By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 
Another draft is in the books for the Flyers and GM Ron Hextall. In all, the Orange and Black added seven more prospects on Day 2.
Hextall reviewed the picks following the draft.
In Isaac Ratcliffe, the Flyers get a power forward with scoring ability and tremendous size. Hextall noted that aside from putting on weight, he's got the raw talent to be an exciting player.
"He's a prototypical power forward," Hextall said. "He doesn't quite have the power part down in terms of his body. He's got to put some weight on. He's a young kid, he's raw. We're really excited about him."
In order to get Ratcliffe, the Flyers traded up from the 44th overall pick to the 35th overall pick, and packaged the 75th overall pick and 108th overall pick in the deal to Arizona. That put the Flyers back on the clock with the 80th overall pick, where they took goalie Kirill Ustimenko.
Some would see taking a goalie that wasn't overly well-known so early as chasing a goalie, something Hextall said he wasn't to do. But Hextall said afterwards that Ustimenko was high on his list.
"We did not chase him. We were surprised he fell there," Hextall said. "Once he fell, we did not chase him. Our guys really liked him, everybody. He's one of the guys that came on the scene late in the year, but we had him early in the year. Our comfort level with him was probably better than some teams."
The Flyers took another player who slipped through the ranks with the 106th overall pick in the fourth round. Matthew Strome comes from a well-known family in the hockey world with brothers Ryan and Dylan being first-round picks in previous drafts. Strome's glaring weakness is his skating ability, but he's got size and scoring, two things the Flyers could certainly use moving forward. It's not up to Strome to put it all together, Hextall said.
"His skating has to improve. I think we all know it. But he's a good hockey player," Hextall said. "Good size, he's heavy, he makes plays, he can score goals. He knows how to play the game. Obviously young kids have to get better at everything, but he's got one deficiency that he can really focus on. We really like where we got him. Now it's up to Matthew to put the work in."
Hextall also commented on his final two picks in the draft, center Olle Lycksell and defenseman Wyatt Kalynuk. Both are still young talents that have large windows for development, so these are long-term prospects the Flyers are happy to have to mold and grow over the next several seasons.
"Hard worker. Two-way game. Just understands the game, good hockey sense, plays hard," Hextall said of Lycksell. "We have four years, so that helps as well."
"He's fleet of foot, really good skater. Good mobility, good size, good puck skills," Hextall said of Kalynuk. "He'd been through two drafts, he's going to Wisconsin which we really liked, so you've got four years with him. We liked him."
Following a draft where they landed Nolan Patrick and with many other young forwards and defensemen working their way through the system, the Flyers made an interesting move by trading Brayden Schenn on Friday night to acquire a second first-round pick. Hextall was asked if that is a sign the Flyers see next season as a rebuilding year.
"Are we getting younger? Yeah, we're getting younger. Rebuild? Absolutely not," Hextall said.
"We have young players. At some point here we have to open up opportunity for them to play when we feel they are ready to play. I think unlike what people think about our philosophy, we do not want to hold players back when they're ready to take the next step. We want to allow them to take that next step. In saying that, we feel like we've got some young players that if they're not ready, they're close."
The next step for Hextall and the Flyers will be the week leading up to free agency, which in one week on July 1. Then the attention turns to development camp and the first look at the newest members of the Flyers, selected this weekend.
