Flyers hope Joel Farabee can carry his strong finish into next season

Joel Farabee’s most exciting recent highlight was his fight against Ottawa’s Alex DeBrincat last Thursday, which ended with him tackling DeBrincat to the ice. But Farabee has also quietly racked up nine points over his last nine games.

The Flyers might be officially eliminated from playoff contention, but Farabee is still fighting to get himself back on track after multiple injuries and an offseason surgery derailed his progress. In what has been an inconsistent season, the 23-year-old winger is now playing his best hockey. The Flyers’ six remaining games are important for Farabee on an individual level, to give him something to build off as he goes into his first full offseason under John Tortorella.

It has now been over nine months since Farabee underwent artificial disk replacement surgery on June 24. Prior to the surgery, he had consulted Vegas Golden Knights center Jack Eichel, the first NHL player to undergo the procedure.

» READ MORE: The Flyers’ Joel Farabee had artificial disk replacement surgery. A spine surgeon explains what that means.

Eichel was back playing games in three months. Farabee had four months until the season started. It was possible for him to get back in time.

When training camp rolled around, Farabee was out there, sprinting over and over and over again beside his teammates at Tortorella’s memorable first conditioning practice, although he was in a non-contact jersey.

Farabee shed the jersey just before the season started on Oct. 7. While he hadn’t played in any preseason games, after consulting with the medical staff, Tortorella inserted him right into the opening-night lineup.

The winger didn’t reinjure himself. He also didn’t contribute much. With no points through five games, he was feeling pressured to produce offensively.

On Oct. 22, as the Flyers wrapped up their first road trip, Farabee burst onto the scene with a three-point game in a 3-1 win over Nashville.

“Hopefully, that’ll release him a bit,” Tortorella said after the game.

It did — at first. Two games later, Farabee had a two-point game, and he continued to score a point here, a point there. It wasn’t anything to write home about, but it was something.

And then he went quiet.

For 26 games, through January and February, Farabee didn’t score a goal and collected just four assists. His playing time steadily decreased, leading to an in-game benching on Feb. 20 in Calgary.

At the time, Tortorella said he felt Farabee was doing some good things, but he had taken some bad penalties. He liked that Farabee was competing hard, but he needed him to be more disciplined.

Heading into March, Farabee was still searching for a goal, but he was trying not to focus on that. Instead, he focused on simplifying his game and getting to the dirty areas of the ice.

Tortorella noticed. He praised Farabee for the impact he was making outside of scoring and said it felt like Farabee was close. The bounces just weren’t going his way, but he hoped Farabee would continue to build until the puck luck turned in his favor.

Tortorella continued to give Farabee “high marks” for working hard to come back so quickly from his surgery. However, Tortorella feels the lack of an offseason to train impacted Farabee. The coach has expressed his excitement for seeing the 6-foot, 183-pound Farabee next season, after he’s had an actual offseason to get bigger and stronger.

On St. Patrick’s Day of all days, Farabee’s luck finally changed as he broke through with a goal against the Buffalo Sabres. He got another the next night against the Carolina Hurricanes, followed by goals against the Florida Panthers and Minnesota Wild. In four games against competitive teams, Farabee had produced a four-game goal streak. In addition, he has five assists over his last nine contests, including assists in each game this past weekend.

In addition to producing offensively, Farabee has played a more solid all-around game, earning him a promotion to the first line with Morgan Frost and Owen Tippett. Since March 18, excluding the Ottawa game where he served a five-minute penalty for fighting, he has played over 18 minutes.

» READ MORE: Streaking Morgan Frost is slowly winning over John Tortorella with his improved ‘200-foot’ game

When the season concludes, Farabee won’t have eye-popping stats — he has 13 goals and 36 points in 76 games — even if he keeps up his recent momentum. What he will have is a solid foundation — from his goal scoring to his 200-foot game to his confidence — to build off of heading into the offseason to prepare for a season when Tortorella will judge him more critically.

The Flyers still envision Farabee, who is still just 23, as part of the long-term solution. With five years left on his six-year, $30 million contract, the Flyers will hope he can get back to the form he showed when he scored 20 goals in 55 games in 2021. His improved recent play is a good start.