As it currently stands, the Philadelphia Flyers hold the 12th pick in the 2024 NHL Draft on June 28. With Macklin Celebrini the clear-cut choice for the first overall pick, the following ten teams can go in ten different directions, opening up seemingly endless possibilities for what Danny Briere and Co. can do with the 12th overall pick.
Here are 5 names to keep an eye on before the Flyers are on the clock later this month.
Honorable Mention: Michael Brandsegg-Nygård, Forward
Our Haley Taylor Simon profiled the Norwegian winger already, and you can read all about what she had to say here. Now, onto the top five.
Carter Yakemchuk, RHD, Calgary Hitmen
Yakemchuk, the right-handed defenseman from the Calgary Hitmen, will turn 19 just before the season starts this coming September. In 66 WHL games, he scored 30 goals and tallied 41 assists, finishing with a +/- of -6 and 120 penalty minutes. Needless to say, he’s exciting with the puck on his stick.
The evaluation of Yakemchuk varies – he’s rated as highly as the 5th best prospect in the draft according to Sportsnet’s Sam Cosentino or as low as 27 by THN’s Tony Ferrari. Though we will never know how the team’s value prospects are until the draft actually unfolds – it appears like Yakemchuk to the Flyers at 12 is well within the realm of possibility.
Right-handed defensemen are always coveted in today’s NHL, and the Flyers already have two young, enticing options on the right side in 22-year-old Jamie Drysdale and budding top prospect 19-year-old Oliver Bonk. If the Flyers go the Yakemchuk route, he will fit in nicely with the team’s long-term plans along the blue line.
Tij Iginla, C/W, Kelowna Rockets
Jarome’s kid will be a first-round pick in tonight’s NHL Draft. Although the popular slot for him has been to Calgary at ninth overall, nothing is set in stone until the name is called. For example, TSN’s Craig Button has Iginla as his 3rd overall prospect, while Flo Hockey’s Chris Peters has him as the 12th-ranked prospect.
Iginla, who projects more as a wing at the NHL level, totaled 84 points in 64 games (47 goals) while adding another 9 goals and 15 total points in 11 playoff games for the Kelowna Rockets last season.
Should the Flyers find themselves with the ability to take Iginla, they absolutely should. Any time you can draft a guy whose father is a hall-of-famer, who appears to have the same offensive creativity, a heavy shot, and silky-smooth hands to boot, you have to do it. The younger Iginla, though he may not be quite as good as his father, still has impressive upside, something the Flyers should certainly invest in if given the chance.
Cole Eiserman, W, USNTDP
The Flyers could very well go back to the USNTDP well with their first pick in the 2024 NHL Draft. Enter Cole Eiserman, the winger who scored 58 goals in 57 games while adding 31 assists for the USNTDP last season.
Eiserman, like the two prospects listed above, has scouts unsure of his ranking. TSN’s Craig Button has him as the fifth-ranked prospect, while his colleague at TSN, Bob McKenzie, has him at 14th.
You want a guy who can put the puck in the net? Look no further. If you’re one of the Flyers fans who screams “SHOOOOOOT” when they’re on the power play, this is your guy. Shoot first, ask questions later, this is the kind of goal scoring talent the team has lacked in years past. If Eiserman is still on the board when the Flyers make their selection, it would shock no one to see him in an orange and black sweater.
Stian Solberg, LHD, Vålerenga
Want a left-handed defenseman with an old-school vibe? Stian Solberg is your guy.
Solberg, consistently pegged as a mid-late first-round prospect, 20th by TSN’s Craig Button and 25th by FloHockey’s Chris Peters, has been climbing up draft boards recently and has been linked to the Flyers at 12 by The Fourth Period’s Anthony DiMarco.
Every year, a prospect flies up the draft board and comes out of nowhere to be picked far before the consensus believes they’ll go, and it looks like that player is Stian Solberg.
Should the Flyers grab this guy? Who knows. But an aggressive, hard-hitting defenseman with a bit of offensive upside always plays in Philly. It may be a new era of orange, but an old-school defenseman always looks good in orange and black.
Trevor Connelly, W, Tri-City Storm
Another American winger could be on the Flyers’ radar later this evening. Trevor Connelly, the 6’1 winger from the Tri-City Storm, put up 78 points (31 goals) in 52 games last season. He added another 9 points in 7 games (4 goals) for the USA U18 team at World Juniors earlier this year.
Scouts are skewed on Connelly, too, as TSN’s Bob McKenzie has him at 15th, his colleague Craig Button has him at 27th, and FloHockey’s Chris Peters has him at 20th.
With a guy like Connelly, the Flyers would be betting more on the upside as a creative offensive player who has a goal-scoring touch and high-level playmaking ability. There are off-ice concerns with him, which is why some teams might pass on him, but it appears to be something he’s made a conscious effort to learn and grow from the mistake he made when he was 16.
When the draft starts later this evening, the Flyers can go a handful of directions once they are on the clock. Each prospect has its pros and cons; no one is perfect. At the end of the day, the name of the game is finding talented players who can make the jump to the NHL and make an impact. From our vantage point, the Flyers should have the ability to find that guy no matter what happens in the picks before they find themselves on the clock.
