The Philadelphia Flyers are locked and loaded for the 2025 draft. Unfortunately, their lottery luck has dampened the spirits a bit, but that’s not an excuse for the organization to take the draft any less seriously. They need to make some home run selections, so let’s go through the biggest needs within the Flyers’ pipeline to see how they should approach this draft.
Number 5: Future Draft Capital
The Flyers have 11 pick in 2025 which is great and all, but the experts don’t seem to think too highly of this class, and the Flyers are lacking in future assets, particularly in 2026 (especially if they end up going the offer sheet route). We saw last season when they dealt the Panthers’ first rounder to Edmonton for their pick in this year’s first round, so they are clearly willing to bet on future picks, and this may be the draft to forgo a few picks to diversify some selections into future drafts.
Number 4: Left-Handed Defenseman
Particularly with the fate of Cam York still in limbo, the Flyers really lack quality options on the left side of their defense. Emil Andrae is their best prospect in the immediate, with Hunter McDonald and Ty Murchison as the two main AHL-level prospects. It’s not a super critical need because they do have an abundance of lefties on the main roster at the moment, but adding some depth to the pipeline now should give them some options in the future when main roster contracts start to expire.
Number 2: Right-handed Defenseman
Oliver Bonk, whom the organization is surely going to put plenty eggs in the basket of, is making the jump to the professional level in 2025-26, and Spencer Gill was their second round pick in 2024, but beyond that, there’s not much real depth in the organization on the right side of the defense. Obviously, they’re hoping Jamie Drysdale can step up on the main roster, and Ethan Samson has come along well in the AHL, but in terms of sheer top four NHL potential, they may not have a single guy at the ready, even factoring in Bonk.
Number 3: Goaltender
Whether or not Aleksei Kolosov comes back to North America in 2025-26 is still TBD, but even if he does, there doesn’t appear to be much of a reason to be excited about his stock as a prospect. That leaves Carson Bjarnasson, who will likely start next season in the AHL, and Yegor Zavreagin, the 19-year-old who’s playing well in Russia but with no immediate date to come to the States as their only two guys in the system. The Flyers did not select a goalie in 2024. Some mock drafts have Joshua Ravensbergen going in the late-teens or early-twenties and the Flyers have two picks in the mid-to-late 20s. Maybe he falls to them, maybe they move up and take him. Either way, they should really consider addressing the position with some kind of legitimacy given the disaster that continues to unfold at the NHL level.
Number 1: Center
The Flyers got shafted in the draft lottery falling from pick four to pick six. While there’s likely still one of the consensus top centers available, they won’t get their pick of the litter. And outside of whoever that pick is and last year’s first round pick Jett Luchanko, there’s still virtually no center depth in the entire organization. The Flyers drafted Jack Berglund and Heikki Ruohonen in the second and fourth round respectively last season, but both have unknown ETAs. Denver Barkey has experience playing down the middle but his size will probably work against him holding down the fort at the professional level. They’re at a critical level of need for a top six center to actually pan out and between their own unlucky lottery and just a weak class in general, they’re going to need to get creative when attempting to plug the hole this summer.
By: Dan Esche (@DanTheFlyeraFan)
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