By all accounts, the Flyers had themselves quite the NHL Draft. Early draft grades have Philadelphia coming out with great value amongst their nine picks.
They got one of the players best in the draft in Porter Martone. They stacked up in size with four solid second-round picks. And they found some value in the late rounds.
But there was one area of need they failed to address despite multiple opportunities to do so. At the end of Saturday evening, 24 goaltenders were taken in the NHL Draft. The Flyers left without a single one for the second straight year.
With four second round picks, the Flyers could’ve used one of them on a goaltender. Almost all of the top options were there as only Pyotr Andreyanov and Joshua Ravensbergen were chosen to that point. After Philadelphia took forward Jack Murtagh, Semyon Frolov was taken with the next pick. Alexei Medvedev was selected just before the Flyers took forward Shane Vansaghi
Philadelphia drafted forward Matthew Gard and Jack Ivankovic was taken immediately after. Not picking until the fifth-round, the Flyers then took Luke Vlooswyk. Three goaltenders went off the board later in that round. Even in the sixth round, three more were chosen after Philadelphia. While the Flyers didn’t have a seventh round pick, five goaltenders went.
The Flyers current goaltending depth is rather thin, both at the NHL level and in their prospect pool. Sam Ersson, Ivan Fedotov, and Aleksei Kolosov have had varying degrees of success and underwhelming play. All three will enter the season with one year remaining on their contracts.
Ersson is still the top goaltender by default. Fedotov is expected to start the season in the AHL and could remain there for the entire season. And Kolosov, while expected to attend training camp, is still a question mark.
As for prospects, the Flyers have a lot to like in Yegor Zavragin. He’s put up strong numbers across varying leagues in Russia. But he is under contract through the 2026-27 season. Unless Briere can pull over another Matvei Michkov stunner, it’s going to be a few years until he arrives.
Carson Bjarnason is entering his first season of professional hockey after completing his junior career with the Brandon Wheat Kings. He improved in each season and could stand to put up better numbers behind a better team. The Wheat Kings often gave up an absurd amount of shots, sometimes inflating Bjarnason’s numbers.
But even if his numbers improve in the AHL, he would need at least a year of developmental time with the Phantoms.
The free agent market got even thinner during the draft. John Gibson was traded to the Red Wings with Petr Mrazek going the other way. Joel Hofer signed a two-year extension in St. Louis. The Flyers missed a golden chance to add something.
With free agency officially opening in a few days, the Flyers will have to figure out something with the options that remain. But leaving the draft without a single goaltender is quite the miss.