June 28, 2025
Kirby Lee/Imagn Images
Porter Martone was at the forefront of a wave of big prospects that the Flyers drafted this weekend.
There's a very clear trend across the Flyers' 2025 draft haul.
Winger Porter Martone, the sixth overall pick out of Brampton, is 6'3" and 204 pounds. Windsor center Jack Nesbitt, whom they traded with Pittsburgh to jump up to No. 12 for, is 6'5" and 186 pounds. They're both big prospects.
General manager Danny Brière, after the first round of the NHL Draft concluded on Friday night, told the local media assembled at the team's draft HQ in Atlantic City that it wasn't much more than coincidence picking up two 6-foot-plus draftees one after the other.
Best player available was the priority for Martone, Brière said, and moving up for Nesbitt was to ensure that the Flyers got a center, and one with the potential to be "a difference maker."
But then the Flyers made their picks for rounds 2-7 on Saturday.
Their entire board for the weekend was as follows, with the picks' listed heights and weights, per the NHL:
| Rd. (Pk.) | Player | HT | WT |
| 1 (6) | RW Porter Martone | 6'3" | 204 |
| 1 (12) | C Jack Nesbitt | 6'5" | 186 |
| 2 (38) | D Carter Amico | 6'6" | 232 |
| 2 (40) | LW Jack Murtagh | 6'1" | 198 |
| 2 (48) | RW Shane Vansaghi | 6'3" | 212 |
| 2 (57) | C Matthew Gard | 6'5" | 195 |
| 5 (132) | LW Max Westergard | 5'11" | 161 |
| 5 (131) | D Luke Vlooswyk | 6'5" | 200 |
| 6 (164) | C Nathan Quinn | 5'11" | 173 |
The Flyers drafted nine prospects, with only Westergard in the fifth round and Quinn in the sixth measuring in at below six feet tall.
Yeah, they got a whole lot bigger walking away from this draft. It was obvious well before they were done making all four of their second-round selections, after they traded picks 36 and 68 (in the third round) to Seattle to gain picks 38 and 57.
Assistant general manager Brent Flahr, when it was his turn to speak to the media as Saturday wrapped, echoed Brière's stance that the similarities in size between most of the picks were coincidental as they focused on other traits.
But coincidence or not, Brière and Flahr were heading into the draft with an awareness that the Flyers, as they're currently constructed, are an undersized group, and all in the face of seeing significantly bigger teams having just slugged it out in the playoffs.
At some point, they were going to have to get bigger – meaner, too. They're potentially on the path to remedying that now.
"You watch the playoffs," Flahr said. "It's a grind. To be able to get into the NHL, you have to have a tremendous work ethic, then to be able to have success in it, you have to have that side of it. So, the guys we drafted, as part of what [head coach Rick Tocchet] wants, as part of what [president of hockey ops Keith Jones] and Danny want, we want competitive people and I think we did a pretty good job of that."
And not at the sacrifice of any skill on paper either.
Martone brings some slick passing and a fierce shot to the table; Nesbitt was just shy of a point-per-game production in Windsor this past year, but saw his offensive upside especially pick up in the back half of the year; Amico, although he's rehabbing back from a knee injury, hit hard and moved well before it; Murtagh already has a knack for finding the offensive danger zones and is still only 17; and Vansaghi, as a freshman at Michigan State, excelled at using his frame to create space and offense in the NCAA, but has a clear focus on improving his skating over the next year.
They're all big, and were all gained within the first two rounds alone. But they can play, and for the Flyers, hopefully with games that develop up to the NHL within the next couple of years.
Because they have skill already, with Matvei Michkov, Tyson Foerster, Travis Konecny, and Owen Tippett, plus Trevor Zegras now if he can bounce back – along with guys like Jett Luchanko, Oliver Bonk, and Denver Barkey already down in the system.
But their rebuild still needed more, along with the size and strength to hold up against tougher competition, when it's possibly playing at its absolute best.
The Flyers hope they have all of that on the way now.
"Obviously we're elated with the first round," Flahr said. "Then the second round, the way it turned out, we were very happy."
"The draft quickly, as we stated before, there's a fall-off point," Flahr added later. "But we got a few guys we threw darts at and have some assets.
"I hope we can give them a chance to play down the road."
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