After making a total of seven draft picks in the 2024 NHL Draft, including two in the second round, the Philadelphia Flyers have officially stamped and sealed their 2024 draft class.
Things got off to a curious start for the Flyers, as they traded down one spot with the Minnesota Wild only to shock the whole building and grab Guelph center Jett Luchanko with the 13th overall pick. But the one thing that Luchanko and the other Flyers draft picks have in common, aside from hockey IQ? That’s upside, and Philadelphia wants all of it.
Luchanko was already regarded as a competitve, athletic forward who was one of the fastest and smartest players in the class, and the Flyers apparently believe that there’s top-of-the-lineup potential somewhere in their new draft pick.
Jack Berglund, the son of former Devils forward Christian Berglund, was the Flyers’ next draft pick and next center added to the equation, but was generally considered to be a significant reach with the 51st overall pick. Berglund plays a heavy game at 6-foot-3, and though his production was generally unimpressive this year, the 18-year-old did turn in a solid performance with Sweden’s U18s.
Only a few picks later, the Flyers moved back into the second round and grabbed Spencer Gill, a 6-foot-4 defenseman from Rimouski in the QMJHL. He’s tall, physical, mobile, willing to get involved offensively, and has a lot of tools that will aid him at the NHL level. I think Gill, at least right now, is my favorite Flyers draft pick of the weekend.
Forwards Heikki Ruohonen, Noah Powell, and Ilya Pautov followed Gill in the fourth, fifth, and sixth rounds, and defenseman Austin Moline joined the party in the seventh round to close things out.
Ruohonen is a bit of a project, as is Powell, the late bloomer heading to Ohio State. Moline, a bit of an older player, has some traits similar to Gill, and he’ll be going to Northern Michigan University after the end of this season.
I know almost nothing about Pautov, but he was decent in Russia’s MHL, where Ivan Demidov stood head and shoulders above everybody else.
Initial Grade: C
In a vacuum, this is a really solid group of players. The issue is that there’s very little dynamism here, and the Flyers left heaps of talent on the board in favor of size and/or traits. The Flyers passed on Zeev Buium, Konsta Helenius, Teddy Stiga, Leo Sahlin Wallenius, Kevin He, Javon Moore, Aron Kiviharju, and Luke Misa; some of these guys generated serious buzz as sleepers or were already considered top draft picks the whole year.
With three picks in the first round of the 2025 NHL Draft, the Flyers need to mean business this time next year.
