The Philadelphia Flyers were slated to draft another player in the first round of the 2024 NHL Draft in June after selecting Jett Luchanko with the 13th overall pick.
Instead, the Flyers punted the pick, making a straight swap with the Edmonton Oilers. The trade sent Florida’s first-round pick (32nd overall, the last pick of the round) to Edmonton for a 2025 first-round pick, with nothing added. A pick for a pick.
So, rather than selecting a player they have scouted all year leading up to that point, the Flyers elected to punt the pick to 2025 hoping that the pick is slightly higher than 32nd.
Unfortunately, the value of a pick is decided by the player it’s used to select, not the number order it is assigned.
Some players left on the board were consensus second-rounders, while some were fringe first-rounders. A few more were first-round talents who carried a lot of risk but also a lot of upside. Those are the kinds of players the Flyers should be targeting with a pick as late as 32nd in this rebuild.
While winger Igor Chernyshov was generally considered to be the highest rated player still available at the time, another Russian winger, Nikita Artamonov, was also sitting there, ripe for the picking.
Artamonov fell all the way down to the 50th overall pick, where the Carolina Hurricanes snapped him up. If you recall some of my Flyers mock drafts, I was heavy on taking a swing on a player like him.
Fast forward to Oct. 9, 2024, and Artamonov suddenly has seven goals, six assists, and 13 points in 13 KHL games with Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod.
For the sake of comparison, the 18-year-old had seven goals, 16 assists, and 23 points in 54 games with Torpedo last season, and even spent some time in the MHL.
Although he played on a much worse team, Flyers rookie Matvei Michkov had 19 goals, 22 assists, and 41 points in 47 games with HC Sochi in his D+1 season last year.
This is all to say that Artamonov, who is on pace for 37 goals and 68 points, is producing at a historic rate, and the Flyers basically just said ‘Eh, we’ll pass’ on a player like that.
Of course, producing at the NHL is a different beast, but prospects aren’t good NHLers until they’re good NHLers. You have to see it to believe it in this league.
Unfortunately, the Flyers’ perplexing decision to punt a draft pick outright means that if they do see it with Artamonov, it will be with a division rival, the Hurricanes.
