After covering hockey for a few years, one of my conclusions about player performance is pretty simple. It’s easier to find consistency when your game has a clear identity.

In a sense, that’s why Mikael Backlund made so much sense to be the captain of the Calgary Flames. For a hockey club going through a significant transition process, arguably the most extensive they’ve ever embarked upon, having someone like Backlund who exudes consistency is huge. One of the big reasons for Backlund’s consistency is, well, he knows what he is and what he’s good at. When the going gets tough, Backlund’s game has a clear identity to fall back on.

So when we say that Joel Farabee found a pretty clear identity to his game in 2025-26, we want to be really clear why that’s so important.

A first-round pick of the Philadelphia Flyers back in 2018, Farabee spent parts of six seasons playing in the Flyers’ pro system. He barely spent any time with their AHL club in Lehigh Valley, and he settled in as a pretty reliable middle-six winger. The challenge for Farabee in Philadelphia was that his game had some ups and downs. Eventually, Flyers management decided to part ways with Farabee, sending him to the Flames along with Morgan Frost in exchange for Andrei Kuzmenko, Jakob Pelletier and a couple draft picks.

At the time, if we’re being honest, it felt like the Flames had traded for Frost, and Farabee (and his $5 million cap hit) was included to make the cap math work for the Flyers. It was much clearer from the outside what the Flames were getting in Frost than in Farabee. That perception wasn’t helped by Farabee struggling a bit during the portion of the 2024-25 season he spent in Calgary. He posted just six points across 31 games and didn’t seem to have a clear role.

Whatever Farabee did during the 2025 off-season worked, because he came into training camp looking like a new man. He had a good camp. He formed a pretty effective offensive line with Nazem Kadri and Yegor Sharangovich, and a pretty effective checking line with Mikael Backlund and Blake Coleman. He wore a letter as an alternate captain by the end of the season. If we were going to make an observation about Farabee, it’s that he seemed to simplify his game in 2025-26 and played a very straight-line sort of game.

And it worked! He was really reliable at five-on-five and generated a ton of scoring chances – he probably could’ve challenged for 30 goals with better puck luck. He joined the penalty killing group and was really effective, scoring four goals – one off the league lead. By the end of the year, because of his consistency and the sheer simplicity of his game, he gained favourable comparisons to teammate Blake Coleman. (Flames head coach Ryan Huska referred to him as a “Mini Blake” at the end of the season.)

With Coleman now in Minnesota, what needs to happen for Farabee to become the new Coleman?

Honestly, the answer may be simple: do what he did last season. He played a really consistent, simple, structured game in 2025-26…. and it worked really well. Even on the NHL’s lowest-scoring team, and battling some rough puck luck, Farabee still scored 20 goals. With that experience under his belt, and the knowledge that he can be really effective playing that sort of role and style, perhaps Farabee has set a baseline of performance that he can build upon.

We’ll see if that’s the case when the 2026-27 campaign begins.

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