This is the 2024-25 edition — an archived read. Read the 2025-26 report →
James van Riemsdyk
Columbus Blue Jackets Left Wing
One thousand and eleven games, ninety-three career power-play goals, and sixty-five per cent of his shots from inside twenty feet.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009-10 | PHI | 78 | 15 | 20 | 35 | -1 | 30 | 4 | 0 | 6 | 173 | 8.7 | 12:58 |
| 2010-11 | PHI | 75 | 21 | 19 | 40 | +15 | 35 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 173 | 12.1 | 14:32 |
| 2011-12 | PHI | 43 | 11 | 13 | 24 | -1 | 24 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 121 | 9.1 | 15:10 |
| 2012-13 | TOR | 48 | 18 | 14 | 32 | -7 | 26 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 140 | 12.9 | 19:12 |
| 2013-14 | TOR | 80 | 30 | 31 | 61 | -9 | 50 | 9 | 2 | 3 | 279 | 10.8 | 21:03 |
| 2014-15 | TOR | 82 | 27 | 29 | 56 | -33 | 43 | 9 | 1 | 4 | 248 | 10.9 | 19:05 |
| 2015-16 | TOR | 40 | 14 | 15 | 29 | +3 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 129 | 10.8 | 17:46 |
| 2016-17 | TOR | 82 | 29 | 33 | 62 | -2 | 37 | 6 | 0 | 5 | 238 | 12.2 | 15:53 |
| 2017-18 | TOR | 81 | 36 | 18 | 54 | +1 | 30 | 11 | 0 | 5 | 248 | 14.5 | 14:54 |
| 2018-19 | PHI | 66 | 27 | 21 | 48 | -10 | 18 | 8 | 0 | 4 | 167 | 16.2 | 16:36 |
| 2019-20 | PHI | 66 | 19 | 21 | 40 | +5 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 151 | 12.6 | 14:54 |
| 2020-21 | PHI | 56 | 17 | 26 | 43 | +2 | 14 | 10 | 0 | 1 | 132 | 12.9 | 16:33 |
| 2021-22 | PHI | 82 | 24 | 14 | 38 | -33 | 25 | 9 | 0 | 4 | 186 | 12.9 | 16:07 |
| 2022-23 | PHI | 61 | 12 | 17 | 29 | -3 | 28 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 119 | 10.1 | 15:21 |
| 2023-24 | BOS | 71 | 11 | 27 | 38 | +7 | 20 | 6 | 0 | 3 | 142 | 7.8 | 13:30 |
| 2024-25 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 1011 | 311 | 318 | 629 | -66 | 394 | 93 | 3 | 46 | 2646 | 11.8 | 16:11 |
This Season So Far
The 2024-25 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.
Last Season
11 goals and 27 assists in 71 games for Boston — 38 points at 13:30 a night, plus-7, with 6 power-play goals and 3 game-winners on 142 shots at 7.75 per cent, and 20 penalty minutes.
53.6 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 784 minutes, the 80th percentile — the best mark of any player on this roster. His ice went 41-26 against an expectation of 36.42-31.53 — six goals scored above expectation and five fewer conceded.
The Finesse Game
142 attempts at a median of 12 feet, with 65 per cent from inside 20 and 13 per cent from beyond 40 — the most net-front shot profile on any roster in this chapter — converting at 7.75 per cent against a career 11.75.
He stands in front of the goaltender and he tips pucks, and he has made a fifteen-year career out of it. 311 goals and 93 of them on the power play in 1,011 games.
27 assists. The hands below the goal line are better than the reputation and 318 career assists say so.
The Physical Game
6-3 and 210. He goes to the front of the net and he takes the cross-check without moving, which is the whole physical dimension — he does not forecheck with force and he does not hit anybody.
20 penalty minutes in 71 games and 394 in 1,011 for his career is a low rate. He does not retaliate and he is not an agitator.
The skating is the weakness and it has been for years.
The Intangibles
Second overall in 2007 by Philadelphia, out of New Hampshire, and 1,011 games and 629 points at 35 across four clubs.
He signed here in the summer. A club that was 20th on the power play has added a man with 93 career power-play goals who does nothing but stand in the paint, and next to Dmitri Voronkov that is two of them. It is the clearest single idea in this club’s off-season.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2023-24 · 784 minutes
- Expected goals
- 53.6%
- 80th pct
- Shot attempts
- 49.1%
- 46th pct
share of the chances while he was out there
share of the attempts while he was out there
Goals while he was on the ice: 41 for, 26 against. Expected: 36.4 and 31.5.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe two rank him within 8 points of one another. It was written for a back edition, with the seasons that followed already known. Neither the agreement nor the gap says anything about the eye, and this report is excluded from the club-level comparison for the same reason.
Both bars are percentiles among the 201 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 69 on their own scale — against every other report's mean. The numbers bar ranks his share of expected goals. A gap is a disagreement about where he belongs, not two scales talking past each other.
Usual linemates
2023-24 with BOS · 784 minutes at five-on-five
- Pavel Zacha21%
Share of his five-on-five ice time spent alongside each player, measured from shift charts. Special teams are excluded: a power-play unit is not a line.
Why the numbers land there
Five-on-five, 2023-24
- The club
- BOS took 49.7% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 53.6% — 3.9 above the club he did it on.
- The role
- Third line, 784 minutes at five-on-five — 37th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trent Frederic | 57.5% | 49.9% | 46.4% |
| Morgan Geekie | 57.2% | 51.7% | 46.9% |
| Charlie McAvoy | 53.5% | 53.6% | 51.7% |
57.5% together, 49.9% for him apart and 46.4% for Frederic apart. Both were worse apart, so whatever the two of them had together was doing real work.
Expected-goal share while both were on the ice, and for each man in the minutes he played without the other. Apart is the pair subtracted from his own totals. It does not settle who was carrying whom — apart from each other, both were still playing with somebody — but it does say whether the share travelled when the pairing broke up.
Where he shoots from
goal on goal missed
187 unblocked shots in 2023-24, 11 of them goals. His median goal came from 8 feet. 65% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 13% from beyond forty.