The Flyers are greatly in need of forward depth over the offseason and they are well aware of that and the many ways they can add it, through free agency, trades, the Draft and so on. That said, when Ron Hextall spoke to the media on Thursday, the philosophy for how they will handle the first-round pick, coming at 18th overall, remained the same as always.
The Flyers will be taking the best player available.
"First round, we're going to take the best player," Hextall said. "What it's going to be, quite honestly, I don't know. We're going to have some emphasis in this draft on skill and size, hopefully together, but it's a tough thing to grab."
By making the playoffs, the Flyers went from having the seventh overall pick to the 18th overall pick from one season to the next. However, there is depth in this year's draft that can compare to last year's, leaving the Flyers confident that a good player will be available at 18.
"Our feeling is at 18 we're going to get a real good prospect and I believe beyond there's still good players there," Hextall said. "So no matter what, we feel like we're going to get a good player. A lot of it is to see how the board falls.
"I talked to [Flyers amatuer scout] Dennis Patterson about it, he doesn't think he's seen drafts back-to-back as good as these two."
Even while taking the best player available, the Flyers are still going to put emphasis on forwards and building depth that they lack. Hextall explained that the Flyers will be taking the best players available in spots where there is a true desire, but ultimately lean towards forwards when the prospects are on a similar level.
"It's no different, last year we didn't have a lot of goalies. So we loaded up last year, a little more than I anticipated. This year, there's a little bit of a focus on forwards for sure," Hextall said. "That doesn't mean we're not going to pick defensemen. Part of it is how the board falls. If there's a defenseman there in the third round that we didn't think was going to be there, we're taking him. If it's two guys who are the same, we lean towards the forward in that case."
Early in the draft, particularly the first round, the talent at forward seems to outweigh the blue line talent, which could benefit the Flyers. If teams are fighting over grabbing defensemen, the Flyers can feel much safer at 18. Hextall didn't guarantee any move would be made to change position in the draft, but noted that all options are open pending on how the picks start to come in a week from Friday.
"Early, there's a lot of forwards. There's some good D as well. It's a good draft," Hextall said. "At 18, we feel like we're going to get a good player, certainly better than a lot of years at 18. We just have to make the right pick.
"There's a lot at the top and then after that it levels out. There is a feeling that you either get into the top few or you're just as well to stay where you are. We also don't know how the board is going to fall. So we sit and look at that right now, most hockey people think that but the board's not going to fall the way everybody thinks it is."
Kevin Durso is managing editor for Flyerdelphia. Follow him on Twitter @Kevin_Durso.
