I am going to make this simple. Not for you, for me! If you want real in depth analysis on the NHL Draft, go check out Charlie O’Connor. This guide is for the hockey fan who just found out the draft is on Friday and wants to know just enough to be involved and have a strong reaction. Who wants a sporting event to go by without being able to get super-happy or super-mad about it? It’s like how we all watch obscure Olympic Sports intently on the first day so we can erupt for the gold medal.
In many ways the Flyers are the complete opposite of the Sixers. The Flyers don’t have nearly as much talent but they are on the upswing. The Sixers are on the way down with their aging stars not expected to get any better. When their respective draft lotteries came along, the Sixers won and moved up to #3 while the Flyers lost and settled down at #6. The top-2 picks in both the NBA and NHL Drafts are pretty set, but they are followed by a group of 4 players that are all ranked about the same. By selecting at 3, the Sixers will have the burden of choosing between those 4. At #6 though, the Flyers will have the luxury of everyone else doing all their work.
Matthew Schaefer is the consensus #1 in this draft, but he is a defenseman. The Islanders will likely pick him, but he isn’t as set in stone as someone like Cooper Flagg is for the Mavericks. If NY wants scoring, they will draft the best offensive talent in the draft, Michael Misa, who put up an absurd 62 goals in the OHL last season. Whoever doesn’t go #1 will go #2 to the Sharks.
Now, just like the NBA, the next 4 all have flaws. Guys like Brady Martin and Jake O’Brien (fake ass names) could go in the Top-6, but for the most part, these 4 are the guys to know:
Caleb Desnoyers
Desnoyers is an 18 year old Center who just finished an incredibly productive season in the QMJHL. What the hell is the QMJHL? I got you: Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League.1 He put up damn near 2 points per game there because he is an incredibly adept playmaker. Like a basketball point guard, he knows where to go and what to do before everyone else does. So why isn’t he going #1? He isn’t very fast. Have you ever tried to have a conversation when it is really cold and your mouth can’t catch up to your thoughts? That is the fear of Desnoyers in the NHL. If his skating can improve, everything should come together. Apparently, skating is not like the old NFL adage “you can’t teach speed.”2
Because of that skating worry, he projects to be a high end, second line center in the NHL. Think of him like a #2 starter in a rotation rather than a backup QB though. He’s Ranger Suarez rather than Tanner McKee. The Flyers need centers and would be happy to add someone like Desnoyers even if there is no possible way for Philly fans to ever pronounce his name with any bit of confidence.
James Hagens
The centerman’s center of the draft. Hagens can get his own offense but can just as easily set up his teammates. He was once considered the top player in this draft after crushing his time with the US National Development Team. However, a solid rather than transcendent freshman season at Boston College took him from the hockey world headlines where he was replaced by Schaefer and Misa. It doesn’t help either that he is kind of small, almost 2 inches and 25 pounds smaller than Anton Frondell.
There are a lot of reasons to hate Hagens that have barely anything to do with him on the ice. He grew up an Islanders fan and then went to Boston College where he was probably indoctrinated into loving the Celtics and Cutter Gauthier. Can we bully that out of him? I believe so …or at least ruin his life trying. I’m kidding, the kid has already lit up the international stage and should be able to handle Philly and being the guy who makes Matvei Michkov an MVP candidate. All toxicity aside, Hagens is a pure center and the Flyers are desperately in need of a young linemate for Michkov. Even after getting Trevor Zegras, the Flyers simply need more playmaking.
Porter Martone
Martone is the top winger in the class and is a big dude at 6’3 210 pounds. As expected from a guy his size, he is strong but slow. That doesn’t mean he isn’t creative though. In the OHL, he had 61 assists last year and his teammates praise him for forcing their constant awareness of an incoming pass at any time. He is a goal scorer at heart but can seemingly do anything with the puck. Canada was so impressed with him that he made the National Team as an 18 year old. He didn’t get much run with the team’s superstars, but the powers that be thought having him see and learn from those guys was in his best interests. No one else here can say that.
At first you might think the Flyers don’t need another wing and you are probably right. Here is the thing though, Porter Martone is a badass. Aside from the playmaking, he hits, he fights, he annoys. The Flyers need that kind of identity back on this team. He would become a fan favorite instantly in a way that the Centers in this exercise will struggle to achieve.
Anton Frondell
Frondell is the top international skater in this year’s draft and he’s built like a brick shithouse. I’m not sure if they have those in Sweeden, where Frondell is from, but they would be roughly 6′ 200+ pounds if they do. For a hockey player, that is a lot of weight coming in a small frame. He has 20+ pounds on his contemporaries. That doesn’t mean he lumbers though. Frondell is known for a power and speed combination that is unmatched at the top of this class.
Frondell was the youngest player on his Swedish professional team, Djurgårdens IF, and helped them get promoted. Because of that success, he will not be coming over to play in the NHL right away. He will play one more season in his homeland before coming over. Philadelphia is no stranger to this as the Flyers planned to wait maybe forever on Michkov (thankfully it was only one year) and we are still waiting for Dario Saric is to come play for the Sixers.
Cool story about Frondell is that he didn’t come from a long lineage of hockey players or from the vicarious dreams of a crazy parent. His school had hockey as a sport and he wanted to play. His parents tried to discourage him by giving him pink figure skating skates second hand thinking that the fascination would pass or it would get embarrassed out of him. It didn’t. After a year of showing desire and aptitude, they got the picture.
For no reason at all, Frondell is my guy. Who am I kidding, it’s his name. A+ Mom and Dad.
Who Else?
Everyone seems to think it is center or bust for the Flyers. This means that if Martone is the only one left of the 4 above, the pick might be Brady Martin or Jake O’Brien. Both are OHL centers who put up a ton of points last year, though O’Brien lapped Martin in the assist department, even beating Martone. If Martone goes #3 or #4, then you can feel some confidence in the pick at #6. If not, things get weird.
What About the Rest of the Draft?
Even after trading away #45 for Trevor Zegras yesterday, the Flyers are still loaded with picks. After picking #6, we still have the 22nd pick from Colorado, and the 31st pick from Edmonton in the first round. In the second, we have our own at #36, #40 from Anaheim (it’s pretty awesome that Briere was able to not give the Ducks their own pick back in trading for Zegras), and #48 from Calgary. We have our own 3rd, 5th, and 6th round picks as well as an extra 5th from Carolina.
Since I do not have the ability or knowledge to prepare you for the rest of the draft, I will give you the best names of potential prospects:
- Carter Bear
- Joshua Ravensbergen (that’s the scariest name I’ve ever heard)
- Blake Fiddler (that’s the least scariest name I’ve ever heard)
- Haoxi Wang
- Ryker Lee
- Vaclav Nestrasil
- Peyton Kettles
- Malte Vass (I am pronouncing Multi-vas, all one word)
- Mason Moe (…he’s a vegetarian / Mason Moe Mason Moe)
- Viggo Nordlund (we would have a lot of Ghostbusters 2 related fun with him)
- UPDATE: Cash Koch (How does he even have time to hockey with a name like that? (PHLY Flyers))
Round 1 of the NHL draft starts Friday, June 27 at 7pm. Rounds 2- 7 are the next day starting at noon.
Thank you to Tankathon and NHL.com
days
hours minutes seconds
until
Round 1 of the NHL Draft
Philly Front Office 
Leave a comment