Keith Jones and Daniel Brière want young and impactful players, with the former alluding to the fact that he wants to build from the defense-out. While entering a rebuild, your timeline for contention can range anywhere between 3-5 years – usually – and the Philadelphia Flyers want to be able to conclude this fix as soon as possible.
Brière is taking clues from the Boston Bruins, Colorado Avalanche, and New Jersey Devils, while implementing his own final touches on what he believes is going to be the recipe for success. It all starts on the 28th of June when all eyes will shift towards Bridgestone Arena in Nashville as the first round of the 2023 NHL Entry Draft will take place.
It has been touted as a deep and loaded draft and you can find a really good player anywhere in the first round, should you be lucky enough to have a pick, let alone two like the Arizona Coyotes, Detroit Red Wings, and the Montreal Canadiens. The Philadelphia Flyers are smack-dab in the middle of some potentially elite future stars and should be able to add another prospect to their pipeline.
Connor Bedard, Adam Fantilli, and Leo Carlsson should be picked 1-2-3 with Matvei Michkov going soon after unless the Russian factor kicks in. One of Will Smith, Zach Benson, Ryan Leonard, and Oliver Moore will be available for the Flyers to draft and any one of them will be a boon for their future.
Picking 8th are the Washington Capitals, 9th are the Detroit Red Wings, 10th are the St.Louis Blues, 11th are the Vancouver Canucks, 12th are the Arizona Coyotes (again), 13th are the Buffalo Sabres, 14th are the Pittsburgh Penguins, 15th are the Nashville Predators, 16th are the Calgary Flames, 17th are the Red Wings again, and 18th are the Winnipeg Jets. What most of these teams and picks have in common – with the exception of a couple – is that they are re-tooling or contending teams that want to make the leap next season.
As long as the Capitals have Alexander Ovechkin, they will always be in a win-now mode. Add in veterans like Nicklas Backstrom, Evgeny Kuznetsov, T.J. Oshie, Tom Wilson, and John Carlson, and I’m sure they can be swayed into moving the pick for the right price.
The Vancouver Canucks announced to the world that they are still re-tooling and even though they traded Bo Horvat for Anthony Beauvillier, Aatu Raty, and a first round pick, they ended up moving that pick to Detroit for Filip Hronek. They currently have no cap space as of today and are in fact slightly above the cap and in desperate need to shake things up. They need to move contracts and perhaps they can finagle a deal that involves a bad contract and their 11th overall pick to a rebuilding team.
Buffalo missed out on the postseason by 1 point as the Florida Panthers edged them out for the final Wild Card spot. They made a massive leap with their run being led by Tage Thompson and Alex Tuch, the resurgence of Jeff Skinner, the strong play from Rasmus Dahlin, and perhaps they found their keys to their crease in Ukko-Pekka Luukonen and Devon Levi. They won’t be completely willing to move the pick but with where they stand right now, they can afford to move from the 13th spot.
The Pittsburgh Penguins have a dried up pipeline but are in a similar spot as the Capitals where their window is slowly shutting – if it already hasn’t. They fired Ron Hextall and Brian Burke and in turn hired Kyle Dubas as their President of Hockey Operations for 7 years. He did a relatively good job in Toronto with his later picks, which can be a boon for moving the 14th overall selection. They are desperately in need of depth, offense, defense, goaltending, and moving on from a mid-round pick can achieve at least some of that. Part of the reason Dubas was hired was because of how he was able to contend with high leverage contracts – something the Penguins believe they need right now.
The Calgary Flames and Winnipeg Jets are two teams who had disappointing seasons and are looking for another run. In a calendar year, the Flames lost Matthew Tkachuk and Johnny Gaudreau, acquired Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar via trade, signed Nazem Kadri, and then fired both GM Brad Treliving and head coach Darryl Sutter as they failed to qualify for the postseason as the 16th-ranked team in the NHL.
The Jets were ousted in the first round by Vegas after they narrowly edged out the Flames and Predators for the final Wild Card spot. Head coach Rick Bowness ended the season by saying how disappointed and embarrassed he was with his team’s showing. They have several veterans who could be on the move, they are up to the salary cap, and have essentially placed everyone on the block with the exception of Kyle Connor.
Both Western Canadian teams are not in a position where they need the draft pick, let alone a prospect who won’t make an impact for 2-3 years. This is where the Flyers could potentially strike, re-enter the first round, and grab another high-end prospect who can make a difference when their time of contention is up.
The picks owned by the Red Wings, Coyotes, and Predators are going to be tough to move, even with the Red Wings and Coyotes owning 2. Detroit is in a similar position to Buffalo, where they had a nice lengthy run for most of the season before their wheels fell off and they decided to sell at the deadline. Steve Yzerman will most likely keep the 9th overall selection, but he could be swayed into moving the 17th.
The Coyotes have picks 6 and 12 and are knee deep in a rebuild that saw some fruits ripen last year before succumbing to a lengthy losing streak to end the season. The Predators are now run by Barry Trotz and not only did they sell at the deadline and acquire a boat load of picks, but they also just narrowly missed out on the postseason by 3 points. They could look to move the pick as Trotz told his scouts to take big swings in the later rounds.
Defensemen David Reinbacher and Axel Sandin Pellikka would do wonders for the Flyers who are a little short on impact defensemen at the moment. They have Cam York in the NHL right now and then have Ronnie Attard, Adam Ginning, Egor Zamula, and Emil Andrae knocking on the door, but they desperately need more quality.
Reinbacher is of Austrian descent, stands at 6’2″ and weighs in at 185 pounds, and most importantly is a right-hand shot. He played for EHC Kloten of the National League, which is the top tier Swiss league. He scored 3 goals and 22 points in 46 games, added 2 points in 5 games for Austria at the World Juniors, and added an assist in 4 games at the World Championships.
Tony Ferrari of The Hockey News said, “The young Austrian can defend the rush fairly well, using his long stick and frame to close out along the boards, but the consistency isn’t there quite enough. The projection of Reinbacher’s game comes from having faith in his raw tools and skill.”
Sam Consentino of Sportsnet said, “Playing in all situations against men, and having plenty of success on both sides of the puck.”
Corey Pronman of The Athletic said, “He’s a mobile, 6-foot-2 right-shot defenseman who can contribute at both ends. Reinbacher’s gap control is strong, killing a lot of plays due to his feet and reach even if he’s not overly physical.”
Then you have Axel Sandin Pellikka, who had such a good World Juniors tournament that he jumped several spots in many venerable draft rankings. He spent the season with Skelleftea AIK J20 and Skelleftea AIK of the SHL, where he scored 16 goals and 36 points in 31 games for the former and 2 goals and 5 points for the latter. However, playing in the SHL does wonders for young players as they are playing against professionals and grown men in one of the best leagues in Europe. Sandin Pellikka scored 2 goals and added 9 assists in 7 games at the WJC before Sweden dropped the bronze-medal game against the Americans.
Tony Ferrari of The Hockey News said, “The young Swedish defender is a skilled puck mover and agile skater who could be used as a power-play quarterback at the next level. He may be the best passer of any defenseman in the draft.”
Sam Cosentino of Sportsnet said, “Excellent skater with lateral mobility and edge work that make him effective at both ends of the ice.”
Gray Matter of Smaht Scouting said, “He’s a mobile offensive defenceman with really quick hands and a hard, accurate shot. Great at walking the line, using the threat of his shot with constant fakes to break defenders’ ankles, allowing him time and space to find the best play.”
TSN’s Craig Button went so far as to put Sandin Pellikka 5th on his draft board after having him 10th at the mid-season mark.
“He’s not going to overwhelm you with his blazing skill or any blazing quality, but his brain is advanced, massively.
“He’s the best defenceman in the draft. And he’s just continuously showed me that. I watch the poise, the ability to control the game in every single zone, and seemingly do it with a calm and an ease that is eerily reminiscent of [Hockey Hall of Famer] Sergei Zubov.”
After the Flyers pick, it’s a crapshoot at how the rest of the first round goes. Similar to last year’s draft, we could be in store for surprises and it’s all based on team needs moving forward. However with so many teams trying to re-tool and contend in 2023-24 after disappointing 2022-23 seasons, there could be a lot of movement in the middle of the first round.
It’s a gamble, but the Flyers could dangle their 2024 first round pick from Florida in any of these dealings. At one point the Panthers were struggling and their first round pick was in the 8-10 range. Then after making the playoffs at the end of the season, not many believed in their chances against Boston. Fast forward a month and their 2023 first round pick is now going to be either 31st or 32nd. Assuming they are at least a playoff team again next season, Florida should have another mid-to-late pick and if it helps the Flyers draft a top-10 or top-15 player this year – in a loaded draft – you pull the trigger.
Before Tuesday, the Flyers didn’t hold much leverage when it came to making a trade to re-enter the draft because they didn’t have a later first round pick to offer, they didn’t have a second round pick in 2023 or 2024, all they had was 2 third round picks, fourth round picks, and sixth round picks in 2023, which wouldn’t have been enough to push the needle, nor would it have been worth it. After trading Ivan Provorov to the Columbus Blue Jackets in a three-team trade that also involved the Los Angeles Kings, the Flyers received the 22nd overall selection that previously belonged to Los Angeles but was traded to Columbus at the trade deadline.
With the luxury of 2 first round picks now, on top of their 2 third, fourth, and sixth round picks, while adding a two 2nd rounders in 2024 (and maybe 2025) to the mix, the Flyers have plenty of leverage if a deal were to follow through. Now it seems relatively easy if the Flyers wanted to move up from the 22nd spot and somewhere in the 14-18 range.
There are still good players at the end of the first round, but it would be tough not to try to take advantage of the luxury to draft what many are calling top-2 defenseman.
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