Flyers draft: Prospect Berkly Catton may not be big, but ‘my brain is bigger.’ And he can score.

Third in a seven-part series highlighting players the Flyers might select in the first round of the NHL draft on June 28 in Las Vegas.

BUFFALO — Berkly Catton walked into the restaurant at the Buffalo Marriott at LECOM Harborcenter, where the NHL Scouting Combine was being held.

He stuck out his hand and introduced himself. He’s not the most imposing figure at 5-foot-10, but the center from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, more than makes up for it on the ice.

“I would say, the most simplest way, I’m a smart hockey player,” he said when asked how to describe his game in a chat with The Inquirer. “I think I have a very strong skill set to go with that, with my skating ability and a strong stick handler and agile as well on my edges. So, I just really believe that every time I have the puck I’m a difference maker.”

A confident chap, indeed.

And he has backed it up.

Last summer, Catton notched a tournament-best eight goals and tied for first with 10 points at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup as he captained Canada to a gold medal. He followed that up with 116 points (54 goals, 62 assists) in 68 regular-season games and four assists in four playoff games for Spokane of the Western Hockey League.

At 18 years old, he finished No. 1 in the WHL with seven shorthanded goals, third in goals, and fourth in points — the latter two being the best among first-time draft-eligible players. This was after he was a finalist for the WHL’s top rookie award in 2022-23 after scoring 23 goals and 55 points in 63 games.

“Catton is a special skater,” The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler told The Inquirer. “That’s sort of the defining quality, the thing that you’ll most often hear people get excited about with Berkly is just the way that he moves — not just in straight lines, but with the puck on his stick. How shifty he is, losing guys in coverage, escaping, creating breakaways, creating odd-man opportunities for himself. He’s got a very, very high end, sort of mobility aspect to his game.”

» READ MORE: NHL draft: Carter Yakemchuk, a scoring blueliner with grit, is on the Flyers’ radar

A lot of Catton’s game development came from skating on a backyard rink his father, a science teacher, and mother, who teaches first grade, built when he was 3. It was there that he found a love for the game and it was in hockey-crazed Saskatchewan — alongside guys like Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Kevin Korchinski, Pittsburgh Penguins prospect Brayden Yager, and Riley Heidt, who was drafted by the Minnesota Wild — that Catton where he developed his competitiveness and drive to be the best.

Although the Flyers are thin down the middle and could use another high-end talent at the pivot position, there are question marks still about Catton’s size and where he could fit into an NHL lineup.

“I think he projects as a very good top-six forward in the NHL, [but] because of the frame, there have been some questions on whether he’s going to stay down the middle,” The Athletic’s Corey Pronman told The Inquirer. “Clayton Keller [of the Arizona Coyotes] was a center at the same age and he moved to the wing. Some of the NHL people compare him to Keller; I think he could be better. I think he could be a center. I think there’s some elements in his game that he plays a little better without the puck than Keller did at the same age. But I think he has a ton of potential.”

Catton has heard the comparison to Keller and is flattered, but he prefers to model his game after New Jersey Devils star Jack Hughes. He notes how fast and skilled the American is but sees the comparison more when it comes to their competitiveness and how they think the game. It’s his brain power and ability to figure out the game quicker that Catton believes makes his game bigger than his stature.

“I think my brain is bigger, really. I think you can have all the tools in the world, the hardest shot, the fastest skater, but if you don’t have a brain it’s kind of irrelevant. And it won’t really let you get to that next level,” he said. “I think the brain is the most reliable tangible that will allow you to have success because a smart player is always going to find a way.”

Catton met with the Flyers and said it was a good chat — for the record he was asked for his favorite movie, which is Gladiator, and his favorite candy, which is watermelon gummies. He thinks shot blocking is “awesome” and notes how it helps to “build momentum”; this past year he even blocked a puck with his face, he revealed with a laugh. It’s not a bad thing for a kid who knows the Flyers are a hard-nosed team.

While he’ll be donning a pin-striped, three-piece suit with a green tint and pictures of his journey to the NHL draft stage stitched on the inside, could he be throwing an orange and black jersey over it when the No. 12 pick is called?

Asked how it will feel just to hear his name called by an NHL team, Catton replied: “I feel like right when it happens, it’ll be, not a shock but I probably won’t remember much. I think it’ll be more of that after the whole deal, sitting with your family, when it will really sink in. And then after that, you wake up the next day and go back to work and, really, that’s when the work starts.”