if my aunt had balls, she'd be my uncle
- corduroy

Lol! Hey, its 2021: your aunt can be your uncle Very easily these days.

Looking at the league and teams potential protection list, JVR is one of the better players that will likely be exposed. He has value to a team for sure. There are however other players who are equal. What will Seattle's approach be. How quick do they want to be competitive. That will all determine how likely they are to take a high cap hit player from the Flyers.
- MJL

They will have to compete immediately or catch hell. They are being directly compared to Vegas.

To put it in a nutshell: you trade 2 players most likely projected to be middle pairing/ middle 6 guys for a guy most likely projected to be top pairing/top line.

A trade off of probabilities.
- PT21

The marginal difference isn't worth the effort/risk.

I think 2021 will look like 2007, minus Patrick Kane at the top. Will be some (very) good players interspersed in the draft, not concentrated at the top.

Just offer Laughton as incentive to take Jake

The marginal difference isn't worth the effort/risk.

I think 2021 will look like 2007, minus Patrick Kane at the top. Will be some (very) good players interspersed in the draft, not concentrated at the top.
- Tomahawk

Uncle Bob’s draft special the other month really didn’t sound too high on centers projected to go in the 1st. I would love to move up for one of the 5 big D men if the cost makes sense.

Some of our young players, at least in my opinion, are better than how they performed last year. I think you need to be a little bit careful overreacting to one year, particularly in one year, as crazy as last year was. We know they have to be better and we have to be better. I think we just want to be a little bit careful here. We've worked hard as an organization for the last seven, eight years to patiently add and draft and develop a lot of young players.
-Chuck Fletcher

Who would have expected that MJL is really Chuck Fletcher!!

Lol! Hey, its 2021: your aunt can be your uncle Very easily these days.
- arichardson22

Apparently “they” can even be both.

Does it scare anybody else that Fletcher admitted he didn’t really learn anything from the last expansion draft.
- Flyerfan328

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The marginal difference isn't worth the effort/risk.

I think 2021 will look like 2007, minus Patrick Kane at the top. Will be some (very) good players interspersed in the draft, not concentrated at the top.
- Tomahawk

I look forward to the Flyers drafting off the board again since that goes so well for them.

2011 - Sean Couturier (8th)
2012 - Scott Laughton (20th)
2013 - Sam Morin (11th)*
2014 - Travis Sanheim (17th)*
2015 - Ivan Provorov (7th), Travis Konecny (24th)
2016 - German Rubtsov (22nd)*
2017 - Nolan Patrick (2nd), Morgan Frost (27th)*
2018 - Joel Farabee (14th), Jay O'Brien (19th)*
2019 - Cam York (14th)
2020 - Tyson Foerster (23rd)

* Off the board picks

Just offer Laughton as incentive to take Jake
- Bayareaflyer

Teams will want Frost or York at the very least to take on a contract that size they otherwise want no part of.

I look forward to the Flyers drafting off the board again since that goes so well for them.

2011 - Sean Couturier (8th)
2012 - Scott Laughton (20th)
2013 - Sam Morin (11th)*
2014 - Travis Sanheim (17th)*
2015 - Travis Konecny (24th)
2016 - German Rubtsov (22nd)*
2017 - Nolan Patrick (2nd), Morgan Frost (27th)*
2018 - Joel Farabee (14th), Jay O'Brien (19th)*
2019 - Cam York (14th)
2020 - Tyson Foerster (23rd)

* Off the board picks
- Glak18

God, the Morin pick was so (frank)ing dumb. Been saying it since day 1.

Let’s not forget Pascal Leberge when we screaming for DeBrincat too.

Teams will want Frost or York at the very least to take on a contract that size they otherwise want no part of.
- hereticpride

Hopefully we just present our list and let them pick one - my bet is still they take Braun for his leadership

They will have to compete immediately or catch hell. They are being directly compared to Vegas.
- mkabbeko

I wondered this as well. Ownership told Francis he has the permission to spend to cap ceiling…so although they’ll want a lot of cheap players, they also will want to compete. Should be interesting to how he goes about collecting assets and building a team to compete fairly quickly….might be a mixture of both.

The likelihood is you normally end up keeping your first round picks, but this offseason, in particular, I think I'm more willing to look at moving it. If there's some way we can help our team, not just in the short term, but more over several years over the longer term and it cost me the first round pick, if I can get that type of asset, I'll certainly look at doing it.
-Chuck Fletcher

Translation: We have a trade in mind and talks are occurring, so there is a good likelihood of trading this pick for a good player.

Gotta be honest. I'm not really interested in anything Fletcher has to say at this point. I want to see action and lots of it! This team was dreadful to watch this past season and it needs to be fixed! It's one thing to lose games, but an entirely different story when you lose as a boring and passive hockey team. Thanks!!
- Phillywhiteout

Agreed!!

Bill do you get any sense they want Elliot back? If not who do you think they have in mind.

Who would have expected that MJL is really Chuck Fletcher!!
- jd250

Chuck said in his opinion, MJL always states things like its a fact, subtle difference.

I look forward to the Flyers drafting off the board again since that goes so well for them.

2011 - Sean Couturier (8th)
2012 - Scott Laughton (20th)
2013 - Sam Morin (11th)*
2014 - Travis Sanheim (17th)*
2015 - Ivan Provorov (7th), Travis Konecny (24th)
2016 - German Rubtsov (22nd)*
2017 - Nolan Patrick (2nd), Morgan Frost (27th)*
2018 - Joel Farabee (14th), Jay O'Brien (19th)*
2019 - Cam York (14th)
2020 - Tyson Foerster (23rd)

* Off the board picks
- Glak18

Neither Frost or O'Brien were really off the board picks. Frost was projected as an early 2nd round pick and O'Brien was projected to go in the latter half of the 1st round. Both players were drafted relatively close to where they were projected to go and both players will demonstrate soon they were good picks!

The 2016 draft was probably the worst in terms of the the top picks, though Hextall redeemed himself later in that draft with Hart, Allison and others. In the end, the play was not to trade down in the 1st round to get Rubtsov, but to trade up and get a good player.

Neither Frost or O'Brien were really off the board picks. Frost was projected as an early 2nd round pick and O'Brien was projected to go in the latter half of the 1st round. Both players were drafted relatively close to where they were projected to go and both players will demonstrate soon they were good picks!

The 2016 draft was probably the worst in terms of the the top picks, though Hextall redeemed himself later in that draft with Hart, Allison and others. In the end, the play was not to trade down in the 1st round to get Rubtsov, but to trade up and get a good player.
- jd250

I thought JOB was off the board, no one could gauge how good he was because he came from high school, and level of competition weren't were what the other picks were.

Looking at the league and teams potential protection list, JVR is one of the better players that will likely be exposed. He has value to a team for sure. There are however other players who are equal. What will Seattle's approach be. How quick do they want to be competitive. That will all determine how likely they are to take a high cap hit player from the Flyers.
- MJL

The gauntlet has been thrown down by Vegas, and thus I really don't think Seattle has much of a choice. The expectation from their fanbase will be to be a competitive team, if not right out of the gate, very soon thereafter. I don't think anyone should expect an expansion team to get to the finals their first year, but Vegas has shown with the right approach and smart moves, a new team can be competitive right out of the gate. Thus, barring any trades, Francis will pick JVR. He has the cap space to do it, and he will want a good veteran player to balance with the younger players he selects or obtains via trade or draft. Ghost has too much uncertainty and everyone who watches hockey knows what a liability Jake is. JVR will be the pick!

I thought JOB was off the board, no one could gauge how good he was because he came from high school, and level of competition weren't were what the other picks were.
- bradster

Consensus Rankings

Morgan Frost (2017 - 45th)
Jay O'Brien (2018 - 51st)

We obviously have 2 different understandings of what off the board means.

I thought JOB was off the board, no one could gauge how good he was because he came from high school, and level of competition weren't were what the other picks were.
- bradster

not at all, watch this video when he was selected:

https://www.nhl.com/flyer...19/t-277437426/c-60647203

Watch Hextall's reaction, it looks like he is the cat that got the canary.

The reality is that there are 30 teams subject to the expansion draft and even though Vegas is exempt, add them in for good measure… because all 31 teams will wish for a bad contract or two to be taken by Seattle. So even if Francis were inclined to be the leagues dumping ground for players that didn’t make sense in the flat cap era, there’s a lot of competition.

not at all, watch this video when he was selected:

https://www.nhl.com/flyer...19/t-277437426/c-60647203

Watch Hextall's reaction, it looks like he is the cat that got the canary.
- jd250

Maybe when O'Brien finishes off his NCAA career and becomes a UFA then Hextall will look like he got 2 canaries when he tries to sign him.

Consensus Rankings

Morgan Frost (2017 - 45th)
Jay O'Brien (2018 - 51st)

We obviously have 2 different understandings of what off the board means.
- Glak18

I don't know where you are getting these rankings from. Button had O'Brien potential for the latter half of the 1st round and McKenzie had O'Brien at 34, but also stated that its quite possible that anyone at the front of the 2nd round can slide into the 1st round. I posted the video, you can watch it yourself.