With Draft weekend now in the books, the early evaluation of picks made by teams around the league have started to filter in.
Ron Hextall added 10 players on Draft weekend to the Flyers organization and the general perception is that once again, Hextall fared well on Draft weekend.
Here are a few grades from around the hockey world.
From Corey Pronman of ESPN.com, who gave the Flyers a B+ grade for the Draft:
“I liked the Flyers first few picks, and even though I’m generally skeptical against the idea of taking goalies high, Carter Hart is a good candidate if you were going to take a netminder in the second round. Wade Allison was a little high for me, but he was a riser this season so I can see the argument.
“The well-rounded German Rubtsov was the top player on the inaugural Russia under-18 team this season and showed well in international play. His skills aren’t elite, but he shows good hands and is able to create space for himself. His hockey IQ is very impressive, as he displays great patience with the puck, sees his options well and always finds himself involved with the play,”
From Ryan Dadoun of Yahoo! Sports, who gave the Flyers selection of Rubtsov a B-:
“Rubtsov is a two-way center that has a balanced skill set that includes being useful on the penalty kill and competing in tough areas. For better or worse he does have a two-year KHL contract, so it will be a little while before the Flyers will get to add him to their organization.”
From Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News, who rated the Flyers second-round the best of any team:
“The Flyers had three picks in this round, but they hit it out of the park on all of them. Pascal Laberge has a great combination of skill and feistiness, while Carter Hart was the top netminder available in the draft. Wade Allison, not to be outdone, was the USHL playoff MVP with champion Tri-City and his powerful offensive game is on the ascent.”
Kevin Durso is managing editor for Flyerdelphia. Follow him on Twitter @Kevin_Durso.
