By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 
Flyers GM Ron Hextall isn’t changing his tune, even after luck handed him and the Flyers organization a gift.
Just as it was with Ivan Provorov and Travis Konecny a year ago, the player the Flyers select with the second overall pick is no guarantee to make the Flyers 2017-18 roster. He’ll have to earn it just like the rest, thus proving to be an NHL ready player out of the draft, even if many assumptions say there are two NHL ready players at the top of the class.
"We would like to think we know that, but until the kid comes in and shows you what he can do," Hextall said. "You make an educated judgment and then you go from there. A player has to come in and prove that he's ready and at this age not many are, so we'll wait and see which way he goes from there."
It doesn’t matter who the Flyers get with the second overall pick, the philosophy remains. So before you go and instantly insert player here on the Flyers roster, think again. There is a process with Hextall and that was evident in the way the Flyers handled the construction of last season’s roster, at least when it came to prospects.
Obviously, if the drafted player can come in and be a difference-maker immediately, it changes things right away too.
“It changes things a lot,” Hextall said of the lottery result.
Hextall has already softened his position on the youth movement so to speak. With Provorov and Konecny, both highly-touted prospects immediately out of the draft, Hextall would not guarantee anything, and both were returned to juniors in 2015-16.
After the 2016-17 season came to an end, Hextall seemed much more open to essentially stating spots were up for grabs. Pending free agents Michael Del Zotto and Nick Schultz knew their fate three days after the season ended. Instead of the transparent answer about the possibility of keeping the roster intact and having to see the progress of prospects, Hextall openly said that there would be spots for kids on the roster next season.
Which ones remain to be seen, but there are leading candidates. One of them is the unknown prospect the Flyers will land with the No. 2 pick.
The Flyers already indicated this shift to younger talent late last season when they called up defensemen Sam Morin and Robert Hagg to make their NHL debuts and signed forward Mike Vecchione and debuted him for two games as well.
Among the other tasks on Hextall’s offseason to-do list are new contracts for restricted free agent Shayne Gostisbehere and unrestricted free agent Jordan Weal.
Things did certainly change for the Flyers and Hextall with the second overall pick. An incredible talent is going to be coming to the Flyers. But to assume it will be as soon as next season just isn’t the Hextall way, not matter how much the rest of the hockey world seems to think otherwise.
