are comfort issues for players. It is usually fruitless to ask someone to change what he's grown accustomed to using. After all, Versteeg has been a 20-goal scorer in the NHL in three straight seasons with the same model stick. If I were in his position, I'd probably be equally resistant to the notion of changing what I've been using. No one complains when it works, right?
I actually thought Versteeg did an underrated job on the penalty kill for the Flyers this season. He did a good job in that regard in the Buffalo series in the playoffs. I also thought that Versteeg was one of the few Flyers who showed ready to compete in Game 1 of the Boston series. Even when he was on the receiving end of a couple huge hits, he kept battling. In Game 4, as the Flyers looked desperately for anything to help them avoid a sweep, Versteeg scored a goal that tied the game at 1-1.
There were times this season where Versteeg's acquisition reminded me of the one that (briefly) brought Mike Comrie to the Flyers in 2003-04: It seemed like a good idea on paper but, except for a few flashes here and there, the player did not seem to fit in on the ice. It was not entirely Versteeg's fault.
He had little time to practice his first week with the club. Thereafter, the team as a whole seemed to be out of synch. Despite his salary and the hefty trading price tag, Versteeg is more of a role playing type than a top-six forward. He just happens to have pretty decent hands and wheels, but is at his most effective when he's doing support work for a skilled linemate. When the team as a whole is struggling, Versteeg really isn't the type of player who is capable of single-handedly keeping the club afloat (as James van Riemsdyk did in Game 2 against Boston) until everyone else gets going.
If Versteeg is moved for cap space this offseason, it would hardly be the end of the world for the Flyers (although the loss of yet two more draft picks hurts). But if it ends up that he stays in Philadelphia, I suspect that he'd have a better year in his first full season with the club than he did during his partial season this year.
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Today's
Across the Pond at NHL.com looks at the extraordinary performance at the World Championships by former New York Rangers forward Jarkko Immonen. If you made a pre-tourney list of candidates to wind up the top scorer, I doubt many people (even Finns) would have had Immonen's name on their list.
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