Observations from the draft floor: Flyers add size, center depth, and stock up for 2025

LAS VEGAS — Let’s cut straight to it. Speaking to several insiders, the consensus is the Flyers’ 2024 draft was pretty underwhelming.

The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler labeled the team one of his two losers of the draft — the other being the Toronto Maple Leafs. FloHockey’s NHL draft and prospects analyst Chris Peters gave the team a C+. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

It started on Friday night when general manager Danny Brière, assistant general manager Brent Flahr, and their staff had a chance to select with the No. 12 pick either Zeev Buium, a dynamic defenseman from the University of Denver, or Konsta Helenius, a smart two-way center who spent this past season playing in Finland’s top men’s league.

Instead, they opted to flip spots with the Minnesota Wild and take Jett Luchanko at No. 13. The 17-year-old center has more speed than Helenius and a ton of upside, but he’s only projected as a middle-six guy. The Inquirer and The Athletic’s Corey Pronman agree that the pick was worth only a B.

Here are some other observations from the Flyers’ twirl around the NHL draft.

» READ MORE: Grading the Flyers’ selection of Jett Luchanko: Was it a bit of a reach?

Speaking at his predraft availability, Brière was open and honest about the Flyers’ situation.

“Yes, I mean if they’re equal and we have a hard time deciding between two players and one’s a wing, one’s a center, we might lean into a center, because let’s face it, we’re lacking centers coming up throughout the organization. We haven’t tried to hide that, it’s a reality,” he said.

In the end, the Flyers drafted three centers in Luchanko, Jack Berglund, and Heikki Ruohonen. None of the three is projected to be a top-line guy, although they each show promise and, with time, could develop into solid NHLers.

» READ MORE: Meet Berglund, Ruohonen and the rest of the players the Flyers selected on Day 2 of the NHL draft

The Flyers are not the biggest team. Brière suggested after Round 1 that the reason the Flyers passed on Buium, who is 6-foot, is because they already have a small group on defense.

They currently have Cam York at 6-foot, Jamie Drysdale at 5-11, and Emil Andrae at 5-9. And offensively, star forward Travis Konecny is 5-10, Bobby Brink is generously listed at 5-8, and Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost are 6-foot. The Flyers’ average roster size, which does not include 5-8 winger Cam Atkinson, who just got bought out, is 6-2.

Out of the seven picks they made, five are over 6-foot.

“It just kind of happened to be that way,” Brière said about adding size. “Sometimes, obviously, the guys that are bigger or maybe ranked and it’s something that you can’t teach [in terms of] size. But it just happened and it wasn’t a mandate going into the day that we were trying to get better. The one thing we wanted to focus on from the start of the draft was to secure our centerman position a little better. That’s where Jack Berglund and Ruohonen came into play today. The size is just a nice added plus to it.”

Several times, The Inquirer saw the Flyers GM chatting with his colleagues. It’s known that Brière was aggressively trying to get into the top portion of the draft and was in talks with a few teams.

Specifically, before trading the No. 12 pick to the Wild, he was seen at the St. Louis Blues’ table.

Then, as the No. 32 pick was creeping up, Brière and Flyers president Keith Jones walked across the draft floor and into the far corner of Sphere to chat with Oilers management, led by Edmonton’s CEO of hockey operations Jeff Jackson. Edmonton and GM Ken Holland parted ways earlier in the week after the team’s loss in the Stanley Cup Final. The teams did swap picks after the conversation.

And while nothing was done in terms of current players on the Flyers’ roster, those conversations could be setting things up for future trades as free agency hits July 1.

» READ MORE: Flyers trade 32nd overall pick for a 2025 first-round selection

Next year’s draft — which is expected to be deep — was already looking good for the Flyers. After the past 48 hours, it got even better.

The Flyers now have three picks in the 2025 first round: their own; the Colorado Avalanche’s, acquired in the Sean Walker deal; and the Oilers’ pick, which was picked up in a one-for-one with the No. 32 pick in 2024. Colorado’s slot is top-10 protected and Edmonton’s is top-12.

In the second round, the Flyers will have their own selection; the Anaheim Ducks’ pick, acquired in the deal that brought in Drysdale; and the Columbus Blue Jackets’ spot from the Ivan Provorov three-team deal last June.

As of now, the Flyers have their own pick in each of the remaining rounds, in addition to the Carolina Hurricanes’ fourth-rounder that came with Massimo Rizzo in August.

Their six picks in the first two rounds and 12 overall afford a lot of flexibility.

“It means you’re not going to see me a whole lot next year,” Flahr joked, as he runs the Flyers amateur scouting department. “But no, it’s exciting. Next year we project it to be a very strong draft, just from what we’ve seen so far, and obviously we’re going to see more and more kids this summer. But to have those picks, not only first, second [rounds], it allows you to do a lot of things next year in the draft.

“We know it’s a strong draft but also, with our situation next summer, we can be players and get in the game and take a big step, hopefully.”

The overall presentation for the NHL draft was fantastic. In the first live event held at Sphere in Las Vegas, the graphics and images were splayed across a 160,000-square foot LED screen that wraps around the bubble. It was a little jarring at times as the screen shifted graphics and one’s gaze went up to the heavens, but it was stunning nonetheless.

And since it was Vegas, it’s not a surprise there were celebrities helping to announce the first-round picks. Celine Dion announced the Montreal Canadiens’ selection of Ivan Demidov and Philadelphia’s own Michael Buffer did his famous “Let’s get ready to rumble” line announcing the Flyers’ pick of Luchanko.