Jack Nesbitt is a very intriguing prospect that the Flyers may have to consider. He is not necessarily considered to be a top-10 prospect, but if teams make a run on centers, he could disappear as center-needy teams panic. However, he could be someone who could go anywhere from 10-25, depending on which mock draft you are looking at at the time. That's kind of a stretch, but it all comes down to need.
There are three things every team needs to be successful: centers, defenders, and goalies. Most teams won't pick goalies in the first round anymore. Centers dominate the game and set everything up for the wings. With defenders, you need someone who can drive the transition game, defend the zone, and level opponents. So when it comes to drafting, you have to look at what your biggest needs are. Do you need a center or a defender most? If you are "stable enough" on those, you then go for wings.
The reason I bring this up is that this applies to Nesbitt. He's in the top 20 of North American skaters. He has a lot of promise. Read any scouting report on him and you will see things like: great size (he's 6'4', 205 lbs), possesses a high hockey IQ, is a great skater, and has an outstanding two-way game. Wonderful.
The problem he has is that while he is solidly good in each of these, he is outstanding in few of them. He doesn't drive the kind of enthusiasm that Michael Misa, Jake O'Brien, Caleb Desnoyers, or Michael Hagens are building. But does he need to?
With the Windsor Spitfires, he scored 25 goals with 39 assists. That's nothing to sneeze at. His 74 penalty minutes may be a bit high, but that's fixable.
The knock on him is his speed. While he skates well in the sense that he can get open for a shot, he still has a slow motor to get going. If he is placed with two speedy guys on his flanks, however, he could easily feed them the puck, watch them fly down the ice, and be trailing to score when nobody is paying attention to him.
If Nesbitt is available at either of the two late first-round selections, he could be one of the best steals of the draft. There wouldn't be much risk in taking him. At the very worst, he becomes a very solid third-line center in the mold of Scott Laughton. Let's be honest, how many of us would love to have a player of Laughton's caliber on this team right now?
Nesbitt's name is worth keeping an eye on. He could be a guy who surprises everyone.