JVR On The Rise

You can see pretty clearly now why the Maple Leafs were hunting James Van Riemsdyk.

Van Riemsdyk, or JVR as they were chanting his name Monday night, was the young player Brian Burke really wanted in exchange for Kris Versteeg when the two teams were talking trade this winter. Van Riemsdyk, 21, had 15 goals last year and while showing flashes this season, wasn't consistently giving the Flyers the kind of performance a team looking to try and win a Stanley Cup needed.

Burke pushed and pushed, but Flyers GM Paul Holmgren wouldn't relent, an eventually the trade was made in mid-February, Versteeg to Philly for a first round pick and a third rounder.

"Our ideal would have been to get a player who could play right now," said Burke at the time, without mentioning Van Riemsdyk by name.

Van Riemsdyk finished the season with 21 goals, but it was Monday in Game 2 against Boston he really flashed his potential in a dominant performance, albeit one in a losing cause. The lanky forward scored twice in the first period and had eight shots in all, at times nearly unstoppable except for Tim Thomas, who was stopping pretty much everything in a glittering 52-save performance.

Van Riemsdyk went second overall in the '07 draft behind Patrick Kane, and until this season it seemed like it might be one of the weaker drafts in years. But Logan Couture (9th overall) had a breakout season in San Jose, Karl Alzner (5th) has become a regular on the Washington blueline and other first round defencemen like Kevin Shattenkirk, Jonathan Blum and Ryan McDonagh have become solid NHLers.

Van Riemsdyk, meanwhile, was teasing the Flyers, but not blowing away anybody. At least not until Monday night when he looked like power forward with wheels, finally harnessing his potential. We'll see now if he can produce more of the same as the Flyers try once more to come-from-behind on Boston.

But it sure looks like Holmgren was bang-on in assessing the young forward's value when the Leafs came knocking.

 

 

 

Comments

[JT]

Damien, I think you put way too much emphasis on a player based on a either a good playoff game/round or a stretch of games. Yes, he seems to be a young and improving player and might very well become an even better player but a lot of your analysis on players stems from a too short of a period as examples.

[Chris]

Maybe now all the negativity towards Kadri will turn into realism. Van Riemsdyk was drafted 4 years ago and hasn't even had a good season yet. He's just breaking out in these playoffs. Kadri was drafted 2 years ago. Yet more proof that development takes time. Too many leaf fans expect their top prospects to step into the league and be all stars. Please refer to the James Reimers, Nikolai Kulemins and Mikhail Grabovski type players as the norm instead of referring to the Crosbys and Ovechkins of the league who are the exceptions.

[Mr. Brown]

Burke had as much chance to get JVR in the Versteeg deal as Iggy did in getting a majority gov't last night.

[joy@tbaytel.net]

Damien, stop teasing the leaflets with all these what ifs and could've been nonsense. Mind you the 3 earlier comments are lucid and thoughtful (I guess the main leaflet horde are thinking golf scores and haven't read Damien's musings yet).

[Chris]

I doubt that there was much chance of JVR coming to Toronto as teams incontention for the Cup tend to not want to get rid of players on their roster (ie play for today) when draft picks won't affect them until later.