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Grading Flyers’ Complete 2024 Draft Class; One Pleasant Surprise

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6 months ago

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Philadelphia Flyers news

After making a total of seven draft picks in the 2024 NHL Draft, including two in the second round, the Philadelphia Flyers have officially stamped and sealed their 2024 draft class.

Things got off to a curious start for the Flyers, as they traded down one spot with the Minnesota Wild only to shock the whole building and grab Guelph center Jett Luchanko with the 13th overall pick. But the one thing that Luchanko and the other Flyers draft picks have in common, aside from hockey IQ? That’s upside, and Philadelphia wants all of it.

Luchanko was already regarded as a competitve, athletic forward who was one of the fastest and smartest players in the class, and the Flyers apparently believe that there’s top-of-the-lineup potential somewhere in their new draft pick.

Jack Berglund, the son of former Devils forward Christian Berglund, was the Flyers’ next draft pick and next center added to the equation, but was generally considered to be a significant reach with the 51st overall pick. Berglund plays a heavy game at 6-foot-3, and though his production was generally unimpressive this year, the 18-year-old did turn in a solid performance with Sweden’s U18s.

Only a few picks later, the Flyers moved back into the second round and grabbed Spencer Gill, a 6-foot-4 defenseman from Rimouski in the QMJHL. He’s tall, physical, mobile, willing to get involved offensively, and has a lot of tools that will aid him at the NHL level. I think Gill, at least right now, is my favorite Flyers draft pick of the weekend.

Forwards Heikki Ruohonen, Noah Powell, and Ilya Pautov followed Gill in the fourth, fifth, and sixth rounds, and defenseman Austin Moline joined the party in the seventh round to close things out.

Ruohonen is a bit of a project, as is Powell, the late bloomer heading to Ohio State. Moline, a bit of an older player, has some traits similar to Gill, and he’ll be going to Northern Michigan University after the end of this season.

I know almost nothing about Pautov, but he was decent in Russia’s MHL, where Ivan Demidov stood head and shoulders above everybody else.

Initial Grade: C

In a vacuum, this is a really solid group of players. The issue is that there’s very little dynamism here, and the Flyers left heaps of talent on the board in favor of size and/or traits. The Flyers passed on Zeev Buium, Konsta Helenius, Teddy Stiga, Leo Sahlin Wallenius, Kevin He, Javon Moore, Aron Kiviharju, and Luke Misa; some of these guys generated serious buzz as sleepers or were already considered top draft picks the whole year.

With three picks in the first round of the 2025 NHL Draft, the Flyers need to mean business this time next year.

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Danny Deuber

Do you know how hard it is to be a Flyers fan from the very start of the team. From the 80’s on I’ve had to watch moron after moron miss the boat in draft. All of those managers, including this one don’t have a clue on how to draft. There was top talent at most of our slots but instead they chose to select Players who were less talented. That started right out of the gate. First they should have gotten a 2nd rounder from Minnesota to move up not a 3rd. Then with our pick they take a far less talented player Luchenko over Helenius, Eiserman or Conlley??? WOW! That’s a MORON! Then if that wasn’t bad enough the trade of picks with Edmonton won’t be in the top 12. The condition is where they finish. And I see the Oilers being in the top 4 in the playoffs so we missed out on some good players by doing that. Elick and Basha would have been good additions to our team. All they did was defer our pick until next year and we received nothing for it. I was so pissed off over these moves I didn’t even watch the rest of the draft. And from the article above they pulled the same thing there.

I should have seen this coming from last year’s draft when they took Bonk over Parrault. He’s already playing on the Rangers and Bonk is on a ohl minor league team. The only reason we got Michkov is by pure luck not managements doing. If this is the way Danny and Kieth are running their grand plan we are so screwed!!! Who they gonna draft next year uncle Hank with one leg and one eye and needs the hockey stick to keep his balance or George the tree humper?????! They should let us fans do the drafting by consensus. We will at least get players that have talent!!! My grade for this draft is an F period!!!!!

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Bige88

I’m with you on overall frustration last 50 years . I haven’t seen a cup . And I’m not happy about it . But I’m optimistic this has been moving in right direction last 3 years

flahr has done well. I will admit we need a massive break or two . This summer and next summer . Someway . Somehow

let’s give them a chance . I like what has been going on last 3 years . I do admit we need 2/3 of a top line for this league . The center and power wing to join michkov . We have a lot of the “guts” of a cup team. We also need drysdale to be a superstar at the 1 on defense .

im generally cautious optimist last 3 years . Little room for error . But I’m willing to see what happens

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Bige88

I’m optimistic for picks 1 and 3 this year . We will see . Even if our top pick can be a 2nd line center in this league long term I’d be happy . Love they have been gettting bigger defenders last 3 years on defense . After drysdale at the #1 , I like what they have done on defense with size both for next 3-4 years and I like the pool of bigger younger defenders backstops we are accumulating. Gill is another nice addition

I just need more patience and see if we can get a break or two next 2 years .

Big Swede at 2 , time will tell. I gotta watch them play before commenting

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Not Offsides

From the article: “there’s very little dynamism here, and the Flyers left heaps of talent on the board in favor of size and/or traits”. This is what they always have done and is why they flounder in mediocrity. Same Old Era of Orange.

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Mike from Allentown

This was a disappointing draft. Nothing to help the club NOW. That’s the problem.

Look at our division alone and tell me how we’ve gotten closer to a Cup. The teams ahead of us have gotten better and the teams behind us closed the gap.

What we seem to have is the hockey equivalent of the “trust the process”/ tank mentality that has brought the Sixers nothing. It’s a loser mentality that will never get you where you want to be.

The only thing this approach does is shield the GM and front office from accountability, as we will always be waiting for draft picks to “fill out”, or “season”, or some other phrase of the day.

I was actually excited when Jones and Briere took over, which only magnifies the disappointment I’m feeling now. Never thought I’d say this, but replace them now and save ourselves 5-10 years of going nowhere.

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Bill Marchetti

Star quality is what we need to go after, while I realize that nothing is garaunteed in draft , we needed to gamble on star quality and Eiserman should have been pick, nothing against Jett , but he’s projected 3/4 line reliable player , we have seemed to set that ceiling for our players , why? And we think Konecny is a star we want to lock up for 7,8 years at outrageous price, he needs to go before we make that mistake he is good , not even above average , 2nd line player who’s contract will be an albatross in 2,3 years and we’ll be complaining about bad contracts again tying our hands!!

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mark

In regards to eiserman we will certainly get an up close look at him going to the division rival islanders.I always did get a kick out of draft grades in any sport,considering the player hasn’t even played at the pro level in that sport.That being said,look at all the higher ranked players that the team passed up to draft who they did.Let us hope that upper managements crystal ball works better than it has in the past untold number of drafts.

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