When 17 picks rolled through, the Flyers had a choice: take the best player then or potentially trade back to try to gain better positioning for the second round. Ron Hextall chose the latter.
On the surface, it didn't look like the right move, as Kieffer Bellows went to the New York Islanders at 19 and Julien Gauthier went at 21 to the Carolina Hurricanes. Bellows scored 50 goals for the US U-18 team. Gauthier scored 41 for Val d'Or this season. Both had the sniper quality the Flyers really needed to find.
But that's the thing about draft picks: there's always risk, and there is really nothing that is certain about an 18-year-old.
For the second straight year, the Flyers first pick went to a Russian player, German Rubtsov.
"We wanted him," Hextall said. "It’s always risky, but in the end it was a good move."
Instead of taking the sniper, the prospect who churned out nearly more goals than games played this season, the Flyers turned their attention elsewhere, going with a well-rounded prospect with a lot of potential.
"He's a full-sheet player," Hextall said, "a playmaker first and foremost. He's responsible, brings speed and plays the game the right way."
The only reason the Flyers may have been able to take the strategy they did and still select a player like Rubtsov is because of a doping scandal that held the 17-year-old and Russia's U-18 team out of the World Championships at Grand Forks. Hextall ensured that, all along, the Flyers wanted to take Rubtsov and that his character is not in question.
"We did our research on this kid, trust me," Hextall said. "Up, down and all around. Inside their country and everything else. We’re convinced that it’s not an issue.
"We did more research on this kid than I’ve ever done and really good character. This kid’s a really good hockey player. He brings speed, got good size. He’s 17 years old. He’s young, really, really smart. Plays the game the right way, but also pushes the pace. Really good team guy."
Rubtsov is highly regarded as one of the best two-way players in the 2016 Draft, combining versatility in all three zones with offensive skill and great hockey sense, as well as a compete level that is difficult to match and could make the players around him better.
For the next few seasons, Rubtsov will develop as part of Vityaz with the KHL. Hextall is prepared to have the 2016 first-rounder develop overseas.
"We’re prepared," Hextall said. "If he has to stay there two years, so be it. If he can come over sooner than that, that’s terrific. We understand all the possibilities and we’re all right with it.
"Our expectations are that he’s going to be there and if he’s not, I’ll be really surprised."
It may not have seemed like it at the time, but this was Hextall working his magic again. He took the 18th pick and sprinkled his magic dust over it only to end up with a player that would have been a justifiable pick at 18 four picks later and turned a third-round pick at 79 into a second-round pick at 36, now the Flyers next-highest pick in the draft.
And why does that matter? Because as Day 2 begins on Saturday, players like Alex DeBrincat, Vitali Abramov, Cliff Pu, Pascal Laberge, Boris Katchouk and Nathan Bastian are still on the board. There's six names that could have easily been late first-round picks, waiting in the second round. And the Flyers will have a shot to take at least one of them.
Since the draft is all about patience anyway, the beginning of a development process, this was less about who the Flyers passed up and more about what they got in return, a solid prospect four picks later and another high pick to take another potential NHL talent in the second round. Suddenly, the Flyers have three second-round picks, and four total picks in the top 52 of the draft.
"We got the player we wanted and we added a pretty good pick in the second round," Hextall said. "It honestly kind of fell in our lap a bit."
That's the Hextall way, and it carried on at another draft for another year as the building process continued in bulk.
Kevin Durso is managing editor for Flyerdelphia. Follow him on Twitter @Kevin_Durso.
