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How Detrimental Was Yandle's Time With The Flyers?


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David McLeod
September 21, 2022  (10:46)
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The end of an era has come for one of the leagues most likable player, as Keith Yandle officially retired. But just how much damage did Yandle do to the Philadelphia Flyers organization, in his one long, painful season with the Orange and Black? Forget about Yandle dominating the leagues futility record, with an astounding -47, 10 worse then the next nearest competitor; just what effect do you think he had on the defense core and team in general?

I don't dispute his being a tremendous team player and a riot to be around in the room, but his play on the ice and the obligation of the organization to keep his Ironman streak in effect may have caused more headaches and dissention in the ranks, than the feel-good Ironman streak was worth.
Imagine being Ivan Provorov, Travis Sanheim, Rasmus Ristolainen, Cam York watching from the AHL, or hell, even Justin Braun yes Justin Braun, watching your coaching staff roll an ineffective Yandle over the boards for basically every single power play for the first 60+ games of the year.
They were all forced to watch him post absolutely abysmal numbers, while helping to quarterback the Flyers PP to a league worst 32nd overall, with a success rate (if you can call it that) of 12.6%. In 77 games, seeing almost exclusive top unit PP minutes, Yandle posted 1 goal and 11 assists over 239 power play attempts; ranking Yandle as tied for the 40th most productive defenseman in the league on the PP. Yandle had the second worst points per game average on the team, and it could be easily argued as the worst ppg average, considering just how much time he did see on the man advantage.

Ivan Provorov​ 79gms - 9g 22a = 31pts - 1g 7a on PP - .39 ppg
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Travis Sanheim ​80gms - 7g 24a = 31pts - 0g 0a on PP - .38 ppg
Keith Yandle ​77gms - 1g 18a = 19pts - 1g 11a on PP - .25 ppg
Justin Braun ​61gms - 5g 11a = 16pts - 0g 0a on PP - .26 ppg
R. Ristolainen ​66gms - 2g 14a = 16pts - 0g 1a on PP - .24 ppg
Cam York ​30gms - 3g 7a = 10pts - 1g 4a on PP - .33ppg
Ryan Ellis 4gms - 1g 4a = 5pts - 0g 2a on PP - 1.25ppg

Yet despite the numbers suggesting the coaching staff may want to roll the dice with ANY other defenseman, they didn't. You don't have to be a genius to deduce that players who saw themselves as being capable of producing at more productive rate on the powerplay, must have cringed seeing the coaching staff rely so heavily on Yandle for the teams stagnant powerplay.
Ivan Provorov and Travis Sanheim rode pine, posting 9 and 7 goals and 22 and 24 assists on the season respectively, without being given a reasonable opportunity on the top unit, or in Sanheim's case, on either unit. Even Justin Braun outproduced Keith Yandle in points per game and he likely didn't see more than 45 seconds of power play time. The animosity and frustration that would have created within the defense core and the negative effective it would have had on their overall psyche and game will never be known, but in can easily be surmised that it didn't help the Flyers.
Besides the Flyers, was there another team in the league who rolled out there worst statistical defenseman on the power play all year last season?

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