Joel Farabee has 16 points in 17 games for the Flames, and the trade that moved him out of Philadelphia looks worse for the Flyers every time he shows up on a scoresheet.
Sunday night put it in front of the Flyers directly. Calgary beat Philadelphia 4-3 in overtime, against the team that drafted Farabee 14th overall in 2018.
The numbers he's carrying are the kind a struggling team can't ignore. He has 6 goals and 10 assists this season, and 9 of those points have come on the power play: 2 goals and 7 assists with the man advantage.
| GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | |
| 2026-27 | 17 | 6 | 10 | 16 | -3 |
| Career | 514 | 119 | 142 | 261 | -48 |
He has also scored a game-winning goal already, so this isn't empty production on a team that's trailing every night.
Philadelphia, meanwhile, was 4-10-5 before Sunday's loss and had dropped three straight. Rick Tocchet's group has scored 42 goals and allowed 65 over 19 games, a minus-23 goal differential that says the problem is bigger than one winger.
Calgary wasn't a juggernaut either. The Flames were 8-9-1 before the Philadelphia game, with a 2-5-1 mark on the road, so Farabee isn't hiding a great team's flaws. He's lifting a middling one.
Did the Flyers lose this trade?
Right now, yes. A team sitting at the bottom of the Metropolitan Division doesn't get to shrug at a 26-year-old left winger producing at a point-per-game pace elsewhere, whatever came back in the deal.
The Flyers needed offense, and Farabee is giving it to someone else. That's a hard sell for Daniel Briere if the return isn't producing at a comparable rate.
To be fair, Farabee's career totals are modest: 261 points in 514 games, with a minus-48 rating. This season is well ahead of that pace, and the Flyers will have to decide how much of it they believe is repeatable.
His $5 million cap hit runs through 2027-28, when he can become an unrestricted free agent. That gives Calgary plenty of time to find out whether this is a real step forward or a hot month.
Philadelphia plays at Vancouver on Monday, still looking for a way out of the three-game skid. Calgary hosts the Rangers on Wednesday, with Farabee in the lineup and the points still coming.
Quick hits
WINNIPEG JETS: The Devils just announced that Connor Hellebuyck will not play Tuesday in Winnipeg, even though he wanted to face his old team. That's a story the Jets crowd will notice.
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ANAHEIM DUCKS: Greg Beacham reports the Ducks are the first team to score at least 5 goals in 8 straight games since the 1988-89 Los Angeles Kings. That's a 38-year wait.
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PITTSBURGH PENGUINS: Cutter Gauthier scored another hat trick Sunday night as the Ducks beat the Penguins 5-2 in Anaheim. Pittsburgh had no answer for him.
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VANCOUVER CANUCKS: Grady Sas called out Rogers for asking Canucks fans to pay extra while the team piles up losses. Fans will have opinions on that timing.
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VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS: Ryan Craig says the team's level keeps climbing after a 4-1 win in Buffalo closed out a 3-0-1 road trip. A strong way to come home.
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