Flyers

Wouldn’t It Be Nice if the Flyers Crushed the Draft For Once?

By Matt Schultz

Published: Jun 29th, 2026 · 1:06 PM EDT

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The Flyers had six picks in the NHL Draft over the weekend. Here’s who they ended up taking:

The newest members of the Orange & Black! #NHLDraft | @Xfinity pic.twitter.com/T7xLFFYMOW

— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) June 27, 2026

And grades for the Flyers’ picks have ranged from mediocre to awful:

Tony’s declaring this draft the worst Flyers draft in the history of the organization. There’s a decent chance none of these selected picks will turn out to be full time NHLers. Horrible.

Fire Briere.

Fire Flahr.

Send Bobby Clarke to outer space.

— Tony Escargot (@tonyescargot) June 27, 2026

The Flyers had six picks this year, of which only one was a forward (Sauer is an energy line type). Two were goalies. One is a projected shutdown D.

The knee-jerk draft "grades" tend to be based mostly on point production. That's not going to be this year's crop for Philly.…

— Bill Meltzer (@billmeltzer) June 28, 2026

My immediate opinions on @NHLFlyers draft

Drafted for "need"
Not inspiring+felt lot of value left on table
No high end swings

Sokolovskii: Has tools but raw, #4 upside
Liske+Laatikainen: Solid/good value
Psohlavec: Fine
Sklenicka: Not a fan
Sauer: Don't see it #Flyers

— Alexander Appleyard (@avappleyard) June 27, 2026

this Flyers draft is the worst Philadelphia sports draft i can remember in recent memory

I do not think they drafted a single impact player

— maxeysznn (@maxeysznn) June 27, 2026

Because they are stuck in the past. They pass on more gifted offensive threats for big physical guys. When the first highlight of the 1st round pick is of him fighting – that says it all.

— Ed Mason (@EdMason13) June 29, 2026

Can’t wait until 2034 when we look back and have non of these players on the roster like most of the Hextall drafts

— Quarterback Factory (@Cancedog1) June 27, 2026

pic.twitter.com/IkmjbaVQuS

— Easy Macaroni (@Easy_Macaroni) June 27, 2026

How can you continue to keep Flahr when year after year he consistently trades down, passing on major upside talent and he’d rather take 5% chance his guy pans on rather than working the board and finding real talent. This guy is a disgrace. so is the front office for missing it

— Jeff Toth (@jtmoney899) June 27, 2026

Final grade on Flyers draft class ( B- ) This years class wasnt seen as a deep one and clearly PHI saw it that way. Their draft style was more big swings on long term potential rather then just pure talent available at the time. Time will tell if they hit big. #IgniteTheOrange

— Brandon J. Sommermann (@B_Sommermann) June 27, 2026

“not drafting pure talent” is a draft strategy that the Flyers have held to for decades… and it’s gotten us what exactly?

— K Mes (@kyrish7nd) June 27, 2026

Another shit draft can’t wait to do it again next year. Death, taxes, and the flyers being average. #LetsGoFlyers

— Joe Jiggilo (@JoeJiggilo) June 27, 2026

I’m not going to sit here and say the Flyers’ draft was a failure; it’s obviously too early to know, and hockey is particularly difficult to scout and draft for. The number of guys drafted each year who actually go on to become regulars in the NHL is shockingly low: In the modern Entry Draft era (1979–2018), approximately 46.15% players drafted play at least one NHL game, 28.66% play at least 82 games, 27.31% reach 100 games, and just 22.18% become established regulars with 200 or more career games played. That’s not a lot! Which means assessing talent isn’t a challenge for Philadelphia alone; it’s hard across the board. And, of course, it’s possible this draft class does pan out for the Flyers. That could happen. You never know. These players could grow and learn and all that. Only time will tell. Blah blah blah…

But having said all that, I am pretty tired of the Flyers getting bad grades from draft experts year in and year out. Wouldn’t it be nice if, just once, that wasn’t the case? Wouldn’t it be cool if on the Monday after the draft, we all got online and saw a bunch of articles praising the Flyers for how smart they are? Wouldn’t it be fun to see a bunch of headlines that made you confident the Flyers crushed the draft and have this franchise heading in the right direction? Stuff like:

It’s Official: The Flyers Pulled Off the Best Draft of All Time 

Here Are 45 Things Every Other NHL Front Office Can Learn From The Flyers 

The Flyers Are Playing Chess. Everyone Else Is Playing Some Other Game

The World-Class Philadelphia Flyers See Drafts In Matrix Code/Green Numbers and Stuff 

Danny Briere Is A Prodigy. He Is An Adult, Yes, But He Is Still A Prodigy. Adults Can Be Prodigies Too

The Number One Overall Pick Wasn’t Crying Because He Was Happy – He Was Crying Because He Was Not Drafted By The Flyers, His Preferred Team, Due To Their Smarts

NHL GMs Are Afraid To Make Draft Night Trades With Danny “The Trickster” Briere Because He Wins Every Time 

Draft Experts Agree: The Philadelphia Flyers Are The Philadelphia A-Pluses

Let Me Be Clear: The Flyers Simply Know Their Stuff

Those are articles I’d like to read. Those are headlines I would click on. I would gladly endure the overwhelming pop-up ads of janky blogs I’ve never heard of, or sign up for a subscription to some higher-end website for a free trial and then forget to cancel the subscription and get charged every month, if those were the articles that were running. But sadly, the Flyers won’t give me the chance. 

And to be clear, I’m not even asking the Flyers to actually hit on their draft picks. That would be great, but my bar is way lower. All I’m asking is for them to draft well enough that the consensus is they did a good job. That’s reasonable. That’s a fine thing to ask for. So many other fanbases get this all the time – why not us?

The draft is the pinnacle of sports hope. The results are years away – fans just want to feel like their team’s front office put them in a position to eventually succeed. That’s all I want. A little Flyers hope. Feeling like the draft went well. Feeling like the Flyers are on the right track. 

Maybe next year.