VOORHEES, N.J. — In this era of advanced analytics, plus-minus is one of those stats that almost no one takes seriously anymore. Even notoriously analytics-weary Philadelphia Flyers coach John Tortorella admitted last week that he’s “never been a big plus-minus guy, because so many things happen when pucks go in the net.”
Flyers defenseman Cam York — who, in 81 games this season has 10 goals and 20 assists, to go along with a minus-12 rating — offered up a pretty blatant example of why he’s not all that impressed with that antiquated metric, either. It was on March 21 in Carolina that York played a career-high 29 minutes, 1 second, in the Flyers’ 3-2 overtime loss to Carolina, and found himself on the ice for all three Hurricanes goals.
Even so, York considered it “one of my best games. … Even though I was dash-three, felt like it was one of my best games I’ve played.”
York’s had plenty of those to choose from lately, even as the Flyers have struggled as a team over the last few weeks.
Since the Flyers traded Sean Walker on March 7, and then ran into injury issues on their blue line, no one has taken on more responsibility on the back end than York, the 23-year-old former first-round pick. In a season that began with Tortorella questioning whether York was even a full-time NHL player, York has emerged as a key cog of a young core that Flyers executives hope will eventually lead them back to the top of the league standings.
In the 17 games since the March 8 trade deadline, York has averaged a team-high 25:35. He has seven points over that span (1 goal, 6 assists), while maintaining a positive on-ice shot-attempt percentage of 51.5, and 54.1 expected-goals share, according to Natural Stat Trick.
But those numbers hardly tell the complete story. York has been responsible and committed in his own end, as evidenced by his 45 blocked shots over that span — the most on the team by a wide margin, and 17 more than his partner, Travis Sanheim.
Both Tortorella and teammate Nick Seeler used the same word when describing York lately.
Willingness.
“That’s what I think he’s improved on … maybe hasn’t improved on it, maybe it was in him, I don’t know,” Tortorella said. “I didn’t expect to see (that). He’s got a quiet intensity. Just his willingness. I think he has played hard and done all the things you need to do as an NHL defenseman.”
Seeler, who knows a thing or two about blocking shots, as the NHL leader in that category before he got hurt last month, said: “The confidence in him this year has been tremendous. He’s taken a huge step forward. … Just a willingness to block shots, too. That’s one of the parts of his game that I think has grown this year, his defensive play in the end zone and blocking shots, being hard to play against.”
York pointed to the Flyers’ recent seven-game “gauntlet” — his word — as being particularly beneficial to his growth and his confidence. York and Sanheim were getting the toughest minutes of anyone on the Flyers’ defense against some of the most dynamic players in the league, such as David Pastrnak, Auston Matthews and Artemi Panarin, to name a few.
Although the team went just 2-3-2 during that stretch against legitimate Stanley Cup contenders, they were in every game other than a 6-2 loss to the Maple Leafs on March 14 (in the first of those seven games).
“I feel like I’ve always been confident but I feel like now — the gauntlet was the real test,” York said. “I grew a lot there in that stretch of games, where I felt like every game I had to be playing at 100 percent. We had to win some games there to get points and stay in the playoff hunt, so I think I really grew there just mentally, confident like I can play against the best teams, best players, and play big minutes.”
The Flyers will head into their season finale against the Capitals on Tuesday with their playoff lives on the line. It will be the final opportunity for many of them to show Tortorella and the brain trust that they have the ability to raise their games a level in the most vital of situations. Not everyone has been able to do it. Some younger players, like Joel Farabee and Egor Zamula, to name a couple, have seen their roles diminished over the last few weeks.
York, though, has been leaned on more and more. Prior to the Flyers’ 4-1 win over the Rangers last Tuesday, for example, Tortorella essentially challenged York and Sanheim to step up to help salvage the season. The Flyers were coming off of that abysmal 9-3 loss to the Canadiens in their previous game, and while it was Seeler and Jaime Drysdale who were victimized more than anyone else on defense that night in Montreal, the coach was looking for more from his top defense pair for the must-win game at Madison Square Garden.
“We need that top pair, and this is where Yorkie has to take more responsibility, because he’s turned into a stud as a player,” Tortorella said. “But we need him now. We’re out of time. This is it. This can extend it, or we’re pretty much done. I just want to see who can step up and try to lead the way.”
Flyers strike first off the stick of Cam York pic.twitter.com/wPRT4sWQNn
— Nasty Knuckles (@NastyKnuckles) April 11, 2024
York came through, opening the scoring with a gorgeous, top-corner wrist shot off of a feed from Travis Konency, allowing the Flyers to roll from there. He even finished with a plus-3 rating that night, too.
Against the Capitals, assume that York and Sanheim will be out against Alex Ovechkin’s line as much as possible. Maybe they’ll have success, and help the Flyers clinch that second wild-card spot.
But even if they don’t, York has done enough to show that he’s likely to be a mainstay on the blue line for future playoff chases.
“We know we’re a really good team and we’re going to be a really good team for years to come,” York said. “The young core here, we’re all really tight and we’re all really looking forward to the future here, and hopefully being Flyers for a long time.”
(Photo of Cam York: Patrick Smith / Getty Images)
