The Flyers lost to the Hurricanes on Tuesday night. A really spirited and competitive game, but a loss nonetheless, 6 to 4. They’re now atop the NHL draft lottery table as of November 6th, 2024:

I don’t hate this. The Flyers, as you know, have conditional first round picks from the Avalanche and Oilers coming down the pike. The Avs pick comes from the Sean Walker trade and the Edmonton pick comes from this past draft, the trade out of the first round. The best the Flyers can do this summer is pretty much what you see in the Tankathon chart above, because the Colorado pick is top-10 protected and the Edmonton pick is top-12 protected. Those teams likely will not crater, but if they do, then the picks convey in 2026.

Ask yourself this – are the Flyers going anywhere? Probably not. They weren’t a Stanley Cup contender to begin with, they’re off to a slower start than most of us thought, and the goaltending situation is not good. So is it better to finish as a mid-standings purgatory team, or a team in position to draft someone like James Hagens? The latter  is the correct answer, always. You know it, I know it, and Danny Briere knows it. If Chuck Fletcher was still in charge, he’d be concocting the NHL equivalent of the Cowboys trading for Jonathan Mingo. But he’s not, and Danny B is gonna take his time and get this right.

Sure, we’re only 13 games in, but it might be time to find this year’s tanking hashtag. Instead of #TankHardForBedard we are #HopelessForHagens. We’re not going #WinlessForWiggins, we will #LoseGamesForJames. It might be time to bring out the brown paper bags again, but with a pragmatic eye toward the future. This is the way.