Wayne Gretzky set up shop at the back of the net. Brett Hull would repeatedly fire lasers from the face-off dot to the goaltender’s right.
Opponents knew where these game-breakers preferred to operate, but locating weapons of destruction and disarming them are two very different tasks.
James van Riemsdyk, too, has begun to furnish a corner office on the ice: in tight, next to the blue paint, his big power-forward butt all up in the opposing goalie’s grill.
Sure, the Toronto Maple Leafs’ top-line left shot is deadly off the rush and can throw his 200 pounds around in the cycle, but JVR’s 2013-14 should be known for two things: the season he hit 30 goals for the first (but not last) time in his NHL career, and the year he established a trademark move.
You know the one; you see it coming. So does the opposition, and yet it consistently generates scoring chances.
When the Leafs operate the league’s fifth-best power play, JVR parks himself to the side of the cage. He gets the puck in close, he pivots, threads the disc between his legs and flicks it high towards the net. It’s a gorgeous move that is equal parts soft hands, wide haunches and fleet feet, and if it doesn’t result in an immediate score for himself (JVR has nine power-play markers), it stirs up a frenzied opportunity for his team.
“I’ve always had that one in my arsenal; I’ve just been waiting to unveil it. It’s one of those things I’m comfortable doing, and it causes a lot of chaos as that front guy if you can get the puck to the net. There’s a scramble, a loose puck, and there’s guys open that you can find,” van Riemsdyk says. “Some of those I’m in so tight, it’s tough to score on. So you try to get it in there and maybe it kicks to someone or you get the rebound back and you’re able to find someone else.”
Van Riemsdyk actually started working on the patented low-post move during his second year in Ann Arbour, Mich., where he studied at Pioneer High School—a stretch pass across the street from the Big House, home of the 2014 Winter Classic—while honing his skills in the U.S. national development program. The first time he tried it in a game, it worked. He smiles wide and lets out a brief, devilish laugh in recollection.
“I remember doing that on a power play. To be honest, I hadn’t really been on a power play until I got here, consistently in that spot,” he says.
For van Riemsdyk to hit the 30-goal plateau for the first time in his career, as he did Thursday night by elevating yet another puck in tight in the Leafs’ emotional 4-3 OT victory over Boston, all he needed was ice time.
Despite his promise, the second-overall selection in 2007 draft never got a full look in Philadelphia. In three seasons as a Flyer, including a 21-goal performance in 2010-11, van Riemsdyk never averaged more than 15:10 per game and always ranked eighth or ninth in ice time among Philly forwards.
A point-per-game stud at the University of New Hampshire, van Riemsdyk’s career would benefit from a rebirth in the spring of 2012.
“It’s tough to score goals when you’re sitting on the bench. I wasn’t necessarily playing that much in Philly, and when I came here I was given an opportunity,” van Riemsdyk says. “My job is to go out and take advantage of that.”
Before former Leafs GM Brian Burke was given his walking papers, he arguably did his best work. In a span of mere hours in late June 2012, Burke drafted a real-deal talent in defenceman Morgan Reilly and, for an encore, shipped blue-liner Luke Schenn to Philly for van Riemsdyk.
Though no one knew it at the time, JVR would become Burkie’s parting gift to Leafs Nation.
“He will provide speed, size and finesse to our top two lines, and we know that he fits those needs that we have wanted to address for some time,” Burke said upon striking an increasingly rare talent-for-talent deal.
Although both players are just 24 years old and defencemen tend to peak later in their career, the early returns on the trade favour Toronto.
Van Riemsdyk is signed through 2017-18 at a $4.25 million cap hit. Of the six core players Toronto has committed to beyond 2015-16, only van Riemsdyk’s centre, Tyler Bozak, at $4.2 million, will be paid less. Forwards Joffrey Lupul and David Clarkson each make a million more per season than JVR, who’s six years younger.
The relationship is reciprocal: JVR is giving the Leafs great value; the Leafs have given JVR a hockey player’s most cherished commodity — ice.
Van Riemsdyk instantly saw his ice time jump more than four minutes per game in Toronto and, scoring at a rate of 0.375 goals per game, would’ve hit 30 had 2012-13 not been chopped by a lockout. He also scored seven points in the seven-game playoff series with the Bruins last spring.
“Ever since I’ve gotten here my levels of opportunity that I’ve gotten from the coaching staff has been way more than what it was in Philly,” he says. “It’s a combination of getting the opportunity and them showing faith in you by putting you out there. They’ve helped me a lot in my two years here.”
This year, the guy friends call “Reemer” leads all Leafs forwards with 20:56 of ice time per game, which includes shifts on both special teams. His goals-per-game rate is up again, to 0.395. The Middletown, N.J., native has never been so comfortable pulling the trigger; his 264 shots rank him sixth in the NHL.
Fast chemistry with two guys he doesn’t live with, Bozak and Kessel (of whom JVR asserts, “I know where he’s going to be”), has resulted in a trip to Sochi to represent Team USA and now just the second 30-goal season by Maple Leaf not named Kessel since the Mats Sundin era. (Nikolai Kulemin had 30 in 2010-11 and hasn’t come within sniffing distance since.)
“You try not to limit yourself with a number,” van Riemsdyk smiles, “but it’s a cool milestone.”
And a sign of more to come.