Keith Yandle Deserved Better

It’s no secret that this year has been super disappointing. The Flyers came into the season with high expectations after trading for Ryan Ellis, Rasmus Ristolainen, and Cam Atkinson.  One of the other offseason moves was the signing of veteran defender Keith Yandle, who was within striking distance of breaking the NHL “Iron Man” record of most consecutive games played.

While not as flashy as some of the other offseason moves, he was brought in to bring some veteran leadership to a younger cast of blueliners that had seem to lost a step stemming from the sudden departure of Matt Niskanen the season before.

This past weekend, Yandle’s streak of consecutive games came to an end at 989 games, 11 short of turning that into an even 1,000 games. The reality of it all is that Yandle deserved better from the Flyers, an organization known for honoring and respecting its players.

Just a few weeks ago, team captain Claude Giroux was honored for playing 1,000 games as a Flyer. The team listened to trade offers and made a trade that was in the best wishes for Giroux. They respected him enough to listen to his trade demands and sent him to an East Coast team that has some definite Stanley Cup dreams.

Earlier this season, Yandle broke the NHL “iron man” streak of most consecutive games played, breaking the record of 964 games held by Doug Jarvis.  He’s been called a great teammate and someone that many of the current Flyers squad respects.

While Yandle is no longer the all-star defender he once was (after all he is posting a league worst -39), he did offer the team great veteran presence. And he has been a hard worker all season. He signed a one-year contract during the summer and it has been speculated that this might be his last year.  He wasn’t signed for his eye-popping stats or blazing speed. He was simply hired to add stability to a team in transition and add some veteran leadership to a team expected to make a deep playoff run.

Well, after a good first two weeks to the season, the Flyers season tanked. They fired their coach, had two 10+ losing streaks, and had to deal with a crazy amount of injuries. As the trade deadline approached, the team began to sell off pieces that might be attractive to contending teams. Among the players sent packing, besides Giroux, were Connor Bunnaman, German Rubtsov, Derick Brassard, and Justin Braun. However, Yandle was not one of the pieces sent out.

The justification for benching Yandle was to give some of the younger prospects some valuable NHL playing time. We can all agree that playing at the NHL level and the AHL level are two completely different styles. The Flyers have a plethora of young players that they need to evaluate and see if they can handle being up in the bigs rather than the minors. That makes total sense. However….

Yandle’s contract does run out at the end of the season. It’s obvious that he isn’t going to be staying around. He is either going to retire or move on to some other team. As this season descended into what it has become, it makes sense for a team to want to take a look at the young guns for next season and start evaluating team needs for the offseason.

If that’s the case, why did the team not move Yandle? There had to have been some team out there that could have offered even a lowly 6th or 7th round pick for him. Perhaps he could’ve extended his iron man streak somewhere else.

Instead, he was sat on Saturday. And it is very likely that his streak won’t be his for long. Phil Kessel, playing for the Arizona Coyotes, has a streak of 968 games. If he stays healthy, he should break Yandle’s record next season and also pass the 1,000 game mark.

Yandle should’ve been given the opportunity to play elsewhere if it was apparent that he would’ve been scratched. While we can appreciate Yeo talking to Yandle before the game, he deserved better than what he got.