Kieffer Bellows wasn’t even supposed to be here. The 24-year-old winger was cast off Long Island through the tumultuous seas of the waiver wire and was eventually brought into this Philadelphia Flyers team to just see if he can become what he was promised to be six years ago.
When the Edina, Minn. native was drafted with the 19th overall pick by the New York Islanders in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft, the thought was that he was supposed to be this shoot-first-ask-questions-later type of winger that has a sturdy enough base to ride through professional hockey and establish himself as a consistent contributor. He went through the U.S. National Program, and then off to a Boston University team that featured Charlie McAvoy, Clayton Keller, and other future NHL top-line players. After failing to make his mark in college hockey – with just 14 points in 34 games – Bellows quickly shifted gears and decided to finish out his pre-professional career with the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks and give up on the tougher challenge of collegiate play.
Since then, it’s been mediocre play in the AHL and more and more players getting above him on the Islanders’ depth chart. So, naturally, they sent him out on waivers and the once-highly touted prospect was scooped up by the desperate Flyers.
This team was badly needing anyone to be able to play somewhat at the NHL level when Bellows was claimed in late October. It was too early to call up the prospects and some dudes were injured. So why not just try some stuff out with a guy that was supposed to be somewhat good?
Well, that has led us to where we are today and put plainly: We sometimes forget this guy played for the Flyers this season.
That is totally fair since a good portion of his time in Philadelphia was spent sitting up in the press box and not actually on the ice. His best moment this season was probably scoring from long range against the Pittsburgh Penguins, hilariously.
Kieffer Bellows update: Goal. pic.twitter.com/TiQ4hVzCGo
— Rob Taub (@RTaub_) March 11, 2023
Other than that, it was 27 games of a whole lot of nothing.
That single goal against the Penguins counted for 33.3333 percent of his total goals this season, averaging one single goal (and point) every nine games. Impressively, he did live up to the expectation that he would be a shooter and managed to average more than one shot on goal per game he was in while averaging under 10 minutes a game.
The unfortunate thing is that he would just shoot from anywhere in the offensive zone, seemingly without a plan to really make it count.
Look at that pile of just wild shooting. Honestly, you would think that these shot locations and finishing rate would be from a right-handed defenseman and not some winger.
Because of this wild shooting and the players he played with not really able to keep possession of the puck, his underlying numbers at 5-on-5 were awful.
The Flyers as a whole were bad at getting more shot attempts than their opponent, but Bellows had the worst Corsi-For percentage among all Flyers to play at least 10 games for the team this season. That is quite an accomplishment and his inability to shoot with purpose and precision and not be agile enough to make up for this, costed him.
That little quirk could also be why his PDO (on-ice shooting percentage and on-ice save percentage added together) is so low because he wasn’t taking those high-danger and clear-cut attempts.
Of course, that would result in poor 5-on-5 production.
I feel like I’m just beating a dead horse, but it is just the player that Bellows is. Again, great job at getting your shot attempts off – Bellows finished fourth among all Flyers skaters in shot attempts per 60 minutes – but it was such low quality that the individual expected goals rate was 13th on the team.
For God’s sake, Nic Deslauriers had a higher expected goals per 60 minutes than Bellows. And I think that makes a strong enough point as a summary of his season.
The Flyers tried to reclaim some of what caused Bellows to be drafted in the top-20 seven years ago, but he just continued to be what he has shown in his professional career.
Three Questions
Did they live up to expectations?
Were there are any expectations? Even when Bellows was claimed by the Flyers in October, he was seen as Just A Guy that should provide a little bit of a bumper between the existing NHL roster and the prospects that needed more development.
Some expected him to break out with more opportunity but he has shown even in limited minutes, he isn’t worth the effort.
What can we expect from next season?
Bellows is going to be a restricted free agent this summer but the Flyers don’t have to keep him around. Philadelphia can simply not qualify him and he will become an unrestricted free agent. I would be very surprised if they qualified the player, especially given that it is set at $1.2 million.
One thing that I could see happening is not qualifying him, or agreeing to a contract before July 1 and it is just for AHL depth. He has 10 points in 12 games for Lehigh Valley this season, so there is something to at least boost some numbers down there and be the desperate option in case of a slew of injuries (which we can probably predict will happen).
So what do we expect? Either a dude destined to be a power play specialist in the AHL or with another organization.
How do we grade their 2022-23 season?
I mean, at the majority of what makes the game of hockey, Bellows failed. He had poor underlying and play-driving numbers to match with some poor finishing and producing. You can have only one of those and still be considered a good player, but unfortunately this dude did not. At least he tried and showed us something in the minors?
Grade: D
