Philadelphia Flyers
Analyzing Flyers’ Master Plan in Advance of 2025 NHL Draft
It might not seem apparent, but the Philadelphia Flyers are setting their master plan in motion in advance of the 2025 NHL Draft.
At the 2024 NHL Draft in June, the Flyers selected Jett Luchanko, Jack Berglund, and Heikki Ruohonen, three two-way centers with contrasting physical traits that make them unique from one another.
The fleet-footed Luchanko is a smaller, blazing fast center with untapped potential, Berglund is the tall, physical beast who excels in the final 20 feet of both ends of the ice, and Ruohonen is an evenly-split mix of his two fellow Flyers prospects.
Between one those three and Flyers captain Sean Couturier, the Flyers have at least half of their top-six centers sorted.
The only wingers the Flyers drafted in June were little-known Russian trickster Ilya Pautov and Ohio State power forward Noah Powell, which is fine after the organization secured Matvei Michkov in the 2023 draft.
Powell is already showing signs of a potential NHL future, but it’ll be some time before he adds to a winger core that already includes Michkov, Tyson Foerster, Travis Konecny, and Owen Tippett.
Considering that the Flyers still have Joel Farabee and Bobby Brink in addition to youngsters like Denver Barkey, Alex Bump, and Samu Tuomaala, there isn’t a whole lot of room to add more young wingers at this time.
2025 NHL Draft
Barring something truly catastrophic, there’s no way the Flyers are landing some of the 2025 NHL Draft’s aces, like James Hagens, Porter Martone, Anton Frondell, or Michael Misa. Roger McQueen, Jakob Ihs-Wozniak, Viktor Klingsell, Caleb Desnoyers, and Ivan Ryabkin could very easily play themselves out of the equation, too.
All signs point to the Flyers aiming for a blue-chip defenseman. Erie Otters defenseman and Canada captain Matthew Schaefer is an early favorite to emerge as the top defenseman of the draft class.
He’s neck and neck with Swedish blueliner Sascha Boumedienne, who’s committed to Boston University, with Americans Logan Hensler and Blake Fiddler, the son of longtime NHLer Vernon Fiddler, quickly making names for themselves.
Fiddler is one of the youngest players in the draft class, and as a 6-foot-4, 200-pound right-shot defender, could easily emerge as a top-10 pick with massive upside 10 months from now.
Note that the Flyers currently have three first-round picks in the 2025 NHL Draft, though the ones they acquired from Colorado and Edmonton are expected to be much lower picks than the Flyers’ own pick.
Perhaps a team that underachieved in the 2024-25 season would be willing to move back and perhaps allow the Flyers to make two picks in the top-16, rather than one like they are currently projected.
Outside of Cam York, Oliver Bonk, and potentially Jamie Drysdale, the Flyers do not have many long-term pieces on defense who figure to lead the charge in the race for the Stanley Cup. Further to that point, Bonk is the only one of those three taller than 6-foot.
The jury is still out on Egor Zamula and the diminutive Emil Andrae, while Adam Ginning and Ronnie Attard are running out of time to nail down NHL roles as older prospects.
As such, the Flyers’ next step in the rebuild is landing a true franchise rearguard, preferrably in the mold of a Chris Pronger.
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Successful teams do not draft based on the positional needs of the current roster. Successful teams draft the best player available, regardless of position. Not even the best GMs can accurately forecast their team’s need 3-4 years ahead when they are making their picks. It’s a lot easier to trade for a team need in 3-4 years when you have an abundance of talent at other positions because you stockpiled the best talent available over 3-4 years.
Chris Pronger was traded four times during his career. Once as a young promising prospect for a future hall of famer winger, and three times for top prospects.
There are 18 skaters that dress every night on NHL teams, so its stupid to claim that a team drafted the wrong player because he plays a certain position.
100% agree. It’s best to draft for value and sign/trade for need when the time comes.
That is the best way to go. So, based on that, I guess we would say the Flyers erred in taking Luchanko over Zeev Buium.
Guess you didn’t realize who the agent was that represented Buium. The same clown that represents Quitter Gauthier. There was zero chance that the Flyers would draft him. Luchenko has a chance to possibly make the team next year, definitely in 2026-2027. The Flyers have always been slow over the years and Jett lives up to his name.
No, I did realize that. I also realize that successful teams don’t pass on highly rated players because they’re afraid of their agents.
Who knows, that question won’t have a definitive answer for at least another 4-5 years. You make not like Luchanko, but quite a few scouts do. There are some rumblings that Luchanko might make the team this year. I don’t think he should unless he’s good enough to play top six minutes, but time will tell.
JettLu . according to a number of draft sites, was only a slight slot reach by the Flyers….most all rated him in the top 25 of the draft.
It would be great to have another Pronger, says every team in the NHL! Unfortunately, they don’t make ’em like that anymore. Agree with ‘FatEagle’, they’ve got to draft for the best players, regardless of position (except in goal). That puts them in a position to stockpile talent; maybe finding that diamond in the rough or at the very least, having enough potential to put together that one deal to get a final piece to the puzzle when the time comes.
I feel like Hunter McDonald has to be on their radar and could make the leap at some point next year. Albeit a small sample size, he finished his college career and immediately became an impact player on the Phantoms blue line, often outshining the likes of Andrae and other more established prospects. Many of those games were important to get them into the postseason and he seemed to thrive under playoff pressure. Also, many of the Flyers brain trust were in attendance down the stretch for the Phantoms, so they saw it too.
According to one NHL Draft Value Chart…if by chance the Flyers win the Stanley Cup by beating Edmonton, and Edmonton beats off the Avs in the West Conference final…..the Flyers would be drafting 30th, 31st and 32nd in the 2025 draft.
And then by trading all three picks, it would have the equivalent draft value of the 8th pick in the draft.
I see us trading for a #1 center and power wing . Some of those picks won’t happen
I agree. I don’t think there’s any reality where they really want to make six picks inside the first two rounds. Gotta come away with something more than a prospect that’s effectively a dart throw.