It might not seem apparent, but the Philadelphia Flyers are setting their master plan in motion in advance of the 2025 NHL Draft.
At the 2024 NHL Draft in June, the Flyers selected Jett Luchanko, Jack Berglund, and Heikki Ruohonen, three two-way centers with contrasting physical traits that make them unique from one another.
The fleet-footed Luchanko is a smaller, blazing fast center with untapped potential, Berglund is the tall, physical beast who excels in the final 20 feet of both ends of the ice, and Ruohonen is an evenly-split mix of his two fellow Flyers prospects.
Between one those three and Flyers captain Sean Couturier, the Flyers have at least half of their top-six centers sorted.
The only wingers the Flyers drafted in June were little-known Russian trickster Ilya Pautov and Ohio State power forward Noah Powell, which is fine after the organization secured Matvei Michkov in the 2023 draft.
Powell is already showing signs of a potential NHL future, but it’ll be some time before he adds to a winger core that already includes Michkov, Tyson Foerster, Travis Konecny, and Owen Tippett.
Considering that the Flyers still have Joel Farabee and Bobby Brink in addition to youngsters like Denver Barkey, Alex Bump, and Samu Tuomaala, there isn’t a whole lot of room to add more young wingers at this time.
2025 NHL Draft
Barring something truly catastrophic, there’s no way the Flyers are landing some of the 2025 NHL Draft’s aces, like James Hagens, Porter Martone, Anton Frondell, or Michael Misa. Roger McQueen, Jakob Ihs-Wozniak, Viktor Klingsell, Caleb Desnoyers, and Ivan Ryabkin could very easily play themselves out of the equation, too.
All signs point to the Flyers aiming for a blue-chip defenseman. Erie Otters defenseman and Canada captain Matthew Schaefer is an early favorite to emerge as the top defenseman of the draft class.
He’s neck and neck with Swedish blueliner Sascha Boumedienne, who’s committed to Boston University, with Americans Logan Hensler and Blake Fiddler, the son of longtime NHLer Vernon Fiddler, quickly making names for themselves.
Fiddler is one of the youngest players in the draft class, and as a 6-foot-4, 200-pound right-shot defender, could easily emerge as a top-10 pick with massive upside 10 months from now.
Note that the Flyers currently have three first-round picks in the 2025 NHL Draft, though the ones they acquired from Colorado and Edmonton are expected to be much lower picks than the Flyers’ own pick.
Perhaps a team that underachieved in the 2024-25 season would be willing to move back and perhaps allow the Flyers to make two picks in the top-16, rather than one like they are currently projected.
Outside of Cam York, Oliver Bonk, and potentially Jamie Drysdale, the Flyers do not have many long-term pieces on defense who figure to lead the charge in the race for the Stanley Cup. Further to that point, Bonk is the only one of those three taller than 6-foot.
The jury is still out on Egor Zamula and the diminutive Emil Andrae, while Adam Ginning and Ronnie Attard are running out of time to nail down NHL roles as older prospects.
As such, the Flyers’ next step in the rebuild is landing a true franchise rearguard, preferrably in the mold of a Chris Pronger.
