Farabee was unhappy with his performance in 2022-23 and is hopeful to bounce back in Year 2 under John Tortorella.
Farabee was unhappy with his performance in 2022-23 and is hopeful to bounce back in Year 2 under John Tortorella.
It's the dead of summer, but the Philadelphia Flyers will be gearing up for training camp before we know it. In preparation for the preseason, we've created the Summer Sampler series, in which we'll be analyzing every key player on the Flyers roster. We'll assess where each player stands ahead of the 2023-24 season and project what their respective roles will be for the upcoming campaign. Stay tuned throughout the summer for each Flyer's individual evaluation in the lead-up to training camp.
Injuries were a common trend for the Flyers last season. Forwards Sean Couturier and Cam Atkinson both missed the entire 2022-23 campaign due to surgeries to correct nagging ailments, and after missing his second consecutive season, defenseman Ryan Ellis is all but certain to never appear in an NHL game again.
Another player — Joel Farabee — was marred by an injury for much of the season. But despite his questionable health status, he still managed to appear in all 82 of the Flyers' games.
How did Farabee perform in 2022-23? Farabee would be the first to admit that his 2022-23 season wasn't up to his standards. He posted just 15 goals and 39 points and failed to string together consistent point production for much of the campaign. At one point, he had gone 26 straight games without scoring a goal.
Definitely not what you like to see from a player who accounts for $5 million against the cap for the next five seasons.
But Farabee also had a pretty valid excuse for not playing his greatest hockey last season. In June of 2022, he underwent artificial disc replacement surgery after suffering a neck injury while training during the offseason. He ended up missing virtually all of training camp, but was given the green light to join the lineup just in time for the Flyers' first regular-season game of the campaign.
It was obvious Farabee wasn't himself for most of the season, though. And after spending such a significant chunk of the summer recovering from surgery, his unspectacular play was rather understandable. But still — injury or no injury — his 2022-23 campaign can only be categorized as a major disappointment.
Read more about Farabee's 2022-23 season here.
What should fans expect from Farabee in 2023-24? Based on his performance in 2022-23, some fans may believe Farabee is no longer worthy of playing a top-six role after the emergence of forwards Noah Cates and Owen Tippett.
That viewpoint is exceptionally flawed, though.
With a full offseason of training and a full camp to better grasp head coach John Tortorella's scheme (not to mention build a better relationship with Tortorella altogether), Farabee will have every opportunity to return to form as a reliable point-producing winger. And if he does, he could fathomably reestablish himself as a bona fide top-six NHL forward.
Expect to see a very different version of Farabee in 2023-24.
What does Farabee need to prove? Farabee admitted it himself during his exit interview in April — his 2022-23 campaign was not up to his standards, and he is motivated to bounce back this season and prove that he can be the consistent point producer he appeared to be earlier in his career.
At just 23 years old, his best days very well could be ahead of him.
"It's really tough to get ready for a season in a short period of time, so I think having the summer and just sticking around here, I think I have a lot to prove next season. Obviously, this season probably wasn't my best, and I have a lot of areas to improve on," Farabee told the media during his exit interview.
"I feel like when I play a little heavier, at the COVID year where I had a really good year, you just feel really good about your game. You've got good legs at all times, so if I can get back to that, I feel like I can really help this team a lot more."
Statistics courtesy of Natural Stat Trick and NHL.com.