Tag: Danny Brière

ATLANTIC CITY — You can be overwhelmed. You can be underwhelmed. Can you ever be just whelmed?

Because that’s the feelings after the Flyers’ 2026 draft. It doesn’t feel fantastic. It doesn’t feel terrible. It just feels … there.

Is that what was conveyed by assistant general manager Brent Flahr, speaking after they wrapped things up?

“This draft, I’ll be honest with you, there’s layers, and especially early on, our layers got cleaned out quickly. And I’ve never seen it like that before,” he said. “Even as the draft went along, but we were able to move back in the first, and then we’re able to move around and get players we’re happy with, so it worked out fine.”

Maybe that’s it. It was fine.

Yes, it’s too early to tell where this draft will land because 99% of the time, players need time to develop and grow. And there may have been something in the air because while the gambling floor of the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino had people testing their luck with the press of a button on a slot machine, on each spin of the roulette wheel, and every roll of the dice, that appears to have permeated upstairs to the Flyers’ draft room as they selected their next generation in the 2026 NHL draft.

The Black and Orange opted for long-term wait-and-see projects. (They love projects, don’t they?) And, to be fair, they have some time with the past few draft classes finally bearing fruit.

Maksim Sokolovskii, the Flyers’ first-rounder who Flahr called “a unicorn,” is a big, mean defenseman who needs to continue building his defensive game while also trying to add some offense. Goalies Martin Psohlavec and Marek Sklenička looked great at the U18s for Czechia — another Flyers trademark — but are still raw. And second-rounder Brek Liske, probably the best story of the draft, just for the fact that his dad is a diehard Flyers fan, has a solid foundation, but does have to work on his skating — where have we heard that before?

Center KJ Sauer missed most of this past season after tearing his posterior cruciate ligament the year prior and compared his style of play to that of Brady Tkachuk. Flahr said last week the Flyers could add a small, dynamic defenseman — but in the later rounds — and they got Max Laatikainen, a small Finnish defenseman they are hoping still can grow.

Whether they actually see an NHL game is truly a crapshoot anyway. But that’s always the case. In 2020, DobberProspects did a study showing that 60 NHL players from a draft class eventually make it to the NHL, which is less than 27%. TSN director of scouting Craig Button recently told NBC Sports Philadelphia that “approximately 45 players from any draft will play 350 games or more in the NHL.” That’s not a whole lot.

Entering this draft, since Flahr has been at the helm, the Flyers have drafted 50 players. Not counting the two previous classes, although Porter Martone and Jett Luchanko have already played NHL games, 44% have played at least one NHL game. Will this class make it? Who knows.

Now it does feel like they stayed the course and went down the path of previous drafts with a slight twist.

They again drafted for size — even though Flahr said Saturday it wasn’t a focus — with only Laatikainen of the six picks under 6 feet. In the process, they left players like dynamic but risky small defensemen Ryan Lin, Tommy Bleyl, and Xavier Villeneuve on the table in the first round and talented forwards like the Ruck Twins, Jack Hextall, J.P. Hurlbert and Brooks Rogowski.

But Flahr and general manager Danny Brière did stress that players drafted today will not help the team in the near future — so drafting a power-play specialist would not have made the atrocious power play better in the here and now — and they needed goaltending and defensive depth.

It just felt like maybe there were better options?

But who is to know today what tomorrow brings?

ATLANTIC CITY — The Flyers traded down from No. 21 to No. 27 with the hope that the guy they wanted would still be on the board. They sweated a little, but in the end, they got their guy and two extra picks to boot.

With the 27th pick in the first round of the 2026 NHL draft, the Flyers selected Maksim Sokolovskii, left-shot giant from London of the Ontario Hockey League, to bolster the blue line.

Although he is not expected to play in the NHL any time soon — he will head back to the Knights in September and is committed to the University of Maine for the following season — it’s never too early to hand out a grade to Flyers general manager Danny Brière and his staff.

Grade: B

It was no secret that the Flyers were long interested in Sokolovskii. Since the NHL scouting combine in early June, the word on the street was that the Flyers were higher than the consensus on the 6-foot-7¼, 240-pound, mean, physical defenseman who skates well for his size.

Did they pass on flashier guys like two-way center Jack Hextall, dynamic defensemen Ryan Lin, whom San Jose took at 21, Tommy Bleyl, and Xavier Villeneuve? Yes, and that could come back to haunt them like drafting Jett Luchanko over Zeev Buium and Konsta Helenius two years ago.

But Sokolovskii was always their guy, especially once Ilia Morozov was taken at No. 20, which is why they moved back. And even before that, several media outlets had the Flyers taking the defenseman at No. 21, including The Inquirer in our final mock draft.

There is a lot to like about Sokolowskii. According to Mike Taylor, his former coach at the Atlantic Hockey Academy, “he skates like he’s 5-foot-8.″ Taylor also mentioned how a college hockey skating coach they brought in could not believe how good Sokolowskii’s edgework was for his size.

As The Athletic’s NHL draft and prospects reporter Scott Wheeler told The Inquirer, “When you’re huge, and you can skate, that’s often all that you need for NHL scouts to sort of perk up and start to pay attention.”

And the Flyers paid attention — a lot of that is because he was in London, which Brière called after drafting Sokolovskii: “One of the better organizations in the CHL. They seem to be able to build winners.”

Sokolovskii, who was born in Kazakhstan and grew up in Russia, brings meanness and physicality, and considers himself a shut-down defenseman who likes to hit. Daily Faceoff’s Jeff Marek called him the hardest hitter in the draft class. Some have even compared his physicality and nastiness to that of fellow 6-7 blueliner Nikita Zadorov of the Boston Bruins.

“The compete level is something that, in a lot of cases, you have, or you don’t,” Brière said. “It’s really tough to bring that out of someone who doesn’t have it. You watch him, it’s a natural thing. He loves to go after a guy. He likes to disturb, and on top of his size, it makes for a very impressive player on the ice. Someone that you don’t like facing or playing against.”

And part of that competitiveness is just his desire to get better. There is a lot of upside to Sokolovskii, and many have noted how much his game improved as the season went on in London. His switch to the OHL was not an easy one — he was even a healthy scratch at times — but by the end of the season, he was on the third pair and even played second-pair minutes at times. And while he wants to work more on his footwork, next season, Sokolovskii told The Inquirer at the combine that he wants to be more of a leader, too.

“The one thing that really stood out was the progression that he showed throughout the season,” Brière said. “When we saw him early in the season, we thought this could be a late pick for us, and then it seemed every month he just kept getting better and better, and figuring out the game more and more.”

Organizationally, the pick helped fill some depth on the left side, so add a check mark for that. Travis Sanheim, Cam York, Nick Seeler, and the newly acquired Simon Benoît, who can play on the right side too, are at the NHL level. Ty Murchison, 23, Jackson Edward, 22, and Hunter McDonald, 24, are in the system on the left side. But that’s it. Oliver Bonk, another London guy, Spencer Gill, Carter Amico, and Luke Vlooswyk are all righties.

Now, there are, of course, some question marks.

“I think that would be Sam Morin part two,” FloHockey draft and prospect analyst Chris Peters said on Flyers Gameday Central about taking him at No. 21. They didn’t do that, but then he said this.

“I watched him in the playoffs a lot, and that’s where I think a lot of this late buzz is coming from, is that he was a really good shutdown guy for London in the postseason. And he was playing a physical, mean brand of hockey, the kind of hockey that helps you win in the playoffs. … [But] he’s too one-dimensional defensively. The skating, it isn’t good enough for me to say, like it’s good for his size, but like it’s not good enough, I don’t think.

“He has boom-bust potential, too, because he’s got this massive frame. He has incredible reach. I think he thinks the game decently well, I think he thinks the game defensively pretty solidly. I think he’s got good enough mobility defensively. And so I think he’s going to play [in the NHL]. The question is, where does he go?”

So, does he need to refine his defensive game more? Absolutely. Does he need to develop his offensive game? Of course — he had only eight points in 44 games for the Knights. But one intriguing factor is that he scored 34 goals and 84 points in 65 games for Atlantic Coast two years ago, albeit against lesser competition.

And Taylor brought up something interesting.

“He always was trying to be offensive with us. His deficiencies with us were the defensive side of the puck, where it was his strength in London,” he recalled.

“I knew he could play that way. I knew he would adjust, because I knew how good he was of a player. I just knew that he was taking chances and doing things with us that he wouldn’t do at the next level, because the hockey allowed it, [that] level of play.”

With Taylor, he went out for shootouts and even got time on the power play, notably at the net-front — imagine a 6-7 player screening the goalie? So maybe Sokolovskii was just focusing on the defensive end as an OHL rookie, and the offense has room to reawaken a bit?

After all, when you ask him who his comparables are, he’ll tell you Zadorov, Logan Stanley of the Buffalo Sabres, and Tampa Bay’s Victor Hedman, who boasts a Norris Trophy and 811 points in 1,164 career NHL games.

There’s definitely some boom-or-bust volatility with Sokolovskii, but the Flyers hope they have added a massive defenseman who plays playoff-style hockey, can kill plays defensively, and strike fear into opponents with his physicality.

ATLANTIC CITY — The Flyers were on the clock at 21, and then they weren’t, because they were confident they knew they could get their guy at 27.

Did they sweat a little bit when a trade was announced, and the Montreal Canadiens, who were at No. 28, moved up to No. 26? Yes. But they breathed a sigh of relief when Montreal took Russian winger Gleb Pugachyov, and they were able to get their in 6-foot-7¼ left-shot defenseman Maksim Sokolovskii.

“It’s my dream. It’s the dream [of] every hockey player,” Sokolovskii told The Inquirer at the scouting combine about being drafted. He added he would be happy if it happened in the first round, but he knew it was only the first step. “Just keep working, help my team.”

The Flyers moved down to 27 by trading the 21st pick to the San Jose Sharks. They also got the 62nd (second round) and 120th (fourth round) selections in the swap. For Day 2, they now have two picks in the second round, including No. 53, one in the fourth, fifth (136), and seventh (213).

As detailed in our final mock draft, Sokolovskii fits the archetype of player the Flyers like to select in the draft. He is well over 6-foot, tough, and competitive, and he plays for London of the Ontario Hockey League. Forward Denver Barkey and defenseman Oliver Bonk were also drafted out of the program run by the Hunters, Mark and Dale, who president Keith Jones knows very well.

But here’s one difference: He’s not someone who needs to work on his skating too much.

“When you’re huge, and you can skate, that’s often all that you need for NHL scouts to sort of perk up and start to pay attention,” The Athletic’s NHL draft and prospects reporter Scott Wheeler told The Inquirer at the NHL scouting combine.

“He was much better in the second half; you could see him figuring it out. … You want that [big] guy to be mean and punishing, and he’s got a little bit of that.

“But it’s the skating. If he couldn’t skate, it would be a major red flag at that size, but because he can skate, teams get excited about that.”

He worked on his skating with Alex Antropov, who was also his coach for D13, a team from Russia that played in the World Selects Invitational in Voorhees in May 2024. He brought that strong base with him when he was 16 years old and moved to Massachusetts to play for Atlantic Coast Academy.

“He’s 6-foot-8, and he skates like he’s 5-foot-8,” Mike Taylor, the program’s owner and one of Sokolovskii’s coaches, told The Inquirer recently. “… He came here, and I had a skating coach once a month come up and do power skating with our guys, and he does it like with UMass Amherst, and all these other schools.

“And he saw him skate, and he’s like, ‘Oh my God.’ He couldn’t believe how good his edge work was, and stuff, for being the size that he is.”

Sokolovskii has some bite on the ice, likes to be physical, throw the body around, and plays tough. He is considered a shutdown defender right now, as evidenced by his only eight points (two goals, six assists) in 44 regular-season games with London. But Taylor says there is an untapped offensive dimension to his game — as seen from his numbers at Atlantic Coast (84 points in 65 games) — and he even used him at the net-front on the power play.

The consensus is that his game improved as he got more comfortable in the OHL. By the end, he was on the second pair and played big minutes in the playoffs, notably shutting down 2025 fifth overall pick Brady Martin.

“The one thing that really stood out, I think, was the progression that he showed throughout the season,” Flyers general manager Danny Brière said. “When we saw him early in the season, we thought this could be a late pick for us, and then it seemed every month he just kept getting better and better, and figuring out the game more and more. So that was interesting to the point where he’s going to be a first-rounder, and to be able to move back, get some draft capital, and still get him, it feels like it was the right thing to do.”

But like most in the draft class, Sokolovskii has his warts, and there are question marks surrounding his game, specifically his decision-making and puck play. He told The Inquirer at the NHL scouting combine that he wants to keep working on his foot speed. He’ll need some time to grow into his game, and the Flyers have the time for that.

“We see him as a big physical force as a defenseman [who] is going to be tough to face,” Brière said. “There’s a lot that needs to come obviously. The way our development has worked the last few years, we feel confident that it’s going to come. We know there’s a lot of work to be done, but there’s things that you can’t teach, and there’s things that you can’t change; he’s still going to be 6-foot-7 in two years from now, and the internal physicalness that he has as well is something you can’t really teach.

“That comes naturally to him, so that’s a big plus, and the rest of his game has to round out, no doubt about it. But the progression that we saw this season leads us to believe that he’ll be able to make it to the NHL.

Sokolovskii will be returning to London in September and is committed to the University of Maine for 2027. Most compare the Kazakhstan-born and Russian-raised blueliner to fellow 6-7 defenders Nikita Zadorov of the Boston Bruins and Logan Stanley of the Buffalo Sabres. He’ll add Victor Hedman, who is also 6-7. “But I want to be better,” he told The Inquirer.

Sokolovskii’s name was mentioned to this reporter at the combine as someone the Flyers were interested in, and some pundits think this is their guy. Ultimately, where there was smoke, there was fire, as the Flyers selected him at the end of Round 1.

The first round of the 2026 NHL draft is just hours away, and the Flyers are scheduled to pick at No. 21.

Who will be there, before general manager Danny Brière’s turn to face the camera and announce the pick, is anyone’s guess. With the expectation that prospects like Wyatt Cullen, Ryan Lin, and Alexander Command — who really does scream Flyer more than anyone on this list — will be long gone, here are nine players (in alphabetical order) the team could take in the first round.

Tommy Bleyl, RHD, Moncton (QMJHL)

With Lin expected to be gone, Bleyl is the next man up among defensemen under 6-feet tall. He was labeled as the player not enough people are talking about by FloHockey’s NHL draft and prospects analyst Chris Peters on Flyers Gameday Central’s draft preview show. NHL.com’s Mike Morreale and USA Today have Bleyl as the pick at 21 for the Flyers.

Listed at 5-foot-11¼, 170 pounds, the 18-year-old just put up one of the best rookie seasons by a defenseman in Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League history with 81 points in 63 regular-season games — breaking a rookie scoring record for blueliners that stood for 48 years — led the “Q” in assists (68), was named the top defensive rookie, and finished third in playoff scoring (28 points).

A self-described two-way defenseman who has good feet, a pretty strong hockey IQ, and is feisty, the New York native came from the same Mid Fairfield program as Trevor Zegras and is headed to a Flyers favorite, Michigan State, in 2027 alongside 2025 draft pick Matthew Gard, who committed on Thursday.

Maddox Dagenais, RW, Québec (QMJHL)

Why is Dagenais potentially the guy?

The Flyers like Canadians, with 13 of Brière’s draft picks coming from Canada. He is over 6-feet — officially 6-3¾ and 198 pounds — and the Flyers have drafted 17 out of 26 players under the GM at that line of demarcation.

He has pedigree — his dad, Pierre, played in the NHL — and the Remparts forward can play center and wing, with versatility a trait Brière has stressed as important. Dagenais also skated alongside Flyers prospect Nathan Quinn. And his GM in Québec is none other than Simon Gagné, so you know the Flyers have checked in on him. Peters had Dagenais to the Flyers in his final mock draft on Friday.

Dagenais was No. 2 on the Remparts with 62 points (30 goals, 32 assists) in 62 regular-season games and tied for No. 1 in power-play points (25) with Quinn, the Flyers’ 2025 sixth-rounder. A lefty who played the right side, he’s a high-volume shot-taker, can win in the faceoff circle, and loves to throw reverse hits — Gagné said that area of Dagenais’ game reminds him of his ex-Flyers teammate, Peter Forsberg.

Jack Hextall, C, Youngstown (USHL)

A distant cousin of former Flyers goalie and GM Ron Hextall, this Hextall is a 6-0½ inch, 195-pound right-shot centerman who netted 58 points in 59 games for the Youngstown Phantoms last season and is off to Michigan State to play with Flyers prospect Shane Vansaghi in the fall.

The 18-year-old from Illinois is known for his non-stop motor, high hockey IQ, attention to detail, being relentless, and his pro habits. Those are all attributes the Flyers typically value highly, and Philly has done its homework on Hextall, who was one of the best forwards for the 2025 Hlinka Gretzky Cup-winning Americans with seven points, including three in the championship game.

“Jack has always cared about the whole ice in all three zones. He prides himself on being a trustworthy go-to guy for his coaches,” Youngstown coach Ryan Ward said. “He wants to thrive in all situations, whether that be a shutdown defensive situation or being on the ice when we need to score a goal. So he’s a very mature player for his age.”

JP Hurlbert, LW, Kamloops (WHL)

The 6-0, 190-pound left winger, who can play center, is coming off an impressive season where he won the Rookie of the Year award in the Western Hockey League after posting 97 points (42 goals, 55 assists) in 68 regular-season games. Hurlbert wore an “A” for the Blazers and said at the NHL scouting combine that he is an offensive-minded forward who can anticipate plays, has an accurate and deceptive shot, can freeze defenders, and is “dangerous” whether at five-on-five or on the power play.

“JP is a super offensive hockey player, and he’s really focused on scoring, and he’s good at it,” Nick Fohr, his coach at the U.S. National Team Development Program two seasons ago, told The Inquirer. “ … He’s a really good hockey player, and he’s driven to score. He loves to score, he loves to be around things offensively, and that’s really where he thrives, and where he’s at his best.”

A native of Texas, the 18-year-old thought he had a good meeting with the Flyers and is off to the University of Michigan with prospect Jack Nesbitt in the fall.

Nikita Klepov, RW, Saginaw (OHL)

Born in Florida and raised in Russia, Klepov posted 97 points in 67 games, with 38 points on the power play and three short-handed goals for Saginaw this past season. Bound for Michigan State in the fall, he was named the Ontario Hockey League’s Rookie of the Year and was the first newbie to lead the league in scoring since future Hall of Famer Patrick Kane.

“You don’t lead the OHL in scoring by accident,” The Athletic’s NHL draft and prospects reporter Scott Wheeler told The Inquirer of Klepov, who represents the U.S. internationally and will turn 18 on Saturday. “Extremely, extremely talented player with the puck. He’ll work, too; he’ll go and get it back. He’s average size, so average-size wingers can often linger.

“ … And if you’re looking for a top six guy in the second half of the first round, there’s not going to be a lot of guys who you can say his projection is as a top six guy. Nikita is one of those guys with his playmaking. ”

Ilia Morozov, C, Miami (OH) (NCAA)

TSN’s Craig Button, who has a pretty good knack for making picks, has the Flyers taking the 17-year-old Morozov in his latest mock draft.

Morozov, a two-way center at 6-2¾, 205 pounds who is smart, competitive, and physical, just wrapped up a freshman year at Miami (Ohio) in which he started as the youngest player in men’s college hockey. Morozov, who won’t turn 18 until August, started quickly but cooled off and finished with eight goals — three on the power play and one short-handed — and 20 points in 36 games, helping the school go from a three-win season to 18.

“Thought there was a maturity there, certainly the size and strength, but we still feel like he’s really scratching the surface, even strength-wise,” RedHawks coach Anthony Noreen told The Inquirer. “ … And I think, for me, that’s kind of what’s most exciting about him, this kid is just always taking a monumental leap every summer, and we really feel he’s going to continue to do that.”

Adam Novotný, LW, Peterborough (OHL)

Pro Hockey Group’s Jason Bukala has the Flyers picking Novotný at No. 21, citing his goal scoring abilities. At 6-1 and 200 pounds, the winger, who played the entire season in Peterborough, led his team in goals (34) and points (65) and finished second and tied for fourth in the OHL with 278 shots on goal and eight game-winners, respectively.

A standout at World Juniors, the power forward, who has speed and a strong work ethic, had three assists and a tournament-high 34 shots on goal in seven games for silver-medal-winning Czechia.

“Well-rounded. I think I am versatile, and I can play those different roles,” he said when asked to describe his game at the combine. “That’s maybe something that can help me in the future to make it to the NHL 100%. I think my speed is a weapon too. … And also one-on-one battles, I think I’m very strong in them.”

Maksim Sokolovskii, LHD, London (OHL)

ESPN, NHL.com’s Adam Kimelman, Wheeler, and Sportsnet’s draft guru Sam Cosentino all have Sokolovskii as the guy for the Flyers. In Western New York at the combine, the word going around was that the Flyers were very high on him but it does make one stop and pause slightly as the Flyers are known to make unexpected picks, like Nesbitt or Jett Luchanko.

But there are several reasons why this makes sense, starting with the fact that he plays for London, the same team from which the Flyers drafted Denver Barkey and Oliver Bonk. There’s the sheer size — 6-7¼, 240 pounds — that the Flyers also go for, having drafted fellow giants like the 6-5 Gard, Nesbitt, Carter Amico, and Luke Vlooswyk last year. Sokolovskii, who has a late birthday, is turning 18 in July.

And he’s raw and a project — the Flyers staff loves projects — who needs to work on his puck play. But he does not need to work on his skating and that’s the key here. “When you’re huge, and you can skate, that’s often all that you need for NHL scouts to sort of perk up and start to pay attention,” Wheeler said in Buffalo.

Oliver Suvanto, C, Tappara (Liiga)

Despite turning 17 last Sept. 3 — quick reminder, players like Luchanko and Spencer Gill were later birthdays — Suvanto spent the majority of the past season skating for Tappara in Liiga, the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. He was a kid among men, skating in the middle-six, and notched two goals and 11 points in 48 games.

A 6-3, 213-pound two-way center, who draws comparisons to the Florida Panthers’ Aleksander Barkov, the fellow Finn considers himself a “big guy who can battle, can win some battles, can protect the puck” and has “OK game-reading skills, [and] can predict plays before that happens.” Suvanto, who was Elite Prospects’ Cam Robinson’s pick for the Flyers in his final mock draft, does want to work on his offensive game and be a bigger threat in the offensive zone.

Suvanto played with Flyers prospects Heikki Ruohonen and Max Westergård at World Juniors, where he played on a defensive-minded line. And the drum-playing, lefty-shooting center who hails from the same hometown as Rasmus Ristolainen, knows a thing or two about Philly: “Obviously, Rocky is from that city,” he said at the combine. “ … Big rivalry with the Penguins. … They got Trevor Zegras, good talented player, a lot of young great players so I think they’ve got a good future ahead of them.”

With the NHL draft 10 days away, Flyers general manager Danny Brière and assistant general manager Brent Flahr, who runs the draft, met with the media.

Moments before they sat side-by-side, the Flyers announced the acquisition of goalie Joseph Woll and defenseman Simon Benoît from the Toronto Maple Leafs for Sam Ersson, Emil Andrae, and a third-round pick in the 2026 NHL draft.

But this press conference was set up to chat about the draft. Here are three questions may have been answered on Tuesday.

Could the Flyers trade away or acquire more picks?

Maybe?

Brière did say he was OK with having only four picks now in the upcoming draft — one each in the first, second, sixth, and seventh rounds — and he did call the first- and second-round picks “the key.” But he also said everything is on the table.

“We’ve drafted so much the last few years [so] it might not be quite a bad thing to not have as many this year,” he said. “But, if I had the choice, yeah, I would rather have more picks.”

Fair, because who doesn’t want to keep stocking the cupboard? But what if it meant trading a first-rounder for a young player who could fit into the lineup today?

“Yeah, we’re getting closer to that. I don’t know that we’re quite there yet, but we’re certainly willing to listen on different ideas,” he said. “I’m not too keen on trading future first-round picks, because you never know where it can go, and we’re not at [where] Colorado or Carolina [are] at this point, where you know we’re going to be finishing [high] and picking late first [round]. I don’t think we’re quite there yet.”

Would they be open to drafting a small defenseman?

With Andrae, a small, puck-moving defenseman, now shipped north, could the Flyers be open to drafting someone to step into that role in a few years? There are several high-end offensive-minded blueliners available in the draft like Xavier Villeneuve, Tommy Bleyl, and Ryan Lin.

“If you’re drafting a small defenseman, they need to be dynamic, and there are a couple who could go into mid-to-later first round this year, but they are in the mix,” Flahr said, noting that not every small defenseman can be on the power play, which, to be frank, the Flyers’ power play needs help now.

Added Brière: “And that’s a big part of it too when you draft. Right now you might have some needs, but in four years, five years, that need might be different. So, especially in the first round, I think we try to be careful, try to go with the best player in this case, and keep developing, because we have a pretty decent pool of prospects coming. It’s not like we’re depleted; we still have some really good ones at almost every position.”

This is true, especially on defense with Oliver Bonk, David Jiříček, Ty Murchison and Hunter McDonald on the edge of making the main roster, and Carter Amico, Luke Vlooswyk and Spencer Gill working their way through the system.

But Flahr did point out that they could use some more depth on the left side — “not necessarily being the first round,” he was quick to add.

Any insight on the 21st pick?

Of course, moving up or down is always on the table for the Flyers as the draft starts to pick up speed. But with them picking at 21, Flahr has now set the expectation for fans that, “Anytime you’re drafting in the 20s, you’re not getting the perfect player that’s completely polished and finished.“

The Flyers do look for certain traits — i.e., when they took Tyson Foerster at 23rd overall in 2020 because of his body type and hockey sense, despite him needing to work on his skating. And the Flyers certainly do like projects, but those are usually in the later rounds.

“We’re not drafting mature football players that they’re ready to go next year,” Flahr said when asked if they skew toward a certain type of project. “So these kids are sometimes three, four years away and have a long, long road ahead. But there are some players that are fundamentally flawed skating, and that’s our scout’s job to say, ‘I don’t know if this can ever improve.’

“ … But there are certain traits, whether it’s hockey sense, competitiveness, skill level. You can overcome size if you’ve got the great motor, big heart, and you’re smart, and certainly when you’re small, you’ve got to have some speed, quickness. … So, there’s different types of players you want to take a chance on, but there’s certain traits you have to have.”

The interesting aspect for the Flyers is that at 21, there could be several high-end centers available. However, they are projected as middle-six pivots and, while the Flyers need a 1C, as Brière mentioned, that’s probably not going to happen where they’re picking.

But Brière and Flahr each mentioned that they will continue to target centers, with the GM adding, “I don’t feel like you can have too many centers, because it’s much easier to move a center to the wing.”

With that, players like Jack Hextall, Ilia Morozov, Alexander Command, and Maddox Dagenais potentially being available when it’s time for the Flyers’ pick.

And two names to keep an eye on are Morozov and center Ryder Cali. Why? It seems the Flyers tend to draft players who finish among the leaders in grip strength at the scouting combine’s fitness testing, like Jett Luchanko and Shane Vansaghi. Cali finished tied with defenseman Lincoln Kuehne in right-hand grip strength, and Morozov, who tied with defenseman Charlie Morrison for third, was atop the leaderboard for the left-hand grip strength.

Breakaways

One nugget on the current squad from Brière regarding Dan Vladař, who can sign an extension on July 1: “As far as the contract talks, we’re working on it. He said he was interested; obviously, the team is interested. We’re working toward something that we hope can get done eventually, but it’s not over the finish line yet.” … Gill and Carson Bjarnason were on the ice at the Flyers Training Center before the press conference started.