April 10, 2007: The Day That Ruined the Flyers

The 2006-07 Flyers were a miserable bunch, winning only 22 games all season. Their 56 points were far and away the least in the league, besting (worsting?) the Phoenix Coyotes by 11. It was a sudden swoon for the Flyers who had been to the playoffs 11 years in a row up to that point. Keith Primeau retired, Peter Forsberg was hurt, and the team was bad right from the jump. The GM and coach were fired after the first two weeks and things never got better. Everything would be ok though because there was a light at the end of the tunnel…the NHL Draft.

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The Lottery

All that losing meant that the Flyers had the best odds to select #1 overall. The way the draft worked at the time was that the worst team had the best odds of winning the lottery at 25% and could select no lower than 2nd. However, there was also a restriction on how high a team could move up, advancing only 5 positions. This meant the Flyers had a nearly 50% chance of selecting #1 overall.¹ The only other teams with a chance had the following odds:

Phoenix Coyotes – 18.8%
Los Angeles Kings – 14.2%
Washington Capitals – 10.7%
Chicago Blackhawks – 8.1%

There were 3 top prospects in this draft as ranked by various scouting services but Patrick Kane was the consensus over Kyle Turris and James van Riemsdyk. After drafting center Claude Giroux the year before, the Flyers would have loved to add Kane, who had just completed his OHL season with the London Knights and finished runner up for MVP with 62 goals and 83 assists. He was the leading scorer and top prospect in the league. Meanwhile, JVR was playing high school hockey in NJ at Christian Brothers Academy.

Come lottery day, unfortunately the team with the worst odds to pick #1, won. The Flyers would have to pick second overall despite the Blackhawks finishing 15 points clear of the worst record. Two months later at the NHL Draft, Patrick Kane was going to Chicago and JVR would be the Flyers consolation. How bad could getting the #2 overall pick be, anyway? F*****g catastrophic.

Rivalry?

Kane hit the NHL right away, netting 21 goals with 51 assists and winning the Calder trophy for Rookie of the Year in 2008. JVR honored his commitment to play college hockey at the University of New Hampshire where he only finished 3rd on the team in scoring. Even without JVR, the Flyers rebounded from the previous miserable season finishing with 95 points, making the playoffs, and even made the Conference Finals thanks to big seasons from Danny Briere and Mike Richards. Chicago just missed the playoffs but Kane and fellow rookie Jonathan Toews were already becoming a great duo.

JVR stayed at New Hampshire another year but with little improvement. Meanwhile Kane had another solid season with 70 points and Chicago leveled up big time. The team brought in Joe Quennville as coach and took off with 104 points. They made the Conference Finals. Despite improving to 99 points on the year, the Flyers lost in the 1st round to the Penguins.

The 2009-10 season is where the real drama of the story takes place. Chicago finished with 112 points behind Patrick Kane’s team leading 30 goals and 58 assists. For the Flyers, JVR finally debuted and underwhelmed with only 35 points and an 11th place finish for the Calder Trophy. Still, the Flyers squeaked into the playoffs as the 7th seed. Then they got hot. After beating the Devils in the first round, there was the legendary 7 game series against the Bruins that saw the Flyers comeback from down 3-0 and 3 goals in Game 7 to win. After dispatching the Canadiens in the East and the Sharks in the West, the Flyers would battle the Blackhawks for the Stanley Cup.

We all know the Blackhawks won the series 4-2. The worst of it though was that Patrick Kane led Chicago with 8 points and even scored the Cup winning goal in overtime of Game 6 in Philadelphia. Excruciating. JVR only had 2 points for the series and watched from the bench twice. Kane had 28 points in 22 playoff games that year while JVR had 6. The whole thing was all too painful.

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History Has Not Been Kind

The 2010 Stanley Cup was just the 1st of 3 championships won by Kane and the Blackhawks with follow up titles in 2013 and 2015. Kane was named the Conn Smythe winner in 2013 and won the Hart trophy for MVP in 2016 after leading the league with 106 points. After 16 years in Chicago, he was finally traded as the team was ready to rebuild. He is currently on the Red Wings finishing his 19th season where despite missing about 15 games has nearly as many points as JVR’s best season. Ironically, they are both playing for Detroit this season.

As for van Riemsdyk, the forward managed a solid playoffs the following season but didn’t break out. Injuries and ineffectiveness got him traded to Toronto for Luke Schenn. After a couple of 30 goal seasons up north, the Flyers actually brought him back as a free agent in 2018! It was more of the same though.

When he finally retires, Patrick Kane is a no doubt Hall of Famer. As for JVR, those initials and the 2007 draft lottery still haunt Flyers fans.

Stats: Hockey Reference