Not only did Thursday's Game 7 matchup between the San Jose Sharks and Nashville Predators feature a big-time blowout, it had implications for the Flyers' draft plans as well.
The Flyers will now hold the 18th pick in the draft — dropping back from 17th, where they stood earlier this week.
San Jose’s victory finalized the order of selection for the First Round of the 2016 #NHLDraft: pic.twitter.com/unrN5vgvwO
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) May 13, 2016
So why do the Flyers drop back one pick, when Nashville advanced further in the playoffs than they did? Because neither team advanced to the Conference Finals, and the draft order is based off of that as well as regular season standings.
The way that the Draft is configured, pick 30 goes to the Stanley Cup champion and pick 29 goes to the runner-up. Picks 28 and 27 go to the teams that lost in the Conference Finals, and picks 15-27 are the remaining playoff teams. Division winners who failed to advance (in this case, all four) are slotted after non-division winners, so picks 23-26 go to Florida, Anaheim, Dallas and Washington, respectively.
Both the Flyers and Predators finished with a 41-27-14 record and 96 points. The Flyers, however, finished with 38 regulation and overtime wins (ROW), while the Predators finished with 37. Ergo, the Flyers slide just one pick behind the Predators.
The Orange and Black have picked at 18th overall just once in franchise history — 1970, when they selected Bill Clement. They will have a total of 10 picks in this year's draft, five of which will be picked in the first three rounds.
Predators coach Peter Laviolette hasn't been involved with the Flyers in any capacity since Oct. 2013, yet for now, he was incidentally able to have a slight influence on their plans.
Rob Riches is a contributor to Flyerdelphia and Sports Talk Philly. Follow him on Twitter @Riches61
