The free agent market has moved at breakneck speed this offseason. Only two of PHR’s Top 50 UFAs have yet to sign, and only one, winger Daniel Sprong, is expected to play next season. Even beyond the big names, many non-tendered RFAs and cheap veteran names are beginning to find homes, namely Ryan Suter, as he continues his career-long tour of the Central Division. That indicates the market for low-cost names with loads of experience is increasing as teams circle back to make the finishing touches to their rosters in the second wave of free agency.
Offensively, one of those names to watch is James van Riemsdyk, a seven-time 20-goal scorer with an 11.8% shooting percentage across 15 NHL seasons and 1,011 games. He missed our Top 50 cutoff by a few spots, but aside from Joe Pavelski, who hasn’t officially retired yet but is expected to do so, he’s got the most established offensive track record of anyone still available.
For the first 12 years of his career, van Riemsdyk was a bonafide top-six winger and efficient scorer, averaging 0.66 points per game while routinely averaging north of 16 minutes per game. But age caught up to him three years into a five-year, $35MM contract with the Flyers, seeing his production drop to 36 goals, 67 points and a -36 rating in 143 games during his 2021-22 and 2022-23 campaigns in Philadelphia – less than a half a point per game. That was tough for the Flyers to stomach at his $7MM cap hit, especially considering they’d drafted him second overall in 2007 but missed out on his prime, most of which was spent with the Maple Leafs after they shipped him to Toronto for Luke Schenn in the 2012 offseason in what turned out to be one of the more lopsided deals of the decade.
Following his quiet end to his tenure in Philly, JVR landed on a cheap one-year, $1MM deal with the Bruins when free agency opened last summer. For the first time in a few seasons, he produced well over his contract value, serving as a valuable depth scorer for a Bruins offense that entered the campaign with many question marks after the retirements of Patrice Bergeron and David Krejčí. His numbers were roughly in line with what he’d done with the Flyers the last few years, scoring 11 goals and 38 points in 71 games, but he did so more efficiently, averaging reduced minutes (13:30 ATOI) compared to his middle-six usage with Philadelphia.
He also managed 142 shots on goal, 23 more than he’d lobbed on the net in 2022-23. Those 11 goals were tied for a career low, but he also shot at a career-low 7.7%, suggesting there’s some rebound potential this year. After turning 35 in May, he’ll also be eligible to sign a contract with performance bonuses, allowing a team close to the salary cap’s $88MM upper limit to keep his initial cap hit low in case he doesn’t pan out.
In line with his solid box stats, van Riemsdyk’s possession quality metrics last season were some of the best of his career. Boston controlled a whopping 60.7% of expected goals with JVR on the ice at even strength. While he wasn’t particularly adept at controlling shot attempts outright, posting a 49.6 CF%, he wasn’t on for very many high-danger chances against, and his two-way play thrived in a Bruins system that actually allowed fewer total expected goals last year than in their record-breaking 135-point 2022-23 season.
With that in mind, JVR presents himself as an attractive candidate who could still likely crush 15 to 20 goals next season in a bottom-six scoring role. He’s likely to be a solid fallback option for interested parties in Sprong that don’t end up landing him.
Stats
2023-24: 71 GP, 11 G, 27 A, 38 P, +7, 20 PIMs, 13:30 ATOI, 49.6 CF%
Career: 1,011 GP, 311 G, 318 A, 629 P, -66, 394 PIMs, 16:11 ATOI, 50.2 CF%
Potential Suitors
van Riemsdyk hasn’t been firmly connected to any teams so far this summer. Given the suddenly shallow market for depth scoring, expect that to change as the weeks progress.
But in terms of speculative fits, it would be unwise to rule out a return to the Bruins. They have $8.64MM in projected cap space for next season remaining, per PuckPedia. Most of that will go toward a new deal for RFA netminder Jeremy Swayman. But as we’ve seen in recent days with Suter, JVR could be amenable to returning on a performance-bonus-laden deal with a league minimum $775K cap hit. It’s a type of contract that Boston general manager Don Sweeney is no stranger to signing as well, executing similar deals with Bergeron and Krejčí in the twilight of their careers to help keep their short-term financial situation as manageable as possible.
There’s still a need for another scoring-oriented winger in the Bruins’ bottom six, especially as an insurance policy in case 2021 first-rounder Fabian Lysell doesn’t crack the roster out of camp. They’ve replenished some offensive depth by signing Max Jones and acquiring Mark Kastelic from the Senators in last month’s Linus Ullmark trade, but both are checking forwards first and foremost with limited upside on the scoresheet.
JVR could also find a place to play in 2023-24 by returning to a former club in free agency for the second time in his career. A reunion with the Leafs, who haven’t made any notable additions at forward this summer, could make sense. Their left-wing depth took a hit when Tyler Bertuzzi departed for the Blackhawks in free agency last summer, and much like he would in Boston, van Riemsdyk could provide veteran insurance in case top prospects Easton Cowan and Fraser Minten, both of whom are expected to challenge for opening night roster spots, don’t make the team. It would be a difficult squeeze with just $955K in cap space remaining and new deals needed for depth RFA forwards Connor Dewar and Nicholas Robertson, although the latter has reportedly requested a trade.
Both would be decent playoff contenders for van Riemsdyk to join as he chases a Stanley Cup. Without a ring to his name, it’s likely he’ll be willing to sacrifice some cash on his next deal rather than take an above-market-value paycheck to offer veteran leadership to a rebuilder.
Projected Contract
As mentioned earlier, JVR’s deal will likely come across the finish line with a $775K cap hit since he’s now eligible for a 35+ contract. But there is a good amount of uncertainty about how much his performance bonuses could total. After last year’s solid showing, he’s likely in line for an overall pay bump over his previous $1MM salary, even if only a portion is guaranteed. Evolving Hockey pegged JVR to land a one-year, $1.5MM deal as a UFA this summer, a figure that still makes sense when including potential performance bonuses.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Seems like a good insurance option for the Pens in the bottom 6 if the young guys aren’t ready yet. Plus it would fit with the anti narrative of getting younger
@bucsfan — Sounds like MLSE didn’t let Kyle take the old abacus with him as a parting gift? The rest of us define younger differently, apparently.
Yeah Dubas is the anti DiCaprio, can’t get them old enough
I’d sure take him back in Boston. He tailed off some in the latter half of the season, but the first half, he played very well. He was a constant net front presence, which even when it didn’t translate into points for him, translated into goals for the Bruins: disruptive, screening, digging, hustling. Guy’s definitely got something left in the tank.
Habs need veteran wingers, they have all of their centres and defense is packed, but they need veteran wingers or centres who can play the wing equally as well and the best choice would be JVR or Daniel Sprong, because Dach who will be back from the season-ending injury from Jarred Tinordi checking him so hard into Chicago’s bench, he torn his ACL and MCL at once. It’s said he will be good to start the season. Ylonen and Pearson are gone, we don’t know if Harvey-Pinard will evade injury and score so many goals in just a third of season in the record breaking games lost to injury season in 22-23, last season he went from 14G in 35G then and when expected to play a full season in the NHL last season, scored 2 in 45 games, just a little less pts due to the assists, but JVR and Sprong are the best goal scoring wingers left in the market, if what I read tonight is accurate. I’d take him either (or both) for 1 million each, as Dach and Newhook will be needing help on the 2nd and 3rd line, Dach can play wing, but last year he looked like he was going to be continue to improve even more so and seemed like he wanted to have his own line.
I guess Max Pacioretty would be welcome back home (he still lives in Montreal in the off-season), but that Achilles tendon he made worse when coming back too quickly in 22-23 when a Canes when just playing 5G but scoring 3 goals and when he finally came back last season with WSH he wasn’t the player he used to be and he’s still relatively young…and he’s still available. JVR is my main choice because he’s good defensively and the Habs were in trouble everytime Dvorak and Pearson were on the ice with HP wasting his time with them or worse on the 4th line where he doesn’t belong. Otherwise, Sprong and if Pacioretty can score 20 goals at least again are experienced wingers who can score that would not cost much, and the Habs have even more cap space than ever, now that Price’s contract can be put fully on the LTIR and some players they were paying were waived (Pearson) and nobody claimed him, one ex prospect went back to Europe and another is about to do the same (Norlinder), Kovasevic traded for a pick and Colin White went to UFA’s, but he has deteriorated a lot since his first years with Ottawa, 0 points in 28 games, Habs have nothing to lose by trying those cheap veteran wingers, it would still leave them with a lot of cap space in case Monty and Primeau continue their rise in quality goaltending and manages to bring this already improved team close (or not) to a playoffs spot, they will be more than happy to deal away some old wood like Josh Anderson and Christian Dvorak (who’s plagued with injuries and hasn’t lived up the expectations his OHL years being Marner and Matthew Katchuk’s centre in their last year in the juniors where Dvorak finished with over 120pts, or those free agents I think they should consider if they don’t pan out, but it would be surprising, especially Sprong who if paired with Dach could score 25-30 goals again and increase his value by playing with these young guns who could revitalize all 3 of those players career. JVR is just another who could be useful in such a role.