2024 Draft Recap: Philadelphia Flyers
Philadelphia's prospect feast added impressive talents to an already appealing menu
NASHVILLE (The Draft Analyst) — Those familiar with my work know how I feel about draft report cards, even if I’ve been guilty of feeding that beast throughout the last 10 years. But my thoughts on the latest 2024 results will be more than broad brush strokes, as pinning the rose on 12 uninterrupted months of in-depth analysis from both the team and prospect standpoints requires more than the standard letter-grade marking scheme acting as the rubric. Rather, draft hauls will be evaluated and labeled on the following criteria, which I think are both fair and reasonable:
Strong — Any four of potential franchise player(s) drafted; needs addressed; first-round caliber picks in the second or third round; multiple home-run swings in later rounds; point-producing sleepers; the majority of prospects were in top-line/top-pairing/starter roles (Ex. Buffalo’s 2022 draft)
Above-average - Any three of needs addressed; multiple home-run swings; acknowledged consensus favorites; the majority of prospects were in top-line/top-pairing/starter roles; making more with less; first-round quality in the second or third round. (Ex. Carolina’s 2023 draft)
Average — A solid first- or second-round pick but mostly unspectacular thereafter (Ex. Colorado’s 2020 draft)
Below-average — Quantity over quality; over-drafting of higher-round picks/reaching; four picks or less with no first-round selection; obsession with overagers (Ex. New York Rangers’ 2018 draft or Ottawa’s drafts from 2021-2023)
Poor — Any three of unpopular reach in the first round, no picks in the first or second round; needs not addressed, obsession with overagers, leaving upside on the board for projects, or bucking popular consensus choices (Ex. Arizona’s 2020 draft)
Outlook
There was little ambiguity surrounding Philadelphia’s intentions for the 2024 draft, as GM Daniel Briere pointedly stated he desired to grab at least one center on one or both days. Understandably so, as he was forced to move potential opening-night starter Cutter Gauthier last January when the 2022 fifth-overall pick demanded a trade. Additionally, Briere’s pipeline was disproportionality heavy on the wing by more than a three-to-one margin, mostly because only one of Philadelphia’s 18 picks between 2019 and 2021 played the pivot, and that was 2021 seventh-rounder Owen McLaughlin. Armed with two first-round picks and 10 in total, the suspicion was that Briere wasn’t going to marry himself to any of his draft capital, including the 12th overall pick, and the added dead space from the buyout of veteran Cam Atkinson mere hours before the draft all but confirmed that any move Briere would make would not be designed to fetch an established roster player.
MORE: 2024 NHL Draft Report (PDF Download)
Traded picks
Few GMs were as busy with pick movement as Briere, as he executed four trades, with two involving each of his first-rounders. His first salvo fired was trading down from 12 to 13 with Minnesota, which drafted playmaking defenseman Zeev Buium at the cost of a third-round pick in 2025. The Flyers would grab center Jett Luchanko, a speedy pass-first setup man who carried the mail for understrength Guelph in the OHL. Briere struck again later in the evening when he traded the 32nd pick to Edmonton for a top-12-protected first-rounder in 2025.
On Day 2, Briere was told by the Columbus Blue Jackets that they would be keeping their high second-rounder per the conditions of the Ivan Provorov trade, so he packaged his 77th pick and a 2025 third-rounder (Philadelphia’s own) to Nashville for No. 59, which he used to draft defenseman Spencer Gill. His last deal of the weekend was a shrewd one — he shipped Los Angeles’ fifth-rounder (from the Zach McEwen trade) and St. Louis’ sixth (from the Kevin Hayes trade) to Calgary for a high fourth-rounder, which Philadelphia used for power center Heikki Ruohonen.
Draft picks
Assessment: Above-average
Scouting director Brent Flahr had not been shy about revealing his intention to add high-IQ prospects every year, although that didn’t necessarily make it easier to narrow the Flyers’ list to a handful of names. Any draft class will have a cluster of cerebral players at every position, so it’s important to avoid thinking the seven players added to Philadelphia’s pipeline last weekend are unique or even a cut above those also drafted in their respective rounds. Nonetheless, six of the seven players chosen were undisputed top-line or top-pairing performers for the respective junior teams and four were ranked within the top 35 of NHL Central Scouting’s North American or European skater rankings. The three centers chosen, however, are unique within Philadelphia’s collective haul, and in some cases their pipeline as a whole. No current Flyers’ center prospect offers Luchanko’s speed-playmaking-defense blend, nor does one provide Jack Berglund’s hulking frame and plus-level 200-foot play, and European power centers with solid tournament performances and an Ivy League pedigree such as Harvard-bound Heikki Ruohonen are rare finds anywhere, let alone in a seven-round amateur draft.
Surprisingly, the Flyers did not reactionary-draft a pure power-play quarterback in the wake of their success rate with the man advantage dropping from a league-worst 15.6 percent in 2022-23 to a franchise-worst 12.2 percent last season. Although it’s possible righty problem-solvers Zayne Parekh and Carter Yakemchuk were strong considerations had both been available outside the first nine picks, Philadelphia’s selection of two centers before trading up to take big-bodied, right-shot defenseman Spencer Gill could be proof that improving the power play wasn’t going to dictate how the Flyers drafted, at least from the back end. Still, the drafting of cement-footed overager Noah Powell – the USHL’s leading goal-scorer and a productive net-area presence – and the upper-cut taken on dynamic Russian flanker Ilya Pautov can be labeled as Philadelphia indirectly addressing the ineffectiveness of their power play with two wingers who could one day make it better.
The Flyers’ only gamble during the weekend was on seventh-round prep defender Austin Moline, who will attend Northern Michigan after serving as a middle-pairing type on a powerful Shattuck-St. Mary’s attack. Could they have reached back for a little extra on their proverbial final pitch of the game? I certainly would have, especially since Danil Ustinkov and Tomas Galvas were available, but Moline has the edge in size, and we all know what they say about that.
MORE: 2024 Draft: Round 1 Pick-by-Pick Analysis and Grades
Favorite pick(s)
I would be lying if I said I wasn’t partial to Berglund, Ruohonen, and Pautov before the draft, and part of this assessment process is my initial reaction when the names are announced, and I did some fist-pumping for all three. In terms of personal rankings, I had Berglund ranked 62nd, Ruohonen 79th, and Pautov part of a cluster right outside my top 100 (which is where Gill landed as well). And to be completely frank, dozens of draft prospects bored me to death and made games uninteresting, but that was never the case with the aforementioned Europeans. Although the long game probably applies to Ruohonen, or any Ivy League student-athlete for that matter, as well as the smaller, quicker Pautov and his muted Michkovian traits, it is the bigger, stronger Berglund who not only is SHL-ready (which generally means Lehigh Valley in 2-3 years), but a potential training-camp head-turner whose checking ability and size get his ticket punched sooner than later.