Philadelphia Flyers
Will Flyers Regret Not Drafting Montreal’s Sizzling Cole Caufield?
The jury is still out on Chuck Fletcher bypassing a chance to select Cole Caufield in the first round of the 2019 draft. Twice.
But the early returns don’t favor Fletcher, who is in his fifth season as the Philadelphia Flyers’ general manager.
Caufield was an electric scorer going into that draft.
And the 5-foot-7, 174-pound right winger has been sizzling during most of the time he has been in the Montreal Canadiens’ lineup.
This season, he has 11 goals and 19 points in 18 games for the Habs (9-8-1), who defeated the visiting the Flyers (7-7-4) in overtime, 5-4, on Saturday night. Caufield had two goals and an assist, and he scored with 1.9 seconds left in regulation to tie the game at 4-all.
In 95 career games, he has 38 goals. That translates to 33 goals over an 82-game season.
In other words, the diminutive Caufield, 21, is just the type of player the offensive-challenged Flyers need.
Other options
Instead of drafting Caufield, Fletcher made a pair of deals and got two players early in the 2019 draft. The first player was defeneseman Cam York, the second was Bobby Orr Brink, a smallish right winger who was regarded as a Cole Caufield Lite.
The Flyers had two cracks at Caufield, a player most fans wanted them to take, based on social media comments before the 2019 draft.
They could have picked him at No. 11 overall. Instead, they traded down three spots in a deal with Arizona. They could have chosen Caufield at No. 14. Instead, they chose York at that spot — one pick before the dynamic Caufield went to Montreal.
Philly, thanks in part to the second-round pick they got from Arizona while moving down in the first round, then moved up 11 spots in the second round to draft Brink (No. 34 overall)
The Flyers had Brink ranked at No. 20 overall in that draft, not far behind where they rated Caufield.
Caufield, a Wisconsin native, was the best pure scorer in that draft. He had 72 goals in 54 games for the U.S. National Team Development Program in his final season before the draft.
Now it looks like Caufield is going to be a bona fide NHL scorer, Montreal is happy the Flyers twice passed on him.
At the time, Flyers’ thinking was this: York + Brink > than Caufield.
York, 21, showed promise in a 30-game stint with the Flyers last season. He did not, however, impress new coach John Tortorella during training camp and was sent to the Phantoms, where he is playing well this season (nine points in 12 games).
“This isn’t a bad thing,” Tortorella said when York was demoted. “… This is the right thing for Yorky.”
He has a chance to be a very good NHL defenseman and a power-play quarterback, but he needs to build up strength and get more snarl in his game.
Nation’s top scorer
Brink, 21, led all NCAA scorers in points (57) and assists (43) for NCAA champion Denver in 2021-22. The 5-8, 166-pounder then had four points, all assists, in a 10-game stint with the Flyers late last season.
But he suffered a left hip injury while training in the offseason and had surgery. Brink recently began practicing with the Phantoms, and could be ready to play in late December.
The injury-ravaged Flyers aren’t expected to be in the playoff race in this season’s second half, so it would be wise to have York and Brink in the lineup at that time. Let them gain some valuable NHL experience.
It will also be a chance for them to show that Fletcher made the right move by bypassing on Caufield.
Will they be able to do that?
Stay tuned.
We the fans wanted Caufield but Flecther didn’t pull the trigger just like he passed on Debrincat and Johnny Hockey all head scratchers!!
Thank’s for letting the Habs draft Goal Caufield.
Ship has already sailed on this one. Caufield > York.
Even more impressive is Caufield over the past 55-60 games unfwr MSL where he is averaging around. 6 goals per game.
I was at a draft-watch gathering and everyone was ready for them to take Caufield. Then the trade was announced and we were all shaking our heads. That skepticism about the trade and subsequent pick has been borne out. The Flyers always seem to bypass pure scorers (remember them taking Mike Ricci over Jaromir Jagr?), and they tend to think they have a better angle or outlook on someone than the prevailing assessments. Now Caufield is lighting it up while York has been demoted to the minors. I don’t care that Brink is scoring in college. That means little. This is looking like yet another mistake at the draft table.
2019 and 2020, for Philly fans who pay attention to the draft, were horrible. You can excuse the Sixers for whiffing on Simmons. Aggressively pushing for Markelle Fultz is a bit harder, but it falls under the same bad luck situation as the Flyers drafting Nolan Patrick, and, to a degree, the Phillies drafting Mickey Moniak. That draft, for the Phillies, was extremely weak. Moniak was being compared to Aaron Rowand, and that particular draft has no legit superstars. Then you have bone-headed moves like the Sixers trading Mikal Bridges–a local winner for a pick and a player who became a bust. And the Eagles with the whole Jalen Reagor over Justin Jefferson fiasco.
But this is about the Flyers. Whiffing on Caufield suggests an incomprehensible level of arrogance or incompetence. By all accounts, he was crushing records held by stars and superstars. At worse, he would not be able to sustain those numbers, but he looked like a better version of Alex DeBrincat. I saw him as a 40+ goal scorer. He’s on pace for 50 this year, and he’s still 21.
Last time the Flyers had a 40-goal scorer was…2008-2009. Jeff Carter. Last time they had someone score 50 goals was 25 years ago. Three of their biggest problems are speed, scoring, and success on power play. These were problems before 2019 and they continue to be problems. Caufield would have addressed them, but the guys Fletcher and Flahr opted for are playing in the AHL and on the injured list. Neither projects to play significant time in the NHL this season.
Press covered this a lot in the fan fallout of Fletcher and Flahr skipping on Caufield. It wasn’t for lack of scouting. They saw him play along with the rest of the US National Team something like 6-12 times. That failure amounts to poor player evaluation.
This is vexing because, in the long run, whiffs over home runs cost the team years. You build on success through successive drafts and trades and signings. You can screw up one year, but you need multiple hits over multiple years to build a contender, and the Flyers still haven’t gotten the basics down. So they fumble and continue to produce smokescreens. “Nothing to see here…”
A rebuild is inevitable. It has to happen. There’s not enough talent on the roster to be taken seriously. The picture the Flyers are painting is that the rebuild won’t necessarily begin in earnest this year–which is vexing because this is a strong draft. Adding to the problems of the delay are Carter Hart gets a year older, as does everyone else the Flyers want to retain, but they’re stuck in a problem where they don’t know *who* to retain. Again, bad player evaluation.