It’s that time of year where everyone is talking about the NHL draft. We’re just over a week away from the event and there’s a million mock drafts out there as anticipation grows for the big day. Some of the lists are by qualified prospect gurus, and most by random folks who never actually watched any of the kids play. And as the days until the draft melt away, the degrees of variation continues to grow out of control.
The Flyers finished with the fourth pick at the conclusion of the regular season, but got shafted in the draft lottery, falling back to the sixth overall pick.
Picking sixth in what is considered a six player draft sucks, since it takes their ability to select the high-profile player of their choosing off the table, and the parity between most of the other consensus prospects is where all these wild mock drafts are coming from. That mix really opens the possibility for the Flyers to go off the board, added to the fact that they have a recent history of going cowboy with their first round selections.
In a perfect world they take whichever one of Matthew Schaefer, Michael Misa, Porter Martone, Caleb Desnoyers, James Hagens, or Anton Frondell falls into their lap at six and move on.
But there have been many rumors connecting the Flyers to various other players as well, including Jake O’Brien, Brady Martin, Roger McQueen, Kashawn Aitcheson, among others.
While most of the other options are all projected to be first half of the first round prospects, overlooking one of the consensus top six picks in favor of a “diamond in the rough” strategy is still a big risk, especially for a team that can’t really afford to screw this pick up.
The question becomes do they keep pick six and select whoever they want regardless where that player is projected or who’s still on the board? Or do they consider trading back if they have their hearts set on someone projected to go a little later in the first round?
They could trade back a few spots if they want someone random. They did it last season, swapping places with the Minnesota Wild and took Jett Luchanko at 13, who was projected to go later in the first round. They made that trade for a third round pick, one that was almost immediately flipped to move up and pick Spencer Gill in the second round.
Given the sixth overall pick is more valuable, if they fall back to, say, pick 9 or 10 (currently held by Buffalo and Anaheim respectively) which is right around where Roger McQueen, Brady Martin and a little earlier than Kashawn Aitcheson are projected to go, they better not only get a king’s ransom for the pick, but they, in turn, have to nail the selection as well.
Trading back from six to ten and only getting a mid-round pick as compensation, then selecting Roger McQueen while Porter Martone is still on the board has the potential to be one of the dumbest decisions the Flyers have ever made, and think of the ground that covers.
Or they could just stay at six and take whichever riser in the draft they want and deal with the consequences down the road. That’s probably the more likely outcome, but not necessarily the smarter one. At least they’d go down on their own ship and not create a bunch of fireworks first.
They Flyers do have two other first rounders as well, the 22nd overall originally belonging to Colorado and either the 31st or 32nd overall pick belonging to Edmonton. They, by themselves, in this weaker class probably aren’t going to produce much talent, but combining them to move into a mid-round selection is possible, and probably smarter than throwing away pick six.
Trading 22 and 31 for Columbus’ 14 and taking Kashawn Aitcheson after selecting Porter Martone at 6 would be a really good draft.
Selecting Brady Martin at six and two randos at 22 and 31 and hyping that they made three selections and they all end up being underwhelming is a level of disaster we’ve come to know and loathe from the Flyers.
Or better yet, trade 6 to Columbus for 14 and 20 then package 14, 20, 22 and 31 to Utah for their 4th overall pick and walk away with one of Frondell, Desnoyers or Hagens, one of the top centers they need in this draft. They’ve got four second rounders to move back into the mid-to-late first round if they so choose too. At least that would not only be creative, but it would give them a chance to take a real top prospect, but it’s far too big a spectacle for the Flyers to dream up themselves.
The organization really need to knock this draft pick out of the park and make the best use of the disaster that was the 2024-25 season. Hopefully they just take one of the consensus picks that’s available at six, then if they want to do anything else, are active in the trade scene with their two later picks. Or hell, just make the smart choices at 6, 22 and 31 ate bare minimum. But given the uncertainty of the draft order and the last decade of drafts as proof, the Flyers feel primed to do something stupid, because the obvious path is one the Flyers rarely choose to take.
By: Dan Esche (@DanTheFlyeraFan)
brotherlypuck.com 