The first round of the 2024 NHL Entry Draft isn’t happening until June 28, but with the NHL Draft Combine happening last weekend in Buffalo, connections between teams and prospects are starting to emerge.
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At the combine, beyond 18-year-old players going into pure exhaustion on stationary bikes and jumping as high as they can, all 32 NHL teams have the opportunity to interview the players they like and get a better read on them as a person, beyond the stat sheet and scouting reports. And according to one report, the Philadelphia Flyers are really starting to like offensive defenseman Carter Yakemchuk.
Per Russ Cohen of Sportology, the Flyers spoke with Yakemchuk at the combine and when mentioning the team in front of the player in his separate media availability, the WHL blueliner gave a slight smile. That’s right, we are reading into reactions when naming certain teams for players.
Beyond that, according to Cohen, the Flyers are really hoping Yakemchuk is available at 12th overall and the team will most likely take him if he is.
And that connection makes all the sense in the world. Yakemchuk is a sizeable blueliner at 6-foot-3 and is incredibly aggressive as a defender, but has also been miraculously offensive with his 30 goals and 71 points 66 games for the WHL’s Calgary Hitmen this past season. As you can read more in our profile of Yakemchuk, he really feels like a boom-or-bust player that has the ceiling to be a top, all-situations type of defensemen that championships are built upon.
In addition to talking to Yakemchuk in Buffalo, the Flyers also reportedly took the chance to chat up a couple other players who they could potentially be selecting on June 28.
Notably, center Lucas Pettersson, winger Teddy Stiga, and defensemen Leo Sahlin-Wallenius and Tanner Henricks, all had discussions with Philadelphia management over the weekend. All four of those players could be available when the Flyers make their second trip to the podium with the 31st- or 32nd-overall pick from the Florida Panthers.
It truly seems like the Flyers are already planning their first-round strategy before any picks are made and it feels the same as last year. Yakemchuk is a player with extremely high upside but can become a player who just scratches the surface of his potential at the professional level; while the theme with those four players feel more like high-ceiling prospects and players who might not hit the highest of ceiling, but can be reliable NHLers one day.
Does that sound familiar? It feels eerily similar to what general manager Danny Briere and his squad did with their two first-round picks in 2023, selecting ultra-high-upside winger Matvei Michkov first and then going a tad bit safer by taking defenseman Oliver Bonk. So far, that has worked out tremendously for them, with Michkov potentially coming over and putting his stamp on the NHL two years earlier than expected, and Bonk putting in the work offensively for a very good London Knights team.
We love balance, folks. If the Flyers end up taking Carter Yakemchuk, you know he is going to be a fan favorite the second he lays out a big hit and then rockets up the ice to score a goal during prospect camp.
