van Riemsdyk Ready To Live Up To New Deal
Whether he likes it or not and whether he was ready or not, the spotlight is now on James van Riemsdyk — after only two NHL seasons — to be a top performer on a Flyers offense that has more than a few questions.
The 22-year-old Middletown, N.J. native signed a six-year, $25.5 million contract extension with the Flyers on Tuesday and said he is thrilled to stay in orange and black. He was scheduled to become a restricted free agent after this season following the expiration of his entry-level deal.
“I’m happy, obviously,” van Riemsdyk said in a conference call. “Over the two years I’ve been here and even the two years prior when I had first joined the organization [but was playing college hockey], I saw how well the organization treats their players.”
In fact, it was former Flyer and fellow New Jersey native Jim Dowd who first spoke about the organization to van Riemdsyk after he was drafted, telling him he could expect great things.
After an impressive postseason in 2011, van Riemsdyk was poised for a contract year in which he would be just one of many weapons in a stacked offensive arsenal. But when Mike Richards and Jeff Carter were traded, suddenly the lanky winger moved up on the totem pole.
“I think it’s a much different feel,” van Riemsdyk said of the new-look Flyers. “A lot of new faces compared to when we ended in Boston. At the same time, stuff like that happens in the salary cap world.
“There’s important decisions to be made and there are a lot of different shakeups. You don’t expect to see two guys like that go, but that happens. It’s part of the business, so at the same time, when they were great teammates and great guys, it’s gonna be tough to try to move on and fill their shoes, so to speak.”
Perhaps it was with those moves in mind that van Riemsdyk wanted to make sure his deal was manageable.
“He wanted to work with the Flyers to get a good cap number,” van Riemsdyk’s agent, Alec Schall, told Philly Sports Daily. “He wanted to help the team move forward long-term.”
His cap hit, $4.25 million annually after this season, will be slightly more than Claude Giroux’s $3.75 million. But he hopes it still allows the Flyers some flexibility to add to a roster that is still trying to win the Stanley Cup despite a flurry of offseason moves.
“That’s something I’ve always been all about,” van Riemsdyk said. “I was talking about that with my agent. Obviously you want to make a good living doing what you love to do, but at the same time you want to be in a great place like Philadelphia. I’m lucky to be here. Not only that, but to be a part of a great team and obviously with the salary cap, there’s some constraints on what teams can do.
“When you do a deal like this, I think it’s a very fair deal for both sides and I think from there I’m just happy to be in this organization for the next six years.”
The winger, who was eighth in scoring on the team last season, will now be looked to as one of the top performers. Yet he said he expected that to happen whether he got a new deal or not.
“I think I was already kind of handed those responsibilities,” van Riemsdyk said. “I don’t really think contracts come into play when it comes to taking more responsibility. [Contract or not], I was ready for that opportunity and challenge coming into this season, so now it’s just up to me to go out there and play and do the things I like to do out there.”
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