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POST-DRAFT MUSINGS: JUNE 25, 2018
1) For profiles on the strengths, weaknesses and Ron Hextall's takes on each of the eight players the Flyers selected in the 2018 NHL Draft, click here.
2) To me, the post-Draft development of Jay O'Brien is the biggest key to this year's Draft for the Flyers. He's this year's Morgan Frost. If one believes that Joel Farabee stands a good chance at becoming a solid top-six forward at the NHL level down the line, O'Brien is Philly's primary hope for a second future NHL impact player from this year's Draft (just as Frost's OHL MVP runner-up season this year has raised hopes of him supplementing Nolan Patrick as first-round successes).
O'Brien's offensive and all-around upside is quite high in its own right but untested against higher grades of opposition. Lack of high-level exposure combined with being smallish height-wise was the main reason O'Brien wasn't ranked higher.
Some have said that the Flyers should have traded down if O'Brien was their target. There is some validity to it but 1) It takes two sides to make a trade. The additional asset coming back in a trade-down scenario has to be worthwhile, which requires a motivated trade partner and not one who is reasonably content standing pat and just spitballing an offer to see if your team will bite; 2) If the Flyers traded down, depending on how far, they might have had to pick a different player. At least according to Pierre McGuire, the Rangers were targeting O'Brien with one of their late first-round picks. Another source said Minnesota had interest in O'Brien. Boston, who lacked a first-round pick this year, was rumored to be unsuccessfully looking for avenues to trade up. Thayer Academy product O'Brien would have been a pick right in line with Boston's tendencies.
I have never seen O'Brien play, apart from Youtube highlight videos. But Flyers and non-Flyers scouts in the know on him, whose judgment I trust, say he was a first-round talent who merely needed a team to be confident enough to step up on him. Additionally, at least two of the pundit pubs -- Grant McCagg's Recrutes (which ranked O'Brien 25th) and HockeyProspect.com's NHL Draft Black Book (24th) -- had O'Brien in latter first-round range. McKeen's had him 48th but that was primarily because he was often able to stickhandle at will around his high school competition and needed more suitable opposition.
O'Brien is known to be a very self-confident player with a bit of swagger (in a good way) to him. During O'Brien's first media availability after his selection, he said he was "not too surprised" to go 19th overall in the Draft. He also said that while some have questioned his level of competition beyond a handful of games with the USNTDP (where he briefly got to know teammate Farabee) and the USHL's Youngstown Phantoms, he feels that he would have competed successfully at any level.
3) Beyond the first round of the Draft, the Flyers basically targeted organizational depth on defense and projected role-playing forwards. At 50th overall, with a subsequent gap of 62 picks until their next turn, Adam Ginning was a pretty safe pick.
The Flyers were of a mindset where they were going to pick a defenseman in the 2nd round -- and may have been trying to move up as they did last year -- unless a forward considerably higher on their pre-Draft list was still on the board.
Without knowing exactly where they had Akil Thomas on their list, I suspect that he may have been Philly's pick at 50th if they had taken a defenseman with one of their first-round selections. They were not, however, so enamored with him that they'd have used a third straight pick on a skilled but undersized forward and then waited until round 4 to make their first blueline pick.
Keep this in mind: A draft doesn't exist in a one-year vacuum. The Flyers have taken a slew of forwards in recent Drafts: Farabee and O'Brief to lead off this year, Patrick, Frost, Isaac Ratcliffe, Matthew Strome and Maksim Sushko last year, German Rubtsov, Wade Allison and Pascal Laberge within the first two-rounds in 2016, Travis Konency and four other forwards (including Mikhail Vorobyev and David Kase) in 2015.
As a matter of fact, ever since taking Ivan Provorov with the seventh overall pick of the 2015 Draft -- their only blueline draftee that year -- the Flyers had only selected a grand total of three defensemen since that point. Last year, seventh-rounder Wyatt Kalynuk (a puck-moving/offensive collegiate defenseman) was the Flyers only defense pick. In 2016, puck-moving/ two-way projection Linus Högberg was a fifth-round pick and offensive-minded David Bernhardt in the seventh round.
As such, beyond the injured Samuel Morin, highly regarded Phantoms defenseman Philippe Myers and the smallish but fast Mark Friedman at the AHL level, the Flyers had very little in the works, defense-wise, in the farm system. The defense prospect depth ranks needed replenishment. There was also not a single projected shutdown type with size to be found.
The more offensively dynamic (and righthanded) but severely undersized Calen Addison and draft re-entry defenseman Sean Durzi were still on the board at 50th. I though the Flyers might go for Addison over Ginning and then look for size/ play without the puck a bit later in the Draft, but I didn't hate the Ginning pick by any means. I see the line of reasoning behind it.
Ginning is basically a latter-day defensive defenseman; not a plodder, decent enough passer, balances positional play with physicality. He has to get better in his game with the puck on his stick -- by his own admission -- but he's adequate enough at it to already be a regular starter at the SHL level. Internationally, Ginning was the shutdown half of an effective U18 national team pairing with Chicago first-rounder Adam Boqvist for Sweden.
There is no star-talent offensive upside with Ginning. But if he someday fits in an NHL top six as a physical 16-to-18 minute a night partner for a more puck-dynamic D and kills penalties effectively, it's not a bad outcome for a 50th overall pick.
After Ginning, the Flyers took two additional defensemen: Yale-bound USHL defenseman Jack St. Ivany and Everett Silvertips defenseman Wyatte Wylie. Neither are likely to be power play types at the NHL level (although St. Ivany was 6th in scoring among USHL defensemen), but Wylie in particular is a very good skater, plays well within structure and has PKing upside.
The two forwards the Flyers took late in the draft -- USNTDP center Gavin Hain and Swedish center Marcus Westfält -- are both bottom-size types if they eventually make it to the NHL level. While there could be a bit of offensive upside, scoring wouldn't be either's main expecation. Both are hard-working and physically strong forechecking types. Hain isn't tall but he is deceptively strong with a low center of gravity. Wesfält is tall, with a broad frame.
As for the goalie the Flyers selected, Westfält's Brynäs teammate Samuel Ersson, the Flyers weren't specifically targeting him but they had him as a third-round Draft range goaltending prospect. When he was still on the board at 143rd, they decided that it made sense to pick him at that point.
Ersson will be on loan next season from Brynäs -- where he would otherwise spend another year at the junior level -- to Allsvenskan team Västerås. He may not get a lot of minutes even for VIK next season but there's no rush and there should still be some opportunity to play against a higher grade of competition than the SuperElit level where he is already well-established.
4) Generally speaking, the 2018 Draft crop was a below-average one for CHL players (especially WHL, which was unusually thin) but deep in talents from other circuits. Even so, it was a surprise that the Flyers picked only one CHL player (Wylie) and zero Canadians: five Americans, three Swedes.
5) Starting tomorrow, the blogging focus will shift over to impending start of free agency season. All of the same challenges with which the Flyers exited the playoffs are still there.
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2018 Flyers Charity Classic
The 2nd annual Flyers Charity Classic will take place on July 15, 2015. There have been some changes this year -- new bike routes, staggered start times, the creation of a Flyers Alumni Team, more entertainment and Fanfest activities, etc. -- but the basic setup is the same. As with last year, the event is sponsored by Toyota.
The Charity Classic is a city-wide event incorporating a 5k walk/run through the Philadelphia Navy Yard, a 10-mile family bike ride through the Navy Yard and FDR Park, and two bike rides – a 50K and a 100K – spanning the sights and sounds of Broad Street, through historic Valley Forge Park leading back through MLK Drive to the Wells Fargo Center Complex.
In addition to the Classic, families of participants and fans alike will have all-day access to the Flyers Fan Fest: family-friendly outdoor games, inflatables, street hockey, food and more. After-party live entertainment will be provided by Chico's Vibe.
The biggest participating team last year, both in terms of number of participants and funds raised, was the Ides of Marsh, captained by Brad Marsh. An avid long-distance cyclist, Brad and members of his family will be doing the 100k bike ride again this year. However, there will be team members taking part in all of the different events and everyone will be together later in the day for the after-party.
Last year, I did the 5k walk/run as an Ides of Marsh member and, thanks to the generosity of my HockeyBuzz readers, family members and friends, raised $425. I also lost weight over the summer getting ready for it. This year, my wife is also planning to take part with me in the family 5k, and our goal is raise money than last year as well as to lower my 5k finish time from last year (although the events are strictly for enjoyment, not a competition).
The Flyers Alumni Team, as with the Ides of Marsh, is open to the public to join and there will be able opportunity for fans to interact with their favorite Alumni during the day, even if they participate in a different event.
With more names to come, the confirmed participating Flyers Alumni Team members to date are as follows: Danny Briere (family 5k walk/run), Terry Carkner (family 10-mile bike ride), Bob Clarke (5k walk/run), Doug Crossman (5k walk/run), Paul Holmgren (100 k bike ride), Kerry Huffman (5k walk/run), Joe Kadlec (5k walk/run), Bob "the Hound" Kelly (5k walk/run), Ian Laperriere (100k bike ride), Neil Little (family 10-mile bike ride), Jim McCrossin (100k bike ride), Bernie Parent (family 10-mile bike ride), Dave "the Hammer" Schultz (5k walk/run) and Joe Watson (family 10-mile bike ride). Chris Therien (5k) is organizing a team within the Alumni Team called Bundy's Chariot of Flyers.
Fans can also sign up for a team captained by Flyers Hall of Fame inductee Brian Propp. Brian's group is called Team Guffaw.
All proceeds raised from registrations and team fundraising benefit Flyers Charities and the Flyers Alumni Association and the various non-profit organizations they support throughout the Greater Philadelphia region. The Flyers Alumni component will be donated toward the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation's goal to build a new rink in the Delaware Valley for use by the Snider Hockey kids.
In terms of individual fundraising, there is an escalating scale of rewards offered:
$50 – Flyers ball cap.
$200 – pair of upper of level tickets to a Philadelphia Flyers hockey game for the 2018/19 season + Flyers ball cap.
$400 – pair of lower level tickets to a Philadelphia Flyers hockey game for the 2018/19 season + Flyers ball cap.
$1,000 – pair of Flyers tickets in the Alumni Party Suite, a Flyers jersey autographed by the Flyers Alumni + Flyers Ball Cap.
The game tickets will be for a mutually agreed upon Philadelphia Flyers home game in October of the 2018/19 season.
There is also a team fundraising incentive component, with Flyers Charities offering donations to a charity of the participating team's choice. More information is available here.
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