Hextall: Flyers will take best player available with 7th pick

The Flyers draft plans just became a little clearer.

Ron Hextall said on Friday that the Flyers will take the best player available with the seventh overall pick in the NHL Draft next week.

It seems that the Flyers would prefer that player be a forward of some sort, but that they will once again use their top pick on a defenseman if that’s how the chips fall.

"We're going to take the best player," Hextall said. "You start looking at fits and stuff like that and you go by a player who's a better player, I don't believe in that. So we're going to take the best player."

The Flyers have already been linked to forwards Pavel Zacha and Lawson Crouse and many other coveted forwards will be available in the Top 10 and beyond, including Mitch Marner, Mikko Rantanen, Timo Meier and Kyle Connor.

Defensively, beyond the likes of Boston College standout Noah Hanifin, there is Ivan Provorov – who many believe the Flyers should select based on how NHL ready he is – and Zach Werenski.

"I think everybody knows the top two players in the draft are special," Hextall said. "After that, I think when you get by that, there's a lot of guys who are similar level players. So to move from seven to move up, we would consider it at the right price, but I'm not sure it's worth it just because I think you're going to get a similar level player."

So the Flyers have options and they have a coveted second first-round pick that could net another solid prospect.

"This is a very critical draft for us," Hextall said. "We have to hit here. We do have a lot of picks and we have some holes to fill. We need to keep young players coming so this is a critical point for us."

Kevin Durso is managing editor for Flyerdelphia. Follow him on Twitter @Kevin_Durso.