The 2024 NHL Entry Draft is just days away. Soon we will be chanting the name of whoever our Philadelphia Flyers select in the first round, and possibly be shocked and have extreme feelings about transactions that general manager Danny Briere pulls off on the draft floor. It is maybe the most exciting time on the hockey calendar.
But before that, we have spent the last month going through the full first round and doing our best to jot down our thoughts about each prospect projected to go in the first 32 selections. Our annual Community Draft Board is now done (thank you to anyone who participated) but now it is time to really see who our favorite hockey team is going to select in this two-day event.
Thanks to this fun tool over at FC Hockey, we can play armchair Director of Amateur Scouting for the Flyers and go through a full, seven-round simulated draft and take our pick among the players that are available. We did exactly that and have made note of all our picks and why we selected them. Prepare to get excited about who we expertly selected but don’t get too wrapped up in this, because this is probably not going to happen.
1st round — 12th overall — Tij Iginla, LW
Somehow the draft simulator Calgary Flames didn’t take the draft simulator Tij Iginla, letting him fall all the way down to the 12th spot, so the Flyers are taking full advantage. This might not be the most realistic pick, but we can dream for now.
There’s so much to like about Iginla’s game. He plays at a high pace, checks very well, is effective in battles along the boards, and manages to get the better of players even bigger than him. He always seems to be first to the puck, and there’s a real tenacity to his play. It’s not always fun or flashy to say that a player takes care of the details of his game, but Iginla does and somehow still makes it look interesting. Add on top of that the legitimate offensive threat he brings (47 goals and 84 points in 67 games with Kelona in the WHL this season), and this makes for a really exciting complete package. Iginla is an excellent player, and such a Flyers pick.
1st round — 32nd overall — Teddy Stiga, C/LW
With the second of the two first-round picks, we’re sticking with the forwards theme, and grabbing (mostly) winger Teddy Stiga. The second highest points producer of the 2024 draft eligible players in the NTDP behind Cole Eiserman, Stiga has been one of the fastest risers in draft rankings this season, and could still end up one of the biggest steals of this class.
A high-motor, net-focused player, Stiga finds a way to be involved in play in the offensive zone somehow in any way at any time. He’s been one of the most efficient generators of offensive chances among his teammates, he’s a tremendously effective forechecker away from the puck, and has asserted himself as a real force in transition. In short, Stiga can do just about everything, but he’s been held down in some rankings because of concerns about his size (he’s 5’10). That size clearly hasn’t held him back up to this point though, but if the Flyers could take advantage of him falling because of some other teams’ old fashioned drafting preoccupations, they’ll be all the better for it.
2nd round — 36th overall — Alfons Freij, D
Freij has been seen climbing for some people’s rankings as one of the better blueliners available in this draft, as the 6-foot-1, Swedish defender has all the tools to easily translate to being a very good professional hockey player at a high level. His skating is his best attribute but he really doesn’t have a lot of holes in his game — he could be more offensively driven but he also scored 14 goals and 33 points in 40 games in the Swedish junior league.
For the Flyers, this just feels like someone they can really target to solidify their blueliner prospects. If they use their two first-round picks on forwards — like we did — Freij is a very good option to have and could easily compete with the likes of Carter Yakemchuk in terms of ceiling at the NHL level. There are always risks with players, but if you can get a defenseman that is very mobile and plays at a high pace, in the second round, it feels like a home run.
2nd round — 51st overall — Leo Sahlin Wallenius, D
Leo Sahlin Wallenius isn’t a very exciting pick. Sure, the left-handed defenseman scored almost a point-per-game in juniors and skates pretty damn well, but what he is at his peak and at higher levels, is just a consistent, middle-of-the-pack defender who can kill penalties and play decent 5-on-5 hockey. Like Freij, this fellow Swede is very mobile and has the tools to make it to the North American professional level, but is just slightly more translatable and consistent.
If the Flyers swing larger on Freij, who most likely is a better player if both of these guys hit their peaks, then they can be comfortable with Sahlin Wallenius and know that at least one of these guys are going to make an impact (hopefully). Plus, we already know that the Flyers have talked to this player at the NHL Combine earlier this month and has shown some interest. This is our realistic selection — whether it is in at 51st overall, or even potentially 32nd overall. They like this dude.
3rd round — 77th overall — Luke Misa, C
While we never really want to draft for position and selecting the best player available — since you never really know what position you will need when these players are ready to play for the Flyers — drafting two potential wingers and then two defensemen, leaves a massive hole in this team’s worst position. The Flyers need centers right now and in the future and they really can’t go wrong with selecting a centerman who plays at a high pace and focuses heavy on being able to transition the puck up the ice.
Luke Misa feels like a coach’s dream. He might not be very physical (or physical at all) but he plays a heads-up game and is one of the more aware centers available after the first round. He moves the puck very well, whether it is by passing it or on his own stick, and can read other team’s offenses well enough to be one of the OHL’s better defensive centers this past season. It might not be the kind of sure-fire centermen you could want in the first round, but this deep, you really can’t sneeze at a selection like this.
5th round — 148th overall — Mikhail Yegorov, G
As we arrive at the fifth round, we figure it’s time that we take a goalie. It’s a thinner class of goalies this year, but with the number 1 ranked goalie in Yegorov still on the board at the 148th spot, this pick was a no brainer.
Yegorov is a big (6’4) goalie who just wrapped up a respectable first season in North America, where he put up a .892 save percentage (put up under a difficult workload, sometimes facing up to 40 or 50 shots a night, we should add) with the USHL’s Omaha Lancers. He’ll make the transition to the NCAA in the fall, as he’s set to join Boston University where he’ll look to settle in and continue in his development. Because Yegorov, despite the intrigue that his size brings, is a bit of a project. While he’s economic with his movements and gets some help from simply filling up a lot of space with his frame, he’ll need to work on his overall quickness and fluidity of motion if he wants to succeed as he continues to move up in the levels. He’s a bit rough, but if the development process goes his way, he’ll quickly become a really intriguing prospect.
5th round — 150th overall — Riley Patterson, C
Another mid-round selection that is used at the center position, Riley Patterson most likely will be going before 150th overall. And it’s not because he might be better than everyone else right now, but he just feels extremely projectable as a solid, bottom-six center at the professional level. He skates well, can shoot the puck and isn’t a diminutive player, as he stands at 6-foot. The Barrie Colts forward could have just one breakout year next season and suddenly he could be the Flyers’ best center prospect (albeit, that’s not hard to do).
Patterson isn’t a flashy player, but he still scores goals and can work some good angles in the offensive zone. This just feels like a solid pick, if we do say so ourselves.
6th round — 173rd overall — Gavin Hodnett, LW
We’re getting into the weeds a bit here, but we’ll get right to the point on this one: this is such a Danny Briere pick. I mean, a 5’8 speedster who put up over a point per game (70 points in 61 games) in the WHL but is fallingin rankings because of size concerns? Come on.
Joking aside, there’s a lot about Hodnett that should make him an attractive option for a team like the Flyers. There’s a ton of offensive potential there, his puck skills are already very well developed, he’s an excellent skater, and beyond being able to play at a pace quite like what John Tortorella has been trying to build the NHL squad up to, he can just absolutely flat out fly in a straight line. He’s still a bit of a work in progress, and he’ll need to have a bit more assertiveness coached into his game in order to help him continue to offset and overcome some of the size concerns, but he’s exactly the type of player that the Flyers should be taking swings on in these late rounds. He could be a steal.
6th round — 177th overall — Nate Misskey, D
While we went through this mock draft selecting a lot of players we like, we also wanted to keep it realistic (like the Leo Sahlin Wallenius selection) and among the players available at 177th overall, no one felt more like a late-round Philadelphia Flyers draft selection than defenseman Nate Misskey.
From the WHL’s Victoria Royals, Misskey is better physically than just about everything else in his game. He scored at a decent clip — 34 points in 44 games — but at 6-foot-3 and 198 pounds, the right-handed blueliner is known as hard-hitting defenseman who can also think the game at a decent level.
He might not get to play professional hockey because of his skill or ability to pass or shoot, but what would get him there is being able to lay dudes out and use his body, while also knowing when to do all of those things. Maybe, just maybe, Misskey is our very own homegrown Nate Seeler replacement in a few years.
7th round — 205th overall — Charlie Cerrato, C
And with our final selection, we’ve swung back around to make our obligatory He’s From Here pick. Fallston, Maryland native and former Philadelphia HC AAA player Cerrato was passed over in his first year of draft eligibility, but he followed that up with a pretty solid season in the USHL, where he put up 50 points in 40 games with the Youngstown Phantoms.
Cerrato has been highlighted as an uptempo player, a rush attacker, and if he sticks at the center position as he moves up the levels, he’ll make for an interesting addition to the pipeline. He’ll make the jump to NCAA action this season, as he starts at Penn State, and we’ll see what he can do there, but Cerrato might just be a late blooming type, and certainly worth taking a shot on at this point in the draft.
