Luke Schenn to Flyers from Maple Leafs for James Van Riemsdyk: Which Team Won?

There must be something to having brothers playing on the same team together.

Less than 24 hours after the Pittsburgh Penguins traded Jordan Staal so that he could play with his big brother Eric Staal for the Carolina Hurricanes, the Toronto Maple Leafs sent defenseman Luke Schenn so that he could play with his younger brother Brayden Schenn in Philadelphia.

In return, the Flyers sent promising but often-injured James van Riemsdyk to Toronto.

On the surface, the move appears to give the Flyers a bit more immediate grit while the Maple Leafs get a player with excellent skills and the ability to put the puck in the net.

The Flyers have plenty of highly skilled players—like Claude Giroux, Scott Hartnell, Wayne Simmonds and Daniel Briere—who can put the puck in the net right now, so perhaps they can afford to be without a player like Van Riemsdyk, who played in only 43 games as a result of injuries in 2011-12.

Van Riemsdyk scored 11 goals and 13 assists in his limited action and was never able to show signs of becoming the promising player he had been in his first two years with the Flyers.

He scored 15 goals and 20 assists as a rookie in 2009-10, and he followed that season with 21 goals and 19 assists. In his first two seasons, Van Riemsdyk showed the ability to score clutch goals, with 10 game winners in those two seasons.

Last year, only one of his goals was a game winner.

Schenn is a big, strong, hard-hitting defenseman at 6'2" and 229 pounds. He is not afraid to assert himself.

He wants to line up opposing forwards and pound them, but he was not known for his consistency with the Leafs. Playing on a team that failed to contend for a playoff spot and then collapsed last year when it had a chance to go to the playoffs may have diminished his overall play.

Schenn is clearly a defensive defenseman, with only 14 goals in four NHL seasons. He has had only one season in which he finished with a positive plus-minus rating (plus-2 in 2009-10), and the Flyers need him to be just a little more responsible when it comes to clearing the puck out of the defensive zone.   

Both Schenn and Van Riemsdyk are former No. 1 draft picks.

Schenn was the No. 5 overall pick in the 2008 draft. He has proven to be quite durable, missing just six games in the last three seasons.

Van Riemsdyk was selected with the No. 2 pick in the 2007 draft. He has scored 99 points in three seasons, and it’s fair to say that the Flyers expected more from him.

However, the Flyers wanted to strengthen their defense because it appears unlikely that team captain Chris Pronger will be back for the 2012-13 season. Pronger missed the majority of last season with concussion-related issues, and he has yet to get rid of many of his symptoms.

Schenn is not going to be able to make up for Pronger’s absence by himself, but if he can become a bit more consistent while playing with a snarl, it will make it much harder for opponents to skate with freedom in the Flyers' defensive zone.

Over the long haul, the Maple Leafs appear to have gotten the better of the deal. They have acquired a highly skilled player who has shown that he can put the puck in the net when healthy. As long as Van Riemsdyk can stay in the lineup, the Maple Leafs will look for him to establish himself in the offensive zone.

He should be a 25-plus goal scorer.

Schenn will provide energy and effort, but it’s doubtful that he can provide the long-term impact of a highly skilled offensive player.