Donnelly: Can James van Riemsdyk still be a viable net-front option for Bruins?

James van Riemsdyk is happy to now be on the Bruins' side for once.

With eight combined seasons with Philadelphia bookending six years in Toronto, van Riemsdyk has certainly seen his fair share of rivalry nights against Boston. While he and the Flyers got the best of the B's in the 2010 postseason – his first career playoff goal sparked the infamous Game 7 comeback – Boston had the last laugh in 2011 before bouncing JVR and the Leafs in unfathomable fashion in 2013 and again dispatching them in 2018. 

As he settles into his new digs around Warrior Ice Arena and TD Garden, the power forward is glad to be teaming up with the Black and Gold.

"I've certainly been on the other side of some pretty intense rivalries for a lot of years, but it's been good into the area and get acclimated, things like that," he said last week at Warrior. 

The former University of New Hampshire Wildcat has been around essentially as long as the Bruins' contention window, as the Bruins have missed the playoffs just twice throughout the 34-year-old's time in the league.

"Over the years, it was always kind of a measuring stick game," JVR said of his numerous battles with the B's. "I think even the years I was at UNH, like that was kind of the start of that contending status. It felt like every single year since I've been in the league, going into the season, it seemed like they were a team that was going to be picked to have a chance to win. So, looking at free agency, it was exciting to get a call from these guys."

Barring injury, he'll hit the 1,000 games milestone this season, currently sitting at 940. After 14 seasons, 300 career goals and 591 points, the Middletown, N.J., native still has a sizable hole in his trophy case, reaching the Stanley Cup Final in his rookie season with Philadelphia before the Flyers lost to the Blackhawks. He hasn't made it past the second round since and hasn't been in the postseason since the COVID bubble in 2020. 

"I think this is gonna be my 15th year and I had a couple earlier playoff runs that went further, but not too many lately," van Reimsdyk said. "So that's honestly what it's all about now is just trying to find a way to win games and try to chase down the ultimate prize. So, that's what's exciting about coming to a team like this with a lot of great players here and all the success that they had, obviously, last year in the regular season. So hopefully that's something that we can build on this year."

Boston has a void to fill in front of the net on the power play with Tyler Bertuzzi off to the Leafs. The incumbent Jake DeBrusk could be in line to pick up more duties, as well as Alex Chiasson, should he make the team off his PTO. But JVR could have the inside track, having made a living around the crease on the man advantage throughout his career with nearly a third (87) of his 300 career goals coming a man-up. 

The 6-foot-3, 208-pound winger is coming off a down season with the basement-dwelling Flyers, where he put up 12 goals and 17 assists in 61 games. It was the first season since his rookie year that he was not on at least a 20-goal pace over a full 82 games.

Still, with van Riemsdyk on at 5-on-5 last season, Philadelphia was particularly strong around scoring areas off the ice. The Flyers had strong majorities in high-danger chances (56.69 percent) and high-danger goals (62.07), according to Natural Stat Trick. 

But his production on the power play slipped considerably last year, dropping from 10 goals in 2020-21 to nine in 2021-22 before just two in 2022-23. But it's worth noting that JVR might have been shackled by a putrid Philadelphia power play that finished dead last in the league last year, working at 15.6 percent. The Flyers' offense as a whole was the fourth-worst (2.68 goals per game). Nothing about that team was set up to succeed.  

Even with the dip his power play output saw last season, van Riemsdyk still saw consistent production in the dirty areas of the ice. He generated 33 percent of his shots from the slot, according to IcyData, in addition to 31 percent coming right around the crease and the goalmouth. Meanwhile, essentially all of his production came from those same areas with 50 percent of his goals coming from the slot and 43 percent coming right around the crease. He scored just one goal that wasn't in either of those areas of the ice. 

The previous season, he generated 32 percent of his shots and 38 percent of his goals in the slot, while 26 percent of his shots and an additional 38 percent of his tallies happened right around the crease. It's a somewhat similar picture in 2020-21. JVR put up 28 percent of his shots and 47 percent of his goals from the slot, while 24 percent of his shots and 41 percent of his goals were more closely around the net. 

His 2022-23 contributions in those areas of the ice fall in line with where he's been on the balance of his career. In his previous 11 seasons, he's generated 30 percent of his shots have occurred in the slot with 23 percent coming on the doorstep. Meanwhile. he has scored 45 percent of his career goals (135 of 300) from the slot with an additional 23 percent (69 of 300) coming around the crease. 

The Bruins feel he still has more to give. The left-shot is set up to be the perfect case study to deduce whether or not his sharp decline was due to age or the tanking situation he was in. Putting him in a position to succeed, whether on the power play or in the top-six could help him regain that spark. 

Perhaps there was a little puck luck involved last season, too, as he finished the year at minus-3.3 goals above expected, per MoneyPuck, and his 10.1 shooting percentage was by far his lowest in seven seasons (2015-16). 

"JVR has had a lot of success at the net front. He can slide on either power play unit or compliment those groups. ... He’s really tough to defend down in front of the net," Don Sweeney said on July 1 upon signing him to a one-year, $1 million deal. "Players can go through those spurts, but it will be incumbent upon him to make sure that he gets back into those areas and bares down and scores how he normally would, but again, everyone goes through a little bit of it and you have to work through it.” 

The former No. 2 overall pick in 2007, JVR is also currently penciled in to slot alongside Pavel Zacha and David Pastrnak. While the prospect of playing on the opposite flank of a 60-goal scorer is exciting, van Riemsdyk just wants to keep things simple as he ramps up ahead with training camp in the not-so-distant future. 

"Just excited to try to find a place to fit in and do what I do and kind of complement the group," he said. "As far as just like on the ice, it's that fine line of trying to fit in and also being able to stick to some of my strengths, playing around the net, playing below the goal line and things like that I'm going to try to bring to the team. Just excited to try to find some chemistry with some of the guys."