The Philadelphia Flyers gave up the second overall pick of the 2007 NHL draft and life long Flyer fan James Van Riemsdyk for Toronto Maple Leaf’s defenseman Luke Schenn over the weekend.
Brayden Schenn’s older brother has a solid build (6-2, 230lbs), but he doesn’t make the type of plays that win fans over. Schenn will stay at home and block a shot or two but at the end of the day he isn’t going to join the rush or send a saucer pass to the tape of Danny Briere’s stick anxiously pacing the opposing blue line.
East Coast hockey preaches aggressiveness, and that’s what Schenn’s game is missing. Van Riemsdyk might be taking longer than Broad Street hoped to produce into the player the Flyers hoped he would on draft day, but he always skated aggressively.
At 23 years-old, JVR has seen 39 playoff games and was the highlight of Philly’s early exit during the 2011 post season. As much as he would seem passive during the regular season, when the post season came around his aggressive style was front and center.
The 2011 playoffs showed just how dominating the winger could be when he uses he size to get into the slot, but an injury-plagued season kept him from developing his physicality further. This post season he only posted two points, but was buzzing around the net as much as anyone else.
He was involved in an altercation with hotheaded 40-year-old Martin Brodeur because he was blocking his vision in the crease, being aggressive. No matter how disappointing he has been, the Jersey native possesses the size, speed and edginess to become a dominating power forward in the league today.
The Flyers made this trade because they panicked. The Penguins just snagged up Brandon Suter and instead of drafting a defensemen the Flyers decided to take a two-way center to add to the countless two-way forwards and centers that fill out their AHL and NHL depth charts.
Besides the Sarnia Sting, this draft catered to defensemen. The Flyers passed up Olli Maata (Finish d-man who plays in the OHL), Michael Matheson (a Canadian who is playing in America, I’d pass on him too), Jordan Schmaltz (a 6’2” d-man who is going to be a force for a young St. Louis Blues) and Brady Skeji (another 6’2” American defender). The Flyers let two defensemen fall to division opponents who saw talent in them and instead traded for someone who was practically booed out of Air Canada Centre.
When the Flyers lost the coin toss that sent Patrick Kane to the Blackhawks and JVR to Philadelphia, they always claimed that they would have picked him even if they had the number one pick of the draft. But I guess this trade answers that question because Toronto’s General Manager Brian Burke knows JVR for Schenn straight up is a steal.
Hey 21 Jump Street, what players did you exactly watch play? JVR is a bum & a bust. Other than the 4 good games he had in his playoff career, he has been an invisible, listless, soft, non-hustling, waste of size! WTF are you talking about? Did you watch how soft our DF has been the last 2 years? Would you rather have Carle back, with his 4 mistakes a game, with his SO-CALLED skating & offensive ability (in which he has ZERO), or Schenn, who is a young, solid, big, hard hitting, shot blocking machine, who can grow with this young nucleus & become better, under the tutelage of Timonen, Grossman & our coaching staff. He is not a offensive defense-men. For someone who lost playing time, he still managed to be 7th in the league in hits & blocked shots, & had 20 asst, & only a -6, on a horrific Toronto team. Yeah, he makes mistakes, what young defense-men doesn’t?!?! Stop trying to sound like you are a personnel expert, or a scout, because you don’t know what you are talking about. Who gives a rats @$$, what players we passed up in the draft. I think I’d rather trust our scouts & Homers decisions, than your clearly biased opinion! Brian Burke, is an incompetent moron, who has done nothing to improve the Maple leafs, since he took over. Nothing! Have you ever read any of that teams blog sites, they destroy him, worse than any Philly fans could ever do?!?! Go to Hockeybuzz, every once in awhile, & see what they say, about the genius Burke. BTW, this off-season, is far from over, & this move was a first good move, onto the next of rebuilding the Df, just Homer did with the Forwards, last year. Don’t get your panties in a bunch.
*just like*
Schenn is the same type of player DCAR. He makes a lot of mistakes, so I don’t understand why you would be happy with him since you hate Carle and Coburn so much.
I hope that the off season isn’t over, because if this is the only improvement on defense then this team is back where it started. I hope that you are right about Schenn.
bugsy, I like the kid, because he was playing in the toilet organization, that is Toronto, & his mistakes can be corrected & is young enough to legitimately get better. He admitted to trying too hard, trying to do too much & putting too much pressure on himself, because they brought him up at 18 years old, & wanted him to be the next Scott Stevens. Our entire DF, needs an enima. Coburn & Carle, are both overpaid, overrated D-men, who bring nowhere near enough offense, than they are supposed to bring. Not to mention, are also, as allergic to physical play, as JVR is, & their play has hit their ceiling, & won’t get any better. This kid is just as physical as Grossman is. His mistakes can be corrected, Carle’s & Coburn’s can’t, because they both $#!T themselves, when someone pressures them. Timonen is near done, & Meszaros is another ??? after back surgery. This move, is the 1st good move in the right direction. Right now, he is a 4-5. We still need a 1-2 defense-men. It’s still early, but I got a feeling, Homer gets us Weber.
You lost me at JvR was a lifelong Flyers fan. He was a Rangers fan growing up.
Richard give your head a shake…. You are way off on schenn.
He is a big young physical shot blocking hitting machine. He is 22 with 300 plus games in the NHL. Think Adam foote. Let’s think what we need playing Pittsburgh and other teams with two legit scoring lines…physical dmen.
Schenn will develop and help stabilize the d, plus he is a right shot. He will put in 5-7 goals and 30 points plus play the tough minutes.
I think Toronto got a good deal but we will be fine.
Shake your head Richard.
lewdoggie, thank you! Enough said, to the knowledge-less!