Flyers

JVR Shot Dead, Traded for Luke Schenn

By Kyle Scott

Published: Jun 23rd, 2012 · 6:39 PM EDT

---

And yes, Luke Schenn does look like Liam Neeson

In case you’ve been under a rock for the last little while (like I was…), the Flyers have traded James van Riemsdyk to Toronto for Luke Schenn. 

Schenn is, obviously, the brother of Brayden. He is a 6-2, 220 lb defenseman, which is exactly what the Flyers need. But, despite JVR playing sans balls at times, the straight-up trade is a bit surprising. Schenn didn't have a great season either, and you can argue that JVR is the better player. Just a year ago (literally, one year ago today), he, along with Claude Giroux, was being cited as the main reason why the Flyers were comfortable parting ways with Mike Richards and Jeff Carter. Now, he too is gone.

The positives are that Schenn’s cap hit ($3.6 million) is less than JVR’s ($4.25 million) and his contract has four years remaining, as opposed to JVR's six, which is a long time for a player that, thus far, has underperformed.

Wherever you stand on this trade (or the Richards one… or the Carter one), you had to admit that the trend of the Flyers locking up players to long-term deals (which, ostensibly, makes them harder to move) and then trading them soon after – less than a year for both Carter and JVR – is concerning. What exactly does it say about a team’s talent evaluation if they keep throwing millions at young players only to get rid of them before the ink on their contract has time to dry? Or, are the Flyers just really overreactive?