In the early stages of their rebuild, the Philadelphia Flyers certainly aren’t complete when it comes to building their future, but they have had a pretty good start. With one draft under the belt of new management already, it might be a hint as to what the team does in the future.
Flyers Not Afraid to Draft Best Player Available
Generally, it is a good practice to draft who your scouts believe is the best player on the board, especially when it comes to your most valuable draft selections. When the Flyers selected Matvei Michkov with their seventh-overall pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, they showed that they will be willing to take whoever they feel can help their team the most.
This has been an ideology that has actually been a theme for quite a while for the Flyers, although it hasn’t always resulted in success. Drafting the player who scouts believe is the best player on the board is not only giving credit to their work and showing confidence in them, but it also makes sense logistically. Typically, settling early in the draft would be a bad idea. It is probably not a good idea to draft someone that the organization isn’t thrilled about. Scouts are and should be enthusiastic about their work, so taking the best player on the board typically makes sense.
Stanley Cup-winning teams are usually built through the draft. Hitting on a select few players is all you need, even if some of them do not pan out. Everyone forgets about the selections that do not develop if a team is a winner. The picks that are slam dunks are praised for years to come. For the Flyers, they have shown that they will either go down swinging or hit it out of the park.
Flyers Willing to Address Biggest Needs
A serious need for the Flyers going into the 2023 NHL Draft was defensive prospects. More specifically, they lacked right-handed defensemen. After taking who they thought was the best player available in Michkov, they decided to select a position of need in Oliver Bonk with the 22nd overall pick.
Related: Flyers’ Matvei Michkov Will Be an Immediate Star in the NHL
After the Flyers took what they thought was a steal earlier in the night, they decided to round out their first round by improving at the defensive position. Ideally, you want to always draft the best player on the board. That is not to say Bonk wasn’t the best option, either. It could just so be that he was the best player on the board to them. Even if he wasn’t, it is still important to deviate from drafting the best player every single time. Every part of a prospect pool needs to be addressed in order to not expose weaknesses.
The former general manager (GM) of the Flyers, Chuck Fletcher, appeared on NHL insider Elliotte Friedman’s 32 Thoughts Podcast prior to the draft and provided some important insight on the drafting process. Specifically, he was asked about the debate about drafting for need versus drafting for positional value:
“Sometimes your needs can come into place a little bit more there if you feel they are similar on your list… go with what you feel you need.”
– Fletcher on drafting approaches
Fletcher stated that drafting the best player is probably the best approach with this considered. The Flyers did this with their first selection. They gave themselves the luxury of being able to draft via position later on. In the 2024 NHL Draft, Philadelphia might be leaning toward taking a defender to give themselves an impact player for the future on the back end. If all the prospects are similar, there shouldn’t be a reason why the Flyers aren’t able to round out their core a little bit.
Flyers Preaching Organizational Depth
In the 2023 NHL Draft, the Flyers also went ahead and acquired two goaltenders in the second and third rounds in Carson Bjarnason and Yegor Zavragin. While this could be seen as a bit startling for current starting goaltender Carter Hart, it actually makes a lot of sense.
It is known that it takes goaltenders a while to develop into NHL-caliber players. As such, the Flyers are drafting for years in the future, which could potentially be when Hart is no longer a part of the team’s plans regardless of if he signs an extension or not. This goes along with drafting the best player available; the Flyers do not care how strong they are at one position, they are fine with drafting for depth at a position where many teams are not. Depth is important in the NHL, and it can cost a pretty penny to acquire at times. These moves can be investments for your own team, or at worst sold for future assets if a team is too loaded at a certain position.
GM Danny Briere and his team hit pretty much all the boxes when it comes to drafting. They went with a process that gives them lots of opportunities. If their approach will be revisited in the future, it seems to be a successful one.