The Philadelphia Flyers completed their first round of the 2024 NHL Draft, and, well, it was a shocker, to say the least. They made the most surprising pick of the night by taking Jett Luchanko with their 13th overall selection, who was a second-round graded player by many. With arguably the best defensive prospect that we have seen in the last few seasons, Zeev Buium, miraculously on the board but the Flyers choosing to trade back a spot, this was definitely a questionable decision.
Really, it’s not about the player. Luchanko could theoretically be a fantastic roster fit for the Orange and Black in the future. Plus, there are actually some things to like about him, but that’s a conversation for another day. Simply, this is not the type of pick that you’d expect out of the Flyers in their “New Era of Orange,” but rather, one you’d expect from the failed eras of the past. It wasn’t just the pick, either—this was a long time coming. The red flags were waving long before June 28.
The Flyers Reached Despite Being in a Rebuild
In theory, passing on one of the most intelligent players in the 2024 class who put up the most incredible offensive totals for a draft-year defenseman that we have ever seen in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for a player who doesn’t have any star traits other than his skating—a trait in which Buium excels in, too—probably isn’t a good idea. Again, it’s not that Luchanko can’t succeed—he is still a teenager and could reach some untapped potential. At the end of the day, though, you are drafting based on what you see out of these young men in the present and what they project to be in the future.
Just to paint a picture, HockeyProspecting has Buium at an 81 percent chance to be an NHLer with a 73 percent chance to become a star. Luchanko, on the other hand, was projected at a 56 percent chance to be an NHL player and a 21 percent chance to be a star. Things can obviously change considering Luchanko is one of the younger players in the class, but this is not the way you’d like to see a team in a rebuild operate. Needing the best player at every turn, the Flyers reached quite a bit. Luchanko can be a great second-line center if he develops well, but the risk is passing on an elite first-pairing defenseman.
Really, this pick from general manager (GM) Danny Briere reminds you a bit of how someone like GM Ron Hextall would operate. First-round reaches (and misses) were sort of his motto during his time with the Orange and Black, but even that was a bit more excusable for him. Never did he admit that he was in a rebuild, nor did he take a player over a dozen spots ahead of where they were projected when a player who probably should have been a top-five pick was available. At the end of the day, this was a big reach. Luchanko can change this with a massive campaign in 2024-25, but that’s a lot to ask out of the youngster.
Briere’s Quotes for the Pick Mimic Hextall’s Rationale
Even though foresight says this was a not-so-great pick, you must be thinking that Briere had a good reason to pass on someone like Buium, right? Well, the answer to that question is, no, he didn’t. Really, it reminds you of something Hextall—who is no longer an NHL GM—would say:
Buium, a player who projects to be better than all three of Cam York, Jamie Drysdale, and especially Emil Andrae, was not drafted because of their presence in the organization and the fact that they need size. To pass on him because he is a “smaller guy,” even though he is bigger than all three of the names Briere mentioned is, at best, completely illogical. All of a sudden, size now matters to a GM who was 5-foot-9 when he played the sport of hockey. This is definitely one of his weirdest and out-of-character moments.
In a sense, it reminds you of the Flyers with Hextall. Having prospects like Ivan Provorov, Travis Sanheim, Philippe Myers, Samuel Morin, Robert Hagg, and others, they certainly couldn’t afford to take another defenseman with a draft pick. Today, only one of those is a first-pairing defenseman and he is objectively a below-average one. Things can change over time, which is why you should usually take the best player on the draft board. The fact that the Flyers have Andrae does not excuse passing on Buium—at all.
Seeing as the top five age-18 defensemen in terms of points are Buium, Lane Hutson, Adam Fox, Luke Hughes, and Zach Werenski, the youngster being small is not the best rationale in the world. Briere is talking and thinking like Hextall, and that’s not good.
Flyers Unwilling to Trade Roster Players
If the Flyers liked Luchanko so much, they probably could have had him and even more had they been willing to trade roster players. Nobody outside of an NHL front office knows for sure what the prices were, but there could have been a world where the Flyers landed their guy and at least one other. Then, they could have been justified in taking their guy so high.
Instead, what did they do? Nothing. Despite being in a rebuild with an incredible draft board, they stood pat and did absolutely nothing. Veterans like Travis Konecny and Scott Laughton, who will be in their late 30s by the time phenom Matvei Michkov is in his late 20s and in his prime, probably could have been dealt to take an elite talent. Even someone like Cole Eiserman, who fell to the New York Islanders at the 20th pick, could have perhaps saved this draft a little bit. Instead, Briere reached, sat back, and traded his last draft pick of the first round with some great players like Igor Chernyshov, Nikita Artamonov, Cole Hutson, and Aron Kiviharju on the board, and he was done.
The Flyers are desperate to keep roster players who are unlikely to take their rebuild to the next step, which is, again, something that plagued Hextall. He was never aggressive with anything, keeping players like Claude Giroux, Jakub Voracek, and Wayne Simmonds on the team even as they started to exit their peaks. With the Flyers having no direction nor upside when those players were at their best, trading them could have benefitted them. Instead, they were traded far too late for a fraction of their worth (though Giroux did return Owen Tippett).
Very likely, most of their roster players won’t have a big impact on Michkov when he is at his best. So, what’s the point of keeping them when you can land draft picks who can help him? Acquiring one of the top talents could have made the Luchanko pick an invited one by almost everyone, but Briere went another route.
Flyers’ Commitment to a Rebuild Is Questionable
This was the big red flag that I was talking about. Early on, it really did seem like the Flyers were rebuilding. They traded Provorov for a nice package and drafted Michkov. But that’s when the rebuild seemingly ended. After that point, they jumped the shark. They reached on players in the 2023 NHL Draft, took a lesser talent primarily because he had ties to the organization, and rarely traded roster players.
Related: GM Danny Briere’s Actions Don’t Prove Flyers Are Rebuilding
If the Flyers were to have been just slightly more aggressive in the 2023 offseason, perhaps they wouldn’t have been set to pick 12th. Maybe they could have gotten one of the players that their scouting department viewed as the best for the taking. Instead, they won more games than many expected with a decent roster on the ice, hurt their draft odds, and now they are in the present. While it is true that they sold a roster player like Sean Walker at the trade deadline, the Pittsburgh Penguins weren’t too far out of a playoff spot at the time and traded Jake Guentzel. They aren’t openly rebuilding, so that doesn’t prove the Flyers are, either.
In all, the Flyers have traded two key roster players since Briere took over for the rebuild. Much like Hextall, it doesn’t seem like he is committed to actually making the team better in the long term. Michkov is not enough—even he needs talent around him. After this draft, the Flyers are almost exactly where they started. Making very little progress projection-wise, Briere did not have a great night. Things always change and projections are just that, but the Flyers seemingly made some mistakes. It exposed a lot of fears that, really, should have been apparent from the start.
Hopefully, nothing but the best is ahead of Luchanko—he might be able to live up to his selection, too. He is being put in a spotlight that, frankly, he probably never expected. It’s going to be a lot to handle for the youngster, but can he grow and break prospect models across the hockey world?
