Five years after selecting Nolan Patrick at No. 2, the Flyers must get it right in the 2022 draft

Five years ago, the Flyers selected center Nolan Patrick No. 2 overall in the 2017 NHL draft out of the Western Hockey League. They are still feeling the ramifications of that pick.

In three days, the Flyers will have the chance to make some amends, as they hold the fifth pick in the 2022 draft.

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It will be the fourth time since the turn of the century the Flyers have picked in the top five and the sixth time they’ve picked in the top 10. They will be hoping to have better luck this time around.

Two of the Flyers’ three top-five picks developed into good NHL players. James van Riemsdyk (No. 2 in 2007) has averaged 22 goals and 43 points over his 13 seasons. Joni Pitkänen (No. 4 in 2002) was a top-25 defenseman in his early years. However, van Riemsdyk had his best years, including his only two 30-goal seasons and only four 50-point seasons, while playing away from the Flyers . Pitkänen requested a trade after just four years with the organization.

But the Flyers’ most glaring draft miss is Patrick.

In 197 games with the Flyers, Patrick scored just 30 goals and 70 points before being traded.

Patrick was hampered by a lot of misfortune when it came to injuries. He missed nine games in his rookie season after his head hit the glass following a check from then-Anaheim Ducks forward Chris Wagner on Oct. 24, 2017, just 20 days after his NHL debut.

Then, ahead of the 2019-2020 training camp, Patrick was diagnosed with a migraine disorder. General manager Chuck Fletcher said the migraines were not hockey related. Patrick missed the entire season because of his migraines.

After that, Patrick had trouble getting back to being the player he was before, the one that NHL Network projected to be the breakout player of the 2018-19 season.

“It was really hard. I feel like I came in behind the eight-ball, for sure,” Patrick said in May 2021. “I was struggling to find my game and I really didn’t adjust great and get to the top of my game quick.”

Fletcher, on the other hand, saw the 2020-2021 season as a positive, first and foremost because Patrick got through it healthy and played in 52 of 56 games.

Patrick described that summer as the “most important offseason of my life,” but he never got a chance with the Flyers. Ahead of the 2021-22 season, the Flyers traded Patrick and Philippe Myers to the Nashville Predators for defenseman Ryan Ellis. The Predators immediately flipped Patrick to the Vegas Golden Knights.

Even with the change of scenery, Patrick continued to struggle. Multiple ailments, including another head injury following a hit from Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon, limited him to just 25 games for the Golden Knights. Meanwhile, Ellis managed to play just four games for the Flyers before missing the rest of the season with a mysterious, “multi-layered” injury. Fletcher recently said Ellis is ramping up his rehab but his future remains uncertain.

Missing on the Patrick pick cuts even deeper considering all four of the other top-five picks from the 2017 draft class — Nico Hischier, Miro Heiskanen, Cale Makar, and Elias Pettersson — have turned into NHL All-Stars. Makar, picked fourth, two spots behind Patrick, recently won the Stanley Cup with the Avalanche, the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP, and the Norris Trophy as the league’s best defenseman. Dallas’ Heiskanen (No. 3 overall) has emerged as one of the league’s top young defensemen, and Elias Pettersson, picked three spots after Patrick, is a two-time All-Star who has averaged almost a point per game (0.90 ppg) since entering the league in 2018.

Flyers legend Bob Clarke threw more gasoline on the fire in January when he claimed then-Flyers general manager Ron Hextall went against scouts’ wishes by drafting Patrick.

“We get the second pick in the draft and we end up drafting Nolan Patrick,” Clarke said. “None of our scouts wanted Nolan Patrick … Of course he went next [Makar actually went fourth]. Now he’s a superstar and Patrick hasn’t played ... but Hextall made that choice himself.”

The Flyers made another first-round selection 25 picks later. They selected Morgan Frost who has struggled so far to become an NHL regular.

In the five years since, only one Flyers pick, Joel Farabee (No. 14 in 2018), has made a consistent impact at the NHL level. Jay O’Brien, the Flyers’ other first-round pick in 2018, is still playing college hockey and hasn’t progressed as expected. German Rubtsov, the Flyers’ first-round pick in 2016, has yet to play an NHL game and was a throw-in in the Claude Giroux trade to Florida.

Fletcher took over after 2018 and selected Cam York at No. 14 in the first round of the 2019 draft. While York saw an increased role last season, Fletcher has been giving him time to develop in the AHL. Finally, Tyson Foerster (No. 23 in 2020), played junior hockey last season and it is too early to tell if he will pan out.

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There are some reasons for hope with later-round picks. Noah Cates (No. 137 in 2017), Ronnie Attard (No. 72 in 2019) and Bobby Brink (No. 34 in 2019) made good impressions when they joined the Flyers at the end of last season, but in terms of first-rounders, the Flyers have mostly missed the mark.

Assuming they hold onto the pick, Thursday’s draft will mark the Flyers’ highest pick since Patrick in 2017. The team is coming off the second-worst season in franchise history, and the front office has said they are both looking to win now and build for the future.

At his offseason new conference on Wednesday, Fletcher said he still views high draft picks as one of the best ways to bring in high-end talent. However, you first have to make the right selection, and then you have to have some luck, especially when it comes to injuries. The Flyers haven’t had much of that in recent drafts, with so many of their players and prospects missing significant time with injuries.

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Then there is Fletcher. After two straight disastrous seasons, multiple coaching changes, some questionable roster moves, and a checkered draft history, the pressure is clearly on the Flyers’ GM. Fletcher and the Flyers absolutely must get this pick right, and his job could hang in the balance.

The Flyers say they want to turn things around quickly and avoid a full rebuild. The easiest way to do that is by building and acquiring talent through the draft. To do that they will have to break away from their unfortunate recent draft history. That starts Thursday with the fifth overall pick.