June 20, 2026
Kirby Lee/IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
The Flyers won't be picking in the top 10 this time, but should still have key decisions to make at this year's NHL Draft.
Ideally, Danny Brière would want to be loaded with picks heading into every draft in the summer – any NHL general manager would.
The Flyers, though, are looking light heading into next Friday, after making their recent trade for backup goaltender Joseph Woll, which required sending their 2026 third-round pick to Toronto.
So now they only have four picks left: in the first, second, sixth, and seventh rounds.
And yeah, that's thin at face value, but in the Flyers' greater picture of the past few years, and the next several ahead, it's hardly a problem. Maybe actually a breather, even.
"We'd love to have 15 picks in every draft," Brière quipped during his pre-draft press conference earlier this week at the Flyers Training Center in Voorhees. "But it's not realistic. The fact is, we've drafted a lot of players the past few years. We've had some extra picks. This year, we still have the first and the second right now that are the key.
"All of those draft picks that we've had in the past, we have to make room for them eventually. They have to play. So there's a balance, too. Having only four picks this year, I'm OK with because we've drafted so much the last few years. It might not be quite a bad thing to not have as many this year."
"But if I had the choice, yeah, I would rather have more picks," Brière cracked.
But he and the Flyers are playing with the hand they have, which all things considered, is a whole lot better from what they started with just a few short years ago.
Under Brière, who is about to oversee his fourth draft alongside assistant GM Brent Flahr, the Flyers have made 26 selections in the past three years, which includes 12 picks through just the first two rounds alone – and 15 through Round 3 if you want to include the 2023 third-round picks of forward Denver Barkey and Russian goalie prospect Yegor Zavragin.
The process has gradually replenished the Flyers with talented and promising youth, who are either already here and contributing on the NHL roster (Barkey, Matvei Michkov, and Porter Martone), or are on their way to it (Jack Nesbitt, Jack Berglund, Oliver Bonk, and Jett Luchanko).
The pipeline, almost suddenly it sometimes feels, has gotten crowded, and those first and second-rounders the Flyers still have at their disposal next week will add to it in some way.
Maybe it'll be through a mobile defenseman like Tommy Bleyl or Xavier Villeneuve, who are projected to be available at 21st overall by Flahr's estimations of the 2026 class, along with a lot of draft pundits' predictions. Or maybe it'll be through a two-way focused center like Alex Command or Jack Hextall, keeping focus on a position that the Flyers still very much need to stock up at.
Or, just maybe, this is the spot where the Flyers make a substantial splash on the trade market. The capital through future picks and prospects is there now, after all, and so is the cap space (they have a projected $32.48 million, per PuckPedia).
Keep in mind, too, that even though the Flyers have narrowed themselves down to just four picks this year, they could still end up with two first-rounders and nine picks in total for the 2027 draft.
"Yeah, we're getting closer to that," Brière said to the thought of using picks to trade for more immediately impactful NHL players. "I don't know that we're quite there yet, but we're certainly willing to listen on different ideas.
"I'm not too keen on trading future first-round picks, because you never know where it can go, and we're not a Colorado or Carolina at this point where you know you're going to be finishing and picking late first. I don't think we're quite there yet."
But they're holding a good hand toward getting there, a much better one than from what they started with just a few short years ago.
So maybe the Flyers do approach this draft with limited a number of picks to make this time. But maybe they'll be no less busy next week compared to what they've usually been for the past few Junes, too,
It might just be for different reasons this time.
"Everything's on the table," Brière continued about potential trade ideas. "It has to make sense. That's kind of the thing. We want to make sure that it helps us for the future, not just for one season or a few months. I don't feel we're quite there yet."
But they do have some much better cards.
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