Nico Hischier or Nolan Patrick? For Flyers, the answer is almost here

CHICAGO  —  If  all goes as expected in the first round of Friday night's NHL draft, the 2017-18 schedule will include four meetings between the Flyers and New Jersey Devils  —  all between Jan. 13 and Feb. 13  — and their highly regarded No. 1 picks, Nolan Patrick and Nico Hischier.

Ah, but unless New Jersey pulls a stunner with the No. 1 overall selection and chooses a defenseman, which team will have which player?

The Hischier-Patrick debate  —  scouts are divided on who should go No. 1  —  has stirred lots of conversations heading into the first round at the United Center.

But it hasn't created a heated rivalry between the 18-year-old centers.

"You guys are the only ones that think it's a race," Patrick said to a media gathering Thursday outside the United Center, where the top draft prospects put on a hockey clinic for youngsters. "I couldn't care less. I don't think he thinks it's a race, either. We're just having fun here. He's an awesome guy and it's been fun hanging out with him."

Hischier said he was "a bit nervous" about what will unfold Friday, "but I know it's not up to me and I just have to enjoy it."

Both players say it doesn't matter where they end up playing.

"I don't set any expectations and don't focus on any teams because I know anything can happen," Hischier said. "I'm going to be open to anything and I'm going to be happy, for sure."

Patrick grew up around hockey. His father, Steve, played in the NHL, as did his uncle James. He has been a student of the game since his pee-wee days.

"Ever since I was young, I loved hockey and I was watching hockey maybe more than other kids," Patrick said. "I wasn't just watching it. Even my dad and uncle say when I was watching, I was picking apart the game when I was 5, 6, or 7. I think that may have helped me now. I've always loved the game and always wanted to be an NHL player."

Patrick said he has always "studied players and where they go on the ice"  —  former Flyer Danny Briere was one of his favorites  —  "and I think that's helped me."

If Patrick was four days younger, he would have been eligible for last year's draft and might have been selected No. 3, behind Auston Matthews and Patrik Laine.

"I couldn't care less," he said. "If I was four or five last year, or one this year, it doesn't matter to me. A lot of guys will tell [the media] just what they want to hear and say they don't care, but deep down they do. At the end of the day, I actually don't care. It's not going to change my chances to make the NHL if I go one or if I go four; it's up to me at the end of the day if I make it."

Patrick was a former teammate of current Flyer Ivan Provorov at Brandon in the Western Hockey League. He has had short conversations recently with Provorov and longer ones with Flyers winger Brayden Schenn.

"Provy works out about 10 hours a day, so I don't know if he ever has his phone on," Patrick cracked.

In separate gatherings, Patrick and Hischier each had dinner with  Flyers general manager Ron Hextall and his staff while attending the recent scouting combine in Buffalo.

"We talked about the club and what's important to them," Hischier said.

"All I know about him," a smiling Patrick said about Hextall, " is he's a Brandon Wheat King."

Like Patrick, Hextall once played for Brandon, which is where he was born.

"Us fellow Manitobans are always doing for each another," Patrick said.

Patrick said he is fully recovered from the two sports hernias that affected his play last season and limited him to just 33 games.

"I didn't play one game this year feeling myself and being 100 percent," Patrick said, "so I just need a good summer to get back to where I need to be."

He still managed to collect 46 points, including 20 goals, in 33 games.

"I couldn't get my conditioning back to where I wanted it to be," he said. "I did as much as I could and I wasn't pouting about it during the year."

Hischier, who skated with former Flyer Mark Streit in Switzerland last summer, had 86 points in 57 games last season with the Halifax Mooseheads in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League after playing for Bern in the Swiss A League.

With his shiftiness and his great hockey sense, Hischier is "hard on defenders," said Craig Button, the former Calgary general manager who is a draft expert for TSN in Canada. "He's got the ability to freeze defenders and keep them off-balance."

Coming to North America "was actually a hard decision because I really liked it in Bern," said Hischier, a 6-foot-1, 179-pounder who wants to bulk up in the summer and get to about 187 pounds. "But in the end, I wanted to come over and be a better hockey player."

And now he may be the best player in the Class of  '17.