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Flyers Wind Up with the 6th Pick in NHL Draft
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The Flyers went into the NHL Draft lottery with the fourth-best odds at the top pick and instead dropped two spots, down to 6th:
The Islanders jumped nine spots to #1 and Utah went up ten spots to #4. That’s why they call it the lottery, but still. Felt totally underwhelming and felt riggish. Rigged-ish? Whatever. It’s just goofy when teams 10 or lower make these big jumps to end up with high draft picks. Utah had 89 points this year and won 38 games. The Islanders had 82 points and finished with 35 wins.
Unfortunately this feels like business as usual for the Flyers, who picked 13th, 7th, and 5th with their last three highest draft picks. Since 2007, the only top-four draft selections they’ve had are Nolan Patrick and James van Riemsdyk, neither of whom turned out to be the players we had hoped for. Landing inside the top three would have really generated some offseason juice among hardcore and casual fans alike.
Picking 6th means they’re going to miss out on Matthew Schaefer and Michael Misa. Probably James Hagens and Porter Martone as well, depending on how the board plays out. They’ll likely get a crack at Anton Frondell and Caleb Desnoyers, though depending on who you ask, the talent drop off begins after pick four or five. Regardless, whatever you think about the overall strength of the draft class, there are a number of centers in the top 8 prospect rankings. The Flyers need centers like a fish needs water. But they need pretty much everything, so there’s that.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com