Barring a trade, the Philadelphia Flyers have four selections in the upcoming 2025 NHL Draft in a few weeks. That's the most selections they have ever made in the second round in the history of the franchise. In 1983, they made three picks in the second round, with one of them being current head coach Rick Tocchet.
They also had three selections in 1990, with Mikael Renberg being the breakout star of that group. In 2006, they also made three selections in the second round, with only Andreas Nodl reaching the NHL.
So, we are going to look at the last 10 years of second-round picks and see how the Flyers did with their selections. In 2015, the Flyers had traded away their second-round pick previously, so that's why we're skipping that one.
2016: Pascal Laberge, Carter Hart, and Wade Allison
2016 was the last time the Flyers had multiple second-round picks and the last time they had three picks in the second round. 2016 was also Ron Hextall's third draft as general manager. This has to be among the worst draft classes in franchise history, crowned off with first-round whiff German Rubtsov. It didn't get much better from there. Pascal Laberge played in zero games in the NHL, which was four fewer than Rubtsov. Wade Allison was a pick who fought off injuries but could never quite crack the club, even at the AHL level.
Then there is Hart. As a goalie, he was supposed to be the "next one". Never happened. He was inconsistent and was often injured. To be fair, Sam Ersson has more career shutouts than he has. Then, there are the legal issues, which I am not going to get into. All around, Hart has been a disappointment, both as a player and as a man. Let's just leave it at that.
2017: Isaac Ratcliffe
If 2016 was an abominable draft for Hexy and the Flyers, 2017 was its sequel. Ratcliffe was great for the OHL's Guelph Storm but stunk it up in the AHL. He did suffer a collapsed lung at one point due to an injured rib, however. And he made his NHL debut in the 2020-21 season, notching his first career goal. He played for several years for the Phantoms before he was just kicked to the curb. He still plays at the AHL level, bouncing around from team to team as a depth player.
2018: Adam Ginning
Hextall's swan song in 2018 as GM continued the trilogy of bad drafts. At least we got Ersson in this one. Ginning is still a work in progress. His story is not done yet. He's played a few games here and there over the last three seasons. He's a decent depth piece at the AHL level. If someone gets hurt, he can come up in a pinch. While others are ahead of him on the depth chart, he is still worth holding on to.
2019: Bobby Brink
In Chuck Fletcher's first draft as GM, he selected Brink in the second round. In his second full year with the Flyers, he scored a career high 12 goals with 29 assists. He's 23 and just getting started. With Tocchet as coach, he could improve even more. The one thing that has always been appreciated about him is his work ethic. Brink is part of the future of this team.
2020: Emil Andrae
Andrae has battled some injuries to claw his way onto the Flyers' roster. He's a reliably steady guy who is still trying to figure out his role on the team. He has a lot of promise and figures to be a part of this team's roster moving forward. So far, he seems to be a reliable guy on the team. Is he great? No...or maybe it is fair to say not yet.
2021: Samu Tuomaala
The 2021 draft was a weird one because of the COVID pandemic. The Flyers didn't have a first-rounder that year due to the Rasmus Ristolainen trade that previous summer. Tuomaala, by default, became their top pick. Tuomaala, a Finn like Risto, is slowly becoming a mainstay of the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. In two seasons, he's scored 26 goals with 75 total points. That's not a lot of firepower yet. Still, he is getting used to playing in North America and is worth keeping an eye on. However, it's been four years since he was drafted. Time could be running out shortly.
2023: Carson Bjarnason
The Flyers did not make any second-round selections in the 2022 draft due to a magical trade that sent the pick plus Shayne Gostisbehere for nothing in return. So, the next second-rounder that came to Philly was goalie Carson Bjarnason. Bjarnason is a stud goalie prospect who was called up but didn't play for the Phantoms near the end of the season in the AHL. He probably will contend to be the starter for the Phantoms and may make the jump to the NHL shortly if he continues this pace.
2024: Jack Berglund
Berglund was last year's selection. The 19-year-old Swede played for Farjestads Jr. in the Swedish Jr. League, where he scored eight goals with 14 assists in 15 games. He was then called up to play for Farjestads BK Karlstad for 17 games before debuting for Bofors IK in the top Swedish League for four games. He's still young and a work in progress at this point.
Final Analysis
While you hope your star power arrives in the first round, the bread and butter of your team should be found in the second, third, and fourth rounds. You hope that these are the players who will make up the core of your team. Here we are in 2025, and only two of the last 10 years of picks are still with the Flyers at the NHL level, with four others still in the system as prospects (and the door is getting ready to close on two of those). That's ten picks in ten years with only two paying off. That's atrocious drafting.
Thankfully, Daniel Briere is picking players now. You'd hope with four selections in the second round, you gotta hit well on at least one, right? For the sake of this franchise moving forward, we gotta hope. But Briere has to do more than that. He has to draft well.