About Last Season: Trevor van Riemsdyk Performance Review and Grade

Trevor van Riemsdyk: 2017-18 By The Numbers

• Age: 26
• NHL Seasons: 4
• Scoring: 3g - 13a - 16 points
• Ice Time: 17:03 all situations, 15:32 at ES, 0:12 on PP, 1:19 on PK per game.
• 5-on-5 stats: 55.3% CF, 54.5% GF
• Contract Status: RFA, Completed Two-year $1.65 Million deal

Making the Grade

After Trevor van Riemsdyk was acquired by the Vegas Golden Knights in the Expansion draft last June, he was immediately ushered out of town the next day as the Carolina Hurricanes wooed the Golden Knights with the prospect of jumping back into the second round of last years draft. In his first season in Carolina, van Riemsdyk provided a bit more stable production for the third-pairing, but ultimately did not move the needle in the way former General Manager Ron Francis had intended.

Playing mostly with Noah Hanifin and occasionally with rookie Haydn Fleury, van Riemsdyk began the season as one of the more stabilizing figures on the Canes blueline. By season’s end, his return to the Carolina lineup next season rests on two things: 1) How much will he require as an RFA? 2) Can they get anyone better to replace him? The answer to the latter question is probably “no”, but expect the new GM to explore their options.

On the ice in 2017-18, van Riemsdyk provided the type of steady influence that good teams have on their bottom pairing. Solid possession numbers and +/- were likely aided a bit by the fact that he and his partners had an offensive zone start percentage of 61%. Nevertheless, he was more often than not a trustworthy player and was arguably the third best blueliner (behind Jaccob Slavin and, marginally, Brett Pesce) for the Canes over the course of the entire season. While his ceiling as a player may be lower than that of Noah Hanifin and Justin Faulk, your value to a team is not always tied to the possibilities that may lay ahead for your career, but rather on the potential certainty that you may be able to provide.

Offensively, van Riemsdyk saw little time on the power play, and his game would be best described as a “puck-moving defenseman.” His 16 points tied his career high, and while he is likely to develop into a more confident player on that end of the ice, he probably has a ceiling of about 25 points with his game if he continues to not be the beneficiary of time on the power play. Not a player who will hurt you on that end, but certainly not a primary offensive contributor.

All of that said, if Carolina is looking to develop a winning product, van Riemsdyk is the type of solid player that can provide the depth and substance that can serve as a good baseline for which to add more dynamic and game-changing players around. And based on his career in Chicago before arriving in Raleigh, the better the talent is around him, the more his underappreciated skills can contribute.

Expect van Riemsdyk to return next season at a reasonable salary for a pre-UFA player, and expect his defensive responsibility in zone starts to revert back to his almost 50/50 split of his final two seasons in Chicago once he is paired with a more reliable, consistent partner, even if that partner remains the growing Hanifin.

Exit Interview