Flyers New Era is Dawning After Several Successful Drafts

By Jesse Larch, Sports Talk Philly Staff

Ron Hextall preached patience from day one when he took the reigns of the franchise that he played the bulk of his professional career with. Hextall made it known that he would build through the draft and not expend cap dollars to sign trendy free agents. 

After missing the playoffs in two of the last three years, the Flyers caught a huge break by jumping 11 spots to the second overall pick to ultimately draft Nolan Patrick of the Brandon Wheat Kings, a junior teammate of Flyers cornerstone defenseman Ivan Provorov. The Brandon roots do not stop there, as the man who drafted both of these players, Hextall, played his junior hockey for the same team. 

With a heavy influence from Brandon, Ontario, the Flyers future is the brightest it has been since the Flyers landed both Mike Richards and Jeff Carter in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft.

Hextall's plan was clear when selecting his prospects. He wanted to build from the back end out. He began his tenure by drafting a plethora of goalies and defensemen, two positions that the Flyers have failed to draft and develop historically. 

With his first selection as general manager, Hextall took Travis Sanheim, a year after the team had selected Samuel Morin and Robert Hagg with their first two selections, and had Shayne Gostisbehere fresh off of a national championship at Union College. Suddenly the Flyers boasted one of the deepest defensive pipelines in the league after their team had relied on veterans and bottom-pair defensemen for years. 

In his second draft, Hextall utilized the seventh overall pick to select Ivan Provorov. Provorov, although not the first defender off the board, was considered the best defensive prospect in his draft class. The Flyers list of defensive prospects became even more imposing, but the 2015 draft also had a heavy focus on goaltending.

The Flyers selected Felix Sandstrom, Matej Tomek and Ivan Fedotov all in that same year. With Anthony Stolarz impressing in his time in the OHL and the AHL, the Flyers suddenly had a deep group of goalie prospects to go with their defensive prospects. 

To this point, Hextall had struggled to add any marquee forwards to the team's system but he did manage to find some good prospects, the biggest of which was when he traded up in the 2015 draft to select Travis Konecny who continues to show promise after his performance in the world championships. 

The Flyers selected Radel Fazleev in the sixth round of the 2014 draft and Oskar Lindblom in the fifth round that same year. Fazleev has drawn praise from the Flyers during his time in Calgary of the WHL and with the Phantoms, showing good bottom-six forward potential. Lindblom may prove to be a steal for Hextall after being named the top forward in the Swedish Hockey League, one of the top professional leagues in the world. Lindblom has signed his entry-level deal, and many expect him to find a roster spot out of training camp next season, especially after the trade that sent Brayden Schenn to the St. Louis Blues. 

Hextall has now begun focusing his higher selections on forwards. In 2016, he used his first selection on German Rubtsov. Hextall followed the Rubtsov selection by adding two scoring wingers in Pascal Laberge and Wade Allison with two of their three second-round picks. Laberge is a skill-type wing while Allison projects to be a power forward. Both stand over six feet tall.

In between Laberge and Allison, Hextall selected his best goalie prospect, Carter Hart of the Everett Silvertips. Hart is a two-time CHL goaltender of the year.

With defense heavily addressed from 2013 to 2015 and goaltending solidified in 2016, Hextall went all-in on adding top forward prospects in the 2017 Draft. Blessed with the second-overall pick, the Flyers drafted Patrick, who had been rated as the top prospect all season, but injury concerns led him to be bypassed as the first overall selection.

The Flyers then pulled the trigger on the Schenn trade to acquire two first-round picks and Jori Lehtera from the Blues. With the Blues 2017 pick, the Flyers selected center Morgan Frost from the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. Frost is a playmaking center who is trending upward. 

With the center of the ice loaded for the foreseeable future, the Flyers then addressed the wing by taking Isaac Ratcliffe from in the second round. Ratcliffe is still growing into his body, but possesses great hands and scoring ability for a man of his size. 

Hextall also added four more wingers on Day 2 of the 2017 draft, selecting Matthew Strome, Maksim Sushko, Noah Cates, and Olle Lycksell.

After inheriting Sean Couturier, Scott Laughton, Morin, Hagg, Gostisbehere and Stolarz, Hextall has set the Flyers up for success in all facets of the game following a series of moves that netted the Flyers high draft selections to quickly replenish their prospect pipeline.  

As the old guard led by Claude Giroux ages, the Flyers will have no shortage of talent coming through the ranks. With young, exciting talent flying around the ice under the guidance of Giroux, Wayne Simmonds and Jake Voracek the Flyers are set for a new era as they return to being a perennial contender in the east.