Shut up, I'm drunk

Under the Microscope: Flyers 2024 Draft ClassUnder the Microscope: Flyers 2024 Draft Class

Interviews with both Briere and Flahr. I think Flahr's name will start to emerge in a couple of years as a GM candidate. Done a great job with these picks.

The 2024 draft has come and gone, with the Flyers big catch being Jett Luchanko, a Center from the Guelph Storm of the OHL. Outside of that they punted (one by their own choice and another not) multiple picks down the road to the 2025 draft, and used their other picks to try and add big players in positions of needs.

Free Agency begins tomorrow, Briere has said the Flyers won't be active in Free Agency, but as always I'd expect a small signing or two with a shot at a surprise one we don't see coming, as well as a couple of trades that could still be yet to come.

23 yo RHD who recently had his contract bought out by CBJ. I know we have a lot of defensemen, but is he someone worth taking a flyer on and trying to sign to a low AAV contract?

Obviously I'm kidding lol but I'm really hoping he turns out to be at least a 2nd line center. Really wanted Catton or Helenius. Maybe next year we can find a 1C.

https://x.com/reporterchris/status/1807224644774334525?s=46&t=BSRLLbwKy9xP7KNQQO_New

No, we're not pretending to be "armchair" scouting directors. But we are listening to the people who are professional scouts and talent evaluators and Buium (and Helenius) were universally rated above Luchanko. Does it guarantee that Buium is better than Luchanko? Absolutely not, time will tell. But it absolutely has worse odds of success and we can be upset and frustrated by that.

Buium fell not because there was a trade secret that was unknown by the general public. He fell because it was a deep defensiveman year and teams valued forwards (likely for need purposes) and Buium happened to be the great guy that fell (had to be one).

Here's to hoping we're wrong, and go flyers (and obligatory fuck the pens!)

-Gritty

Good lettuce, good zip, let’s ride!

Felt like this draft was a bunch of swings. Was pegged as a weak draft so they took raw players with good upside

Makes it that this draft could be a massive failure or one that brings some impact players after Luchanko.

Overall I leave slightly disappointed because Buium fell into their lap & they passed. But I like Luchanko, I like Gill a lot & Ruohonen/Powell have legit upside for later round picks.

I do come away absolutely stoked for next year's draft though. Potentially 6 top 45 picks in a stronger class.

Hey guys. How we doing? I’m sure everyone’s super pumped about the Jett Luchenko pick this year. It’s exactly who we all wanted right? BPA on the board and all that? Certainly no one has their pitchforks out this morning. All happy in flyer land.

I wanted to take a second to note some things I’ve noticed last night from our guys. Maybe take a more measured look on what the crew may have been thinking about, without going off emotion. First let me preface by saying that I, like everyone else, really wanted Buium. I couldn’t believe he fell to us at 12. All the hype around the guy, the fact that I actually saw him play a bit, I really thought he was the guy. When they traded back and gave him up I was stunned. Then they took Luchenko over the clearly higher ranked Helanious and my first thought was “okay. What’s going on here? The flyers with Danny have taken the talent over the potential every time last year. This isn’t their MO”

Then I thought back on the draft. I don’t know about you guys, but this year was the farthest off I’ve ever seen scouting reports and mock drafts be to what actually happened on the draft floor. The “Defenseman draft” having one guy drafted in the top 5. The “big 4” after Luchenko being completely passed over until 9, with Carter Yakemchuk leaping them all to go sooner, the Sennecke and Yak picks in general, Greentree sliding… it just seemed like no one hit the mark at all when setting guys in order.

I heard people comparing Buium to Adam Fox. Yet he slid all the way to 13. I’ve seen some people compare Silayev to Chara or Hedman. He slid to 10. Dickinson? That’s Moritz Seider right there! He also slid. The centers were supposed to fall due to how good these d men were. All of Iginla, Catton, Lindstrom went before them. I’m not saying the D men suck. No one knows who these kids are gonna be. But clearly the scouts on the floor were not as high in the “can’t miss” nature as the scouts among news people were. This wasn’t just the flyers. It was the entire league. Passing on guys that were consensus high end picks for ones further down. To me, if Buium was truly Adam Fox level to the league, he doesn’t make it out of the top three. People would kill for Fox. For whatever reason, GMs didn’t see him that way. And apparently neither did Briere or Flahr.

So okay, whatever. That’s the D side. What about the guy they actually took? Why not the safe bet of Helanius? Consensus guy. Plays a solid game? Then I realized. Briere and co just didn’t like him. They didn’t like ANY of the guys around 12. It was no secret that they desperately tried to move all week up to the top 5. Never materialized. Folks like to say “oh just trade this guy or that guy” but you need two to tango, and despite rumors of offers and values nothing happens if the other side doesn’t want to play. So they go "ok. Let’s take the one guy we like in this draft and stockpile for next year." They add an extra third and likely first next year (I imagine Edmonton wanting to give up the first next year as they’ll probably be right back in the cup mix) and punt. Danny has said they’re going to take a step back next year, and if you’re TRULY up for a rebuild, you have to realize it isn’t over, even with Michkov. Briere has said over and over while they would love to have Michkov, the timeline doesnt change with him, and this backs it up. They just took a 17 year old who wont see the pros for two years at least. For all y'all clamoring and claiming to be prepared to wait for a true rebuild, Danny has just proven to you that hes not rushing anything. Its a true rebuild.

What I think folks are also ignoring is that Jett is a LOT closer to the thought process behind the Michkov pick then is first evident. The flyers had the opportunity to take a guy with a lot of upside that comes with a LOT of risk. Remember before this year there were people CONVINCED Michkov would never come over. Flyers took him anyway They believe Luchenko can be special. Hes super young and relatively unknown but he has a lot of raw skill to grow into. He's blisteringly fast and has flashes of high end playmaking and netfront work. Can it bust? Absolutely. But if it hits, he would surpass any output a guy like Helanius can muster. Its not a shocking pick for a team willing to play with risk And we also dont know if other teams valued him higher than his consensus rank. Remember teams dont go off of Wheeler or Pronman. They have their own guys. Who knows? Maybe if they dont take Jett and try to move up later, Buffalo takes him over Helanius. We don't know. We can't know.

So in my long winded posts conclusion. (TL;DR) The Jett pick fits their MO better than originally thought, and the league clearly wasnt all on the same page with the D ranks in this draft. The rebuild is absolutely on even with michkov here, and Danny and Brent are, for better or worse, playing by no ones playbook but their own. Welcome to the team Jett

##Flyers Draft picks

##Trades

Danny B gave an interview yesterday after his pick and everyone is unable to see the context. Obviously there's multiple hundreds of hours that go into making a pick and to sum it up in one sound bite is absolutely ridiculous. I think that people were gonna be mad at whatever he said but the way people are hanging onto one little sound bite is ridiculous. So instead of saying what the actual truth is, I saw Danny do three things in his response.

1. Gave an reason for the pick (this one is obvious)
2. Talked up a prospect that wasn't his. Shows that he was polite and knowledgeable and professional.
3. TALKED UP HIS CURRENT FUCKING ROSTER. Regardless of if you agree with his statement, he took the opportunity to say publicly that he believes in the future of the team and call our specific names. Y'all are really hung up with the names he named but regardless if he even believes it, he is doing the right thing by inspiring confidence in who he has.

You have to realize how media training is a huge thing that Danny went through to get into this situation. Every step of this process the whole administration has been very careful with what they wanted to say. The fact that people don't see this is extremely frustrating. You can have your opinion on the prospect but using what was essentially PR speak is so silly to me. Idk what else y'all wanted him to say.

It's crazy