The Philadelphia Flyers will find themselves in unfamiliar territory during the first round of the 2024 NHL Entry Draft on June 28. For starters, they’ll be at Sphere in Las Vegas, Nevada, a unique entertainment center that presumably few if any members of the team’s front office have ever set foot in. But also uncommon is their positioning in the first 32 selections. The Flyers have the 12th pick in this year’s draft — and the 31st or 32nd, depending on if the Florida Panthers lose or win the Stanley Cup.
Barring a trade, this will be the second of three straight seasons the Flyers make multiple first-round picks. Last year, they picked Matvei Michkov seventh overall before also choosing Oliver Bonk at pick No. 22, which they acquired from the Columbus Blue Jackets as part of the three-team Ivan Provorov trade (the Los Angeles Kings, the other team in that deal, traded the pick to Columbus plus a 2024 third-rounder and Jonathan Quick for Joonas Korpisalo and Vladislav Gavrikov that March).
The Flyers own Florida’s first this year from the Claude Giroux trade at the 2022 Trade Deadline. Next year, the Flyers own their first-round pick and the Colorado Avalanche’s, which came from sending Sean Walker to the Avs in March while also eating Ryan Johansen’s bad contract.
It’s still too early to know if the Michkov and Bonk picks will pan out, although both are trending positively. What we can do is examine the other five years in Flyers history the team has made at least two first-round picks. Those instances are spread out throughout the franchise’s 57-year history, spanning multiple eras of hockey and Flyers front offices.
1971 Amateur Draft
The Flyers didn’t succeed much with first-round picks at the start of their history. Serge Bernier (fifth overall in 1967) and Lew Morrison (eighth overall in 1968) combined for fewer than 800 NHL games and neither eclipsed 200 points. Both of those figures easily eclipsed their first-round pick in 1969 — Bob Currier never played in the NHL — or 1970, when the team traded its pick to the Boston Bruins for Rosarie Paiement.
The Picks: General manager Keith Allen made up for trading the 1970 first-rounder by trading beloved goaltender Bernie Parent to the Toronto Maple Leafs in a three-player, five-asset trade. After a first-round sweep against the Chicago Black Hawks, the Flyers found themselves with the eighth pick, with the Toronto pick coming in one slot later.
The Players: The Flyers doubled up on forwards (they wouldn’t use a first-round pick on a defenseman until selecting Mark Suzor 17th overall in 1976). Center Larry Wright was their first selection, but he was the weaker of the two choices. Wright scored only 12 points in 108 games. The Flyers traded him as part of the package to acquire Reggie Leach in the 1974 offseason, a key piece in the team’s second straight Stanley Cup victory. Wright returned to the Flyers as a free agent in 1975-76 but played just two games. His career ended after a 66-game stint with the Detroit Red Wings in 1977-78.
Ninth pick Pierre Plante found more success, although it mostly came away from Philadelphia. After unremarkable stints in his first two seasons, Plante was traded to the St. Louis Blues two games into the 1972-73 campaign. Defenseman André “Moose” Dupont was the key player coming back, who played 549 games across eight seasons for the Flyers, winning two Cups and leaving a lasting impact with the club (from ‘A hockey stickboy remembers the kindness of a Broad Street Bully’, The Oklahoman, Oct. 12, 2020). Plante put up back-to-back 50-point seasons with the Blues after the deal, playing 599 games in his career, which ended after the 1979-80 season.
The Ideal Choices: We’ll only look within the rest of the first rounds of the applicable year to prevent too much hindsight. The New York Rangers chose Steve Vickers as the next choice, and he went on to win the Calder Trophy and scored at least 50 points in seven seasons, passing the 80-point mark twice. Terry O’Reilly, the 14th and final pick of that year’s first round, would’ve been the ideal Broad Street Bully, racking up 606 points and 2,095 penalty minutes in a 14-year career spent entirely with the Boston Bruins. Either would’ve been much better picks than Wright, but Plante put up fairly comparable numbers with both (just not in the PIM department with O’Reilly).
1978 Amateur Draft
The Broad Street Bullies were in a lull at this point, losing in the second round for the second straight year after reaching three consecutive Finals. That was enough to be considered a slump given their success at the time, sparking the need for an extra infusion of young talent.
The Picks: This is the first and so far only time in franchise history that the Flyers have made three picks in one first round. Their original selection was the latest of the three (14th overall), with the other two coming back-to-back, just like in 1971. They were even slightly higher this time. The Pittsburgh Penguins gave up the sixth pick the day before the draft for Tom Blandon, Orest Kindrachuk and Ross Lonsberry. The seventh pick became Philadelphia property as compensation for the New York Rangers hiring away their head coach Fred Shero.
The Players: The Flyers used their highest pick on a blueliner for the third straight year in Toronto native Behn Wilson. His NHL career started very well, with Wilson finishing fourth in Calder voting in 1979-80 and putting up a career-best 63 points two years later. He scored 68 points over the next two years combined, which led to a trade with Chicago for Doug Crossman and a draft pick. It worked out very well for the Flyers, as Crossman scored at a similar rate as Wilson, while the Flyers used that pick (27th overall in 1984) on Scott Mellanby. Wilson had one more standout scoring season in Chicago, tallying 51 points in 1985-86. But the next season was his last in the NHL.
Allen hit on the next pick as well. Center Ken Linseman was coming off roughly a point-per-game season with the Birmingham Bulls of the World Hockey Association. His production translated to the NHL, as Linseman played 860 games at a similar scoring rate. He led the 1981-82 Flyers in scoring with 92 points. Both he and Wilson were big playoff performers in Philly as well. Linseman scored 53 points in 41 playoff games with the team, while Wilson scored 31 in 42 contests from the backend. Both were key parts of the 1979-80 team that holds the NHL record for longest unbeaten streak (35 games) and reached the Stanley Cup Final (from ‘The best that never won: After a record streak, a blown call ended the 1979-80 Flyers’ quest for a third Stanley Cup,’ Philadelphia Inquirer, Feb. 12, 2019).
Linseman continued to succeed after being the centerpiece (along with a first-round pick) of the Mark Howe trade with the Hartford Whalers in 1983. It was a great trade for the Flyers, as Howe delivered 10 years of Hall of Fame caliber play in orange and black. But Linseman was no slouch, scoring at least 60 points in the next seven seasons after the deal. He also received Selke Trophy votes in 1987-88 and, most importantly, won the Stanley Cup as a member of the Edmonton Oilers team that broke up the New York Islanders dynasty that beat Linseman and the 1980 Flyers in 1983-84. He briefly returned to Philadelphia in 1989-90, the third to last year of his career.
There isn’t as much to write about 14th pick Dan Lucas. The right winger played six NHL games in 1978-79, scoring exactly one goal. As a wise man once said, two out of three ain’t bad.
The Ideal Choices: There’s not much here. Not counting the players taken before the Flyers’ first pick, Linseman had the most points of anyone selected in the first round. Wilson is third, with 16th overall pick Al Second slotting between them with 495. Whiffing on Lucas hurts, though, as he was one of four out of 18 picks in the round to play fewer than 500 games. Atlanta Flames pick Brad Marsh (No. 11) tops that list with 1,086 games, nearly half of which came with the Flyers from 1981-88.
1992 Entry Draft
After being consistent contenders throughout their first 20 years of existence, the Flyers fell into a rut at the start of the 1990s. After missing the playoffs two times from 1968-89, the 1991-92 season was Philadelphia’s third straight out of the postseason. They were rebuilding, although their efforts would receive a shot in the arm 10 days after the 1992 Draft when they traded for Quebec Nordiques holdout and 1991 No. 1 pick Eric Lindros. Rebuilding teams tend to accumulate first-round picks, so that’s just what GM Russ Farwell did.
The Picks: After drafting Peter Forsberg sixth the previous year, the Flyers were in a similar position in 1992, holding the seventh pick. However, Farwell swung a blockbuster trade during the 1991-92 season with the Penguins that saw Rick Tocchet, Mark Recchi and three other players swap jerseys. The trade began Recchi’s first of two stints with the Flyers and netted the Flyers the 15th pick, which Pittsburgh had originally acquired from the Los Angeles Kings.
The Players: The problem with a rebuild is that accumulating assets isn’t enough — you have to execute with them. The foresight that Farwell found when drafting Forsberg evaded him in 1992. Seventh-overall selection left winger Ryan Sittler (the son of Hall of Famer and former Flyer Darryl) didn’t play a game in the NHL due to multiple injuries. Jason Bowen, another left-winger, managed only 77 games and just two goals.
The Ideal Choices: The saving grace for the Flyers is that the 1992 Draft didn’t turn out to be anything special, at least in the first round. Four of the six picks after Sittler played less than 100 NHL games. This draft haunts the Flyers less for who they did pick than it does for those who were picked right before their selections. Cory Stillman went at No. 6, scoring 727 points in 1,025 career games. Hall-of-Famer Sergei Gonchar was snapped up by the Washington Capitals one pick before the Bowen selection as well.
Gonchar obviously would’ve been the right pick at No. 7, although it’s not fair to call Sittler a bust because of the effect of injuries. The New Jersey Devils and Penguins found gold with back-to-back selections, taking future Flyers captain Jason Smith and six-time 20-goal scorer Martin Straka at picks No. 19 and 20. Some other picks had solid careers as depth pieces, most notably Toronto Maple Leafs selection Grant Marshall (No. 23). But it’s not like the Flyers were the only ones to strike out this year.
2003 Entry Draft
In contrast to 1992, the 2003 Draft is considered one of the greatest in league history. It is full of numerous Hall of Fame candidates, and while its depth is incredible, the first round featured plenty of great players as well. The Flyers were one of four teams to have multiple firsts that year (the Kings had a draft-high three), which put them in a better position to capitalize on this great crop of talent than most clubs.
The Picks: The Flyers’ first-round pick was 24th after a 107-point regular season but a second-round loss to the Ottawa Senators. However, general manager Bobby Clarke pulled off a tidy piece of work with the Phoenix Coyotes, acquiring their second-round pick in 2022 plus what turned out to be the No. 11 pick in 2003 in exchange for Daymond Langkow.
The Players: Capitalize is what the Flyers did. GM Bobby Clarke took a couple of centers and did pretty well for himself. The first was selected right between two of the weaker picks of the round (Andrei Kostitsyn at No. 10 to the Montreal Canadiens and Hugh Jessiman at No. 12 to the Rangers). That was Jeff Carter, a 20-goal scorer out of the box whose 2008-09 campaign is still the last time a Flyer hit the 40-goal mark. He received Hart Trophy votes once and Selke Trophy votes twice.
While Carter was a bit quiet in the team’s run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2010 (he was tied for 10th on the team in points), Mike Richards certainly did not. Carter was the flashier, more skilled of the picks, while Richards won fans over with his tenacity and relentlessness. Richards’ 23 points in the 2010 Playoffs were second on the team and he scored arguably the most famous goal of the run in the Eastern Conference Final clincher.
Richards’ value to the team went beyond that run, of course. He delivered four straight 60-point seasons in Philadelphia and was a perennial Selke contender, finishing second to Pavel Datsyuk in 2008-09 (he also scored a career-high 80 points that year). Ultimately, locker room concerns plus the ticking clock of a massive extension set to kick in for Carter and a no-move clause on Richards’ contract led to the blockbuster trades of both on June 23, 2011.
It’s hard to say the Flyers won the trades since Carter and Richards teamed up to win two Stanley Cups in Los Angeles (Richards was directly traded there, while Carter all but forced his way out of Columbus after 39 games). However, the Flyers really couldn’t have gotten much more in return. Trading Carter netted the Flyers Jakub Voracek, a top-line caliber player for most of his 10-year tenure in orange and black. They also acquired the No. 7 pick for Carter, using it on Sean Couturier, who did what Richards and Carter couldn’t and won the Selke and now wears the same “C” that Richards once did. Even the third-round pick in the deal became Nick Cousins, who’s closing in on 600 games played and is in his second straight Stanley Cup Final, both with the Florida Panthers.
Brayden Schenn was regarded as one of the best players outside the NHL when the Flyers acquired him in the Richards deal, which came two years after he was drafted No. 5 overall. While he never lived up to that hype, he was a solid Flyer for six seasons before being sold high, acquiring two first-round picks for the St. Louis Blues that turned into current Flyers Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost (although it did require suffering through two seasons of Jori Lehtera to get them). Schenn also found success outside of Philadelphia, winning a Cup with the Blues and later becoming their captain.
Schenn was good in Philly, but never as beloved as Wayne Simmonds, the other player the Flyers got back in the trade. He possessed many of the same characteristics as Richards — unflappable, hard-working, and pretty darn good at hockey. The $3.975 million cap hit he carried for most of his time with the Flyers made him one of the best bargains in the NHL. He played 213 games for four teams after the Flyers traded him as a rental in 2019, but his best days came in Philadelphia, as evidenced by his decision to retire with the club on a one-day contract at the end of this season. The Flyers even got a second-round pick in the trade as well, using it to acquire Nicklas Grossmann.
The Ideal Choices: Zach Parise stands out as a bit of a heartbreaker — he was captain and tied for the third most points on the 2012 New Jersey Devils team that beat the Flyers in the second round (the Wells Fargo Center hasn’t seen Round 2 playoff hockey since). Ryan Kesler went the pick before Richards and had a similar but longer career (although he at least won a Selke). The Flyers tried to have their cake and eat it too when they boldly offer-sheeted Kesler in 2007, but the Vancouver Canucks matched the one-year, $1.9 million deal rather than take a second-round pick as compensation (a good call by the Canucks).
Right winger Brent Burns (No. 20 pick by the Minnesota Wild) had a solid career, but defenseman Brent Burns won a Norris Trophy with the San Jose Sharks and is still going strong at 39 years old (they are the same person, with Burns making the rare defender-to-forward position change flawlessly). And while Richards and Carter were a solid base, the Flyers didn’t even make out the best among teams that chose two forwards in the first round.
That honor belongs to the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, who took Ryan Getzlaf at No. 19 and Corey Perry at No. 28. Both were Hart finalists for the Ducks (Perry won the award in 2010-11, along with the Rocket Richard), but more importantly, helped Anaheim win the 2007 Stanley Cup (from ‘The 2003 NHL draft changed the league and Anaheim Ducks for the better,’ Los Angeles Daily News, May 11, 2015). Getzlaf retired after 1,157 games in 2022, all spent with Anaheim. Perry, meanwhile, will play in his fifth Stanley Cup Final starting this Saturday (June 8, 2024), although the 2007 championship remains his only one. For now, anyway.
2015 Entry Draft
The Flyers had much regular season and some playoff success in the Carter-Richards era and some immediately after the trades, too. But the team was stuck in the league’s mushy middle and cap hell by the mid-2010s, causing new GM Ron Hextall to institute a rebuild on the fly.
The Picks: Philadelphia’s 82 points were its fewest since the 2006-07 season, putting them at seventh-worst in the NHL. But the team netted another first-rounder from the Tampa Bay Lightning, who parted ways with the pick (plus a third-rounder and Radko Gudas) to acquire Braydon Coburn. The trade helped the Lightning reach the Stanley Cup Final, putting the pick just one selection from the end of the first round at No. 29.
The Players: The Flyers were the second team in the draft to take a defenseman, following the Carolina Hurricanes’ choice of Noah Hanifin by selecting Ivan Provorov. The pick looked great early on, with Provorov debuting in his draft-plus-two season and rapidly transitioning into a top-pair role in the NHL. His 17 goals in the 2017-18 season were tied for the most in the league among defenders, and after a junior year dip in 2018-19, he was back at top pair levels after the Flyers flipped Gudas for a platonic Provorov partner in Matt Niskanen.
But after Niskanen retired following the 2019-20 season, Provorov’s game dipped for good. By the end of his Flyers career, it was clear he was a bit of a malcontent. That led to the aforementioned three-team trade that got the Flyers their second first-round pick in 2023 and Walker, who they parlayed into Colorado’s first-rounder next season. Provorov is set to be an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season, so it will be interesting to see where his career goes.
Hextall didn’t make the 29th pick, trading it with the 61st pick to move up five spots in the first round. The player the Flyers drafted there, Travis Konecny, has also had his ups and downs. He jumped to the NHL the same season as Provorov and after an alright rookie season put up 24 goals in three straight years, leading the 2019-20 Flyers in scoring. Then, he potted just 27 across 129 games over the next two seasons, a concerning dose of regression.
Like Provorov, Konecny was staring at a crossroads. But his story, at least so far, has gone in a different direction. Konecny’s last two seasons have been his best, with his 33 goals this season the most by a Flyer since Claude Giroux in 2017-18. He does share one more thing in common with Provorov — a contract that expires at the end of 2024-25. He’ll be getting paid when it ends — the only question is who will be writing the check.
The Ideal Choices: Each of the next three picks after Provorov has more points than him, which is never a good sign. His current teammate Zach Werenski was the next selection, who is a better pick than Provorov but not by a massive margin. Ninth pick Timo Meier has been inconsistent at times, but does have three 30-goal seasons to his name. The big fish went right after Meier at No. 10 to Colorado — Mikko Rantanen. He’s been in the top 15 in regular season scoring four straight seasons and is third in points per game in the playoffs over that time. Not to mention he was also the second-highest-scoring member of the 2022 Stanley Cup champion Avalanche during their playoff run.
However, Konecny was unequivocally the best pick to make. You could argue the Flyers should’ve traded up one spot higher with the Canucks and gotten Brock Boeser instead, but there’s little separation between those two. Konecny hit the 400-point mark at the end of this season — only two players the rest of the first round (Jack Roslovic and Anthony Beauvillier) have eclipsed 25 points, and neither of them have cleared 250. The picks the Flyers traded to move up turned into Gabriel Carlsson and Jeremy Bracco, both of whom are currently playing overseas.
The Takeaways
Of the 13 players taken by the Flyers in the first round of years they had multiple picks in the opening round, only three (Wilson, Provorov and Bonk) are defenders. None are goaltenders. In terms of the success of the players taken, let’s separate them by grades. Michkov and Bonk are excluded given their young age, of course.
A: Travis Konecny (No. 24 in 2015), Jeff Carter (No. 11 in 2003), Mike Richards (No. 24 in 2003)
B: Ken Linseman (No. 7 in 1978)
C: Ivan Provorov (No. 7 in 2015), Behn Wilson (No. 6 in 1978), Pierre Plante (No. 9 in in 1971)
D: N/A
F: Ryan Sittler (No. 7 in 1992), Jason Bowen (No. 15 in 1992), Larry Wright (No. 8 in 1971), Dan Lucas (No. 14 in 1978)
These grades are a combination of what the player did in Philadelphia, what they did in their entire career and the value of the player relative to those picked after them. For example, Konecny’s grade gets a boost because he turned out to be head and shoulders above those taken right after him. These grades are based on how good of a decision the pick was, not necessarily how good the players’ careers turned out to be, although in the case of Carter and Richards their play was strong enough to get them into “A” territory even though there were some better players on the board when they were taken.
Related: Flyers’ 5 Best Drafted Defensemen in Franchise History
It’s helped that the last two times before 2023 the Flyers had two first-round picks turned out to be arguably the two best drafts of the 2000s. Michkov is the first player in these drafts not playing in North America when selected (Provorov is Russian but was playing in the Western Hockey League when he was chosen). The Flyers have found success with some smaller players as well, too, as Konecny, Richards, and Linseman all come in under six feet tall.
Players of all different types can succeed or fail to develop. But giving yourself multiple high picks helps, as 1992 was the only year the Flyers failed to find a quality NHLer with two or more firsts. If current GM Daniel Brière continues that success over the next two years, the players they choose will be in a great position to do something none of the above picks mentioned did — win the Stanley Cup as Flyers.
