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History, trivia, the good and the bad of Flyers draft history

Five mock drafts and none have the same prediction for the Flyers at No. 23 in the first round.

Alexis Lafreniere will likely be taken by the Rangers with the No. 1 overall pick.
Alexis Lafreniere will likely be taken by the Rangers with the No. 1 overall pick.Read moreRyan Remiorz / AP

The Flyers have seven picks in this year’s draft, the second under general manager Chuck Fletcher. Here’s the nuts and bolts.

What: NHL Draft, held virtually over two days.

First round: Tuesday, Oct. 6, 7 p.m. (NBCSN)

Rounds 2-7: Wednesday, Oct. 7, 11:30 a.m. (NHL Network)

Flyers picks: No. 23 (1st round), Nos. 54, 116, 147, 178, 202, 209.

Who are they getting?

Obviously, things are fluid, but colleague Sam Carchidi talked with draftnik Ryan Wagman, who dropped a handful of names from Jacob Perreault to Lukas Reichel to Mavrik Bourque. Some mock drafts:

NBC Sports: Brendan Brisson, C

TSN.ca: Tyson Foerster, RW

NHL.com (three projections): Jacob Perreault RW, Brendan Brisson C, Jan Mysak C

DraftSite.com - Lukas Reichel, RW

PuckProse.com - Rodion Amirov, LW

From the notebook

  1. Alexis Lafreniere will be the first pick by the Rangers, and figures to be a thorn in the Flyers' hip pad for as long as he’s in the division. Lafreniere, a 6-foot-1, 193-pound left wing, scored 112 points (35 goals, 77 assists) in 52 games for Rimouski Oceanic of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. He’ll be 19 on Oct. 11 and is expected to step into the NHL next season.

  2. Two of the Flyers' division rivals, Pittsburgh and the N.Y. Islanders, do not have first-round picks. Neither does Vancouver. Arizona lost its second-round pick this year, and first-rounder in 2021, for improperly testing draft prospects.

  3. Center Ridly Greig is ranked 14th among North American skaters. His father, Mark, was a former Flyers farmhand who is now a scout for the club.

  4. Tim Stuetzle figures to be the highest-drafted German player since Edmonton took Leon Draisaitl third in 2014. Stuetzle’s game has been compared to Patrick Kane.

  5. Hard not to love the size of Quinton Byfield (6-4, 215), whose speed also has scouts salivating. Byfield’s dad is Jamaican, mom is Canadian. “I would like to be a role model for kids to look up to,” Byfield told the Detroit News. “The game is for everyone.”

Chuck’s picks

Ranking Chuck Fletcher’s first-round picks while he was the GM in Minnesota.

1. Matt Dumba (7th, 2012)

2. Alex Tuch (18th, 2014)

3. Jonas Brodin (10th, 2011)

4. Mikael Granlund (9th, 2010)

5. Nick Leddy (16th, 2009)

6. Joel Eriksson Ek (20th, 2015)

7. Luke Kunin (15th, 2016)

8. Zack Phillips (28th, 2011)

Historically speaking

Stats and facts about players previously drafted where the Flyers (for now) are picking this year.

No. 23 pick

  1. The Flyers have twice previously had the 23rd pick. In 1972, they selected Tom Bladon, who played on the Cup teams. In 1986, the drafted Jukka Pekko Seppo, a forward from Finland who had trouble adapting to the intense style of the Flyers' then-second year coach. “He came over, we brought him to camp, and Mike Keenan destroyed him,” Bob Clarke once told The Inquirer. “I couldn’t get the kid to come back.”

  2. Ray Whitney (1991), Todd Bertuzzi (1993) and Ryan Kesler (2003) are the No. 23s who’ve played in 1,000 NHL games. Whitney scored 1,064 points. Current Islanders goalie Semyon Varlamov, who the Flyers beat in overtime in Games 5 and 6 in the conference semifinals, was the 23rd overall pick in 2006 by Washington.

No. 54 pick

  1. Defenseman Duncan Keith, who has won three championships with Chicago, was taken at No. 54 in 2002. The Flyers' first pick that year also was on a defenseman: Joni Pitkanen, No. 4 overall. Doh!

  2. Tim Hunter, an enforcer in the 1980s and ’90s, and the Calgary Flames all-time leader in penalty minutes (2,405), was picked 54th in 1979.

Best of the rest

  1. No. 116: The Flyers have picked twice here and neither player (Clayton Norris, 1991; Colin Suellentrop, 2011) played in the NHL.

  2. No. 147: This is where Montreal selected agitator Brendan Gallagher in 2010.

  3. No. 178: Mark Stone, who has been a stud for Vegas, was picked 178th by Ottawa in 2010. This also is the spot the Flyers selected Zac Rinaldo in 2008.

  4. No. 202: Here’s where the Flyers took Giroux. Check that. That was Ray Giroux in 1994. He made it to the big leagues five years later with the Islanders.

  5. No. 209: Not a lot here, as expected, though Penguins fourth-liner Scott Wilson scored three goals during Pittsburgh’s Stanley Cup run in 2017. Good YouTube video of him after the clincher.