2024-25 Flyers Player Grades: Jakob Pelletier has a path to security

Jakob Pelletier found himself switching teams in the middle of last season. So, how did he perform in the 25 games as a Philadelphia Flyer?

Jakob Pelletier had a transitional year. From being in and out of the lineup in Calgary, not really finding any solid footing whatsoever out for that western club, to being traded to Philadelphia in the middle of the season and having to find what he can bring to a non-playoff team. Pelletier is hopefully taking the first step in a new opportunity that can see him carve out his own path as a Flyer.

It almost felt like Pelletier could have done well with the season being a dozen or so games longer. His usage under John Tortorella was almost non-existent until someone brought up the fact that he’s performing well in a miniscule role and probably deserves to be higher up in the lineup since he is someone that general manager Danny Briere specifically targeted as part of the return for Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost. Pelletier got some more minutes, he continued looking good, and then Tortorella was fired and while his role stayed consistent as a bottom-sixer with Brad Shaw in charge, if there were a few more games to really sink his teeth into this slightly larger opportunity, it certainly feels like some of us would be clamoring for him to get even more minutes and potentially cemented as a middle-six winger for the foreseeable future.

But, with his 25 games in Philadelphia, what did he do?

It’s not the most eye-popping numbers. Eight points during that stretch might be slightly above what we should all expect from someone playing with such limited minutes, though. And considering he was scoring a goal on every eighth shot he took, he certainly wasn’t getting lucky or unlucky, but rather just using the opportunities he saw to his advantage.

It certainly feels like Pelletier was miscast as a fourth-line winger. You don’t see even that somewhat understated level of production from a typical player in that role. With the amounts of looks he got, the rate at which his shots went in, and considering that he even managed to average just slightly less than one shot on goal per game in minimal time, it felt like Pelletier certainly deserved to be handed over a few more minutes and see if that success rate continues.

Because, he certainly looks like he belongs and can hang with the skilled players on this team. In his third goal as a Flyer, even, he linked up with his linemates so well and skated a near-perfect route on a counterattacking route to be the player to finish the scoring play.

It’s those tendencies and the ability to do that that just shows he should be getting a larger look. But, unfortunately the season is done and over with.

Pelletier came as advertised. Some of the more Online Flames Fans, heralded him as someone who drove solid results underneath while in that lesser role. He more than continued that in Philadelphia.

When Pelletier was on the ice, the Flyers were easily the better team. Now, it’s not like he faced top competition — according to HockeyViz, Pelletier faced the top three forwards the least amount of time among all players on an opposing roster — but that doesn’t take too much away from his results. Pelletier’s on-ice expected goals share of 57.19 percent topped the entire Flyers team. No one had a better ratio of expected goals while he was on the ice, on this team.

The sub-50 percent results in goals for can be explained by the Flyers just generally not having good enough goaltending to keep the puck out of the net. When Pelletier was on the ice at 5-on-5, the Flyers had an .891 save percentage which ranks 766th out of all 919 skaters that played in the NHL this past season. And even when it comes to the shot attempt percentage, every single Flyer except two (Emil Andrae and Olle Lycksell) had a sub-50 percent Corsi For percentage. It’s just how the Flyers played. Allow teams to shoot from distance but then win the chance quality battle (why most are over 50 percent in the expected goals category). It’ll be a theme.

When it came to individual production at 5-on-5, Pelletier did surprisingly very well. His 1.89 points per 60 minutes at 5-on-5, ranked fourth on the Flyers. And then even when it came to his individual expected goals rate at the same game state, he finished third — the only two players above him was unsurprisingly Matvei Michkov, and then very surprisingly, Rodrigo Abols. While it might be tempting to just chalk in Pelletier’s results with Abols, the way Pelletier got those chances felt much more sustainable.

It would be interesting to see if this decent rate of production from Pelletier would stay the same if he found himself higher up in the lineup. But, we guess we can’t find out until next season.

Three Questions

Did they live up to expectations?

Considering we did not have Pelletier in our minds at all to start the year, and then when the Flyers acquired him everyone collectively shrugged and near-unanimously decided to just see how it played out with him, we would say that he lived up to expectations. Maybe because there were zero and even if he completely flamed out and was a healthy scratch to finish off the year, acquiring him was just to see what a former first-round pick and someone the Flames clearly did not have any use for, could do.

What can we expect from him next season?

This is such an interesting question when it comes to Pelletier specifically. The Flyers have loads of wingers. Considering it’s Matvei Michkov, Travis Konecny, Tyson Foerster, and Owen Tippett before you really have to think about who is on this roster, there’s limited opportunities in the top six. And then throw Bobby Brink into the mix and suddenly, is Pelletier really just the sixth winger on this team?

And even say if the Flyers suddenly trade for a center, and Jett Luchanko impresses so much at camp that he makes the roster. If no NHL wingers were involved in that hypothetical trade, Noah Cates would probably slide over to the wing and Pelletier will be left out of the top nine in the lineup.

This is a topic worth expanding on as training camp gets closer, but he might just be the odd man out when everything is said and done. What should we expect? It truly depends on his role. If Pelletier is in the same role, should we maybe set a benchmark of expectation at double-digit goals and closing in on 30 points? That would be nice for someone playing under 12 minutes a night. He just impacts the game so much that we would hope to see him given more, but maybe it’s also a good issue to have; a really good player on your fourth line.

How do we grade his 2023-24 season?

With the hand that he was dealt, Pelletier took full advantage and control of the opportunity. He was able to impact the game with the Flyers largely being the better team while he was on the ice, and he managed to produce at a really nice clip considering his deployment.

He probably can’t get a high mark just because of what he did. Even if most of what he produced were diamonds, it would still be significantly fewer diamonds than the top wingers on this team overall. Still, he certainly did not fail and deserves to be on the upper half of the scale.