Rising Flyers star Voracek impressed by new coach
For a measure of how far Jake Voracek has come over his career with the Flyers, consider how far his new coach was willing to go just to share a meal with him.
For a measure of how far Jake Voracek has come over his career with the Flyers, consider how far his new coach was willing to go just to share a meal with him.
In June, Dave Hakstol flew 4,000 miles for a two-hour dinner of what Voracek called "Czech food and Czech beer," for a chance to speak face-to-face with him, for the sake of a show of respect. If the whirlwind trip to the Czech Republic had the scent of a coach with no NHL experience trying to curry favor, Voracek was quick to make something clear: Hakstol didn't have to hop on that plane. His career at North Dakota and the success he had as a college coach were enough to earn Voracek's approbation.
"He knows so much about hockey," Voracek said in a recent interview. "It's great that we got to talk, but the respect from me to him doesn't change. The respect is there. I'm sure he's going to learn, as we're going to learn. He's a very experienced coach, and I'm sure we're going to have a great journey."
That hope - for the sort of team success that would match his individual rise into maybe the NHL's best right winger - was the primary reason, Voracek said, that he re-signed with the Flyers this summer for eight years and $66 million: "This team has the potential of being a Stanley Cup champion within the next nine years, and hopefully I'll be here for that."
The contract promises to keep Voracek here long enough for him to remain a cornerstone of general manager Ron Hextall's plan to rebuild the Flyers, and despite its length and expense, the deal revealed just how Hextall is departing from the franchise's previous tendency to take foolish risks on players with uncertain futures.
This wasn't a 15-year extension for Mike Richards before he'd scored even 15 goals in a single season, before there was any assurance that he'd grow into the mature leader the Flyers assumed he would - the leader he never became. This wasn't five years and $22.5 million for Vinny Lecavalier, an outsized offer for a player who no longer was elite. Voracek had 81 points in 82 games last season and has surpassed Claude Giroux as the organization's most exciting and, perhaps, as its best player, and he is just 26. When the Flyers open training camp on Friday, Voracek will mark the beginning of his fifth season with them but his first as a bona fide NHL superstar. His play says so. His contract does, too. Has he picked up on how people around the league regard him now?
"It's a tough answer for me," he said. "I cannot answer it directly. You've got to ask the people around me: my teammates, my coaches, maybe the players I'm playing against. Like I said, that contract, I don't think it was only about the season I had last year. When I look at the last four seasons since I got here, every year I've taken a step forward. . . . Every year, I feel better and better on the ice."
Voracek will turn 35 just as his contract expires. In another era of hockey, there would be cause for concern that he would be beyond his prime by the time the Flyers' prospects and young players developed enough (assuming Hextall's plan works) for the team to contend again. At his best, when the puck is on his stick, he resembles a vizsla with a Frisbee between his teeth, free to go anywhere he wants on the ice, the five opposing players unable to keep up with him or take the puck from him.
That style of play, one would think, would be less effective as Voracek ages and his skating slows. But these days, NHL head coaches implement such rigid systems of play that instinct and savvy - qualities generally found more frequently in older players - can sometimes make up for a decline in sheer speed and strength. The best example of this evolution might be Voracek's friend and mentor, Jaromir Jagr, still a force in the league at age 43.
"That experience is priceless," Voracek said, "because you know how to pick your spots. You know where to stand. You know where the puck's going to bounce, what a defender might do, where is he going to go to get the puck. It's a big one, and if you can combine it with your skills and physicality, you can do it for a long period of time."
His team is counting on it. His new coach, in particular. Four thousand miles is a long way to go, even for beer, and Jake Voracek has a responsibility, one that he seems to understand and accept, to make sure he was worth it.
@MikeSielski