Flyers stay put after NHL draft lottery; West team grabs No. 1 pick originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
There was no climb or fall for the Flyers in the 2024 NHL draft lottery.
After the drawings Tuesday night, the Flyers stayed at No. 12 overall, their most likely landing spot.
The Sharks, who had the best lottery odds at 18.5 percent, won the first overall pick.
The Flyers had a 2.5 percent chance to finish with the No. 1 lottery drawing, but they had no chance to surge atop the draft board. In March 2021, the league modified the lottery format, which makes only the top 11 seeds eligible to receive the first overall pick. A team can only jump 10 spots, so the highest the Flyers could pick was No. 2.
Per Tankathon.com, the Flyers held a 5.1 percent chance at moving up to No. 2 and 0.1 percent shot at Nos. 3 and 4. They were most likely to remain at No. 12 (85.7 percent), while having an 8.9 percent chance at sliding to No. 13. They could drop no lower than 14th overall (0.2 percent).
Right now, the Flyers have 10 selections for the 2024 draft, which will be held June 28-29 in Las Vegas. They own two first-round picks, the second one coming from former general manager Chuck Fletcher’s Claude Giroux trade. They also have two second-rounders, one from GM Danny Briere’s Ivan Provorov trade last June and the other being a compensatory pick for not signing 2018 first-rounder Jay O’Brien.
Assistant general manager Brent Flahr has overseen the Flyers’ draft efforts since 2019. In the first round under Flahr, the Flyers have taken Cam York (14th overall — 2019), Tyson Foerster (23rd overall — 2020), Cutter Gauthier (fifth overall — 2022), Matvei Michkov (seventh overall — 2023) and Oliver Bonk (22nd overall — 2023).
York developed into a top-pair defenseman this season and was the Flyers’ most improved player, while Foerster scored 20 goals as a rookie winger and opened eyes with his 200-foot play.
Gauthier turned into a massive loss for the Flyers, who had to trade him this January because the 20-year-old forward didn’t want to sign with the organization.
Bonk, a righty-shot defenseman, has had an excellent junior campaign with the OHL’s London Knights (67 points and a plus-28 rating in 60 regular-season games).
Michkov is a transcendent talent the Flyers hope becomes a pillar to their future. The 19-year-old Russian forward slid to the Flyers at No. 7 last summer because of the geopolitical landscape and his three-year KHL commitment. He has two more years left on his contract with SKA St. Petersburg and time will tell if he can arrive to the Flyers any earlier than 2026-27.
“Where we’re going to draft this year, the player that we’re going to get most likely is not going to play for us for the next three years, if we’re realistic,” Briere said at his end-of-the-season press conference last month. “That’s kind of the approach we had with Michkov, it’d be the same as if we had drafted a player No. 7 and we have a development curve that would take him three years. That was our vision when we drafted him and we were OK with that.
“Even though he was a high-end prospect that probably would have gone second or third in the draft, was probably ready to play pro immediately, we saw it more as a normal draft pick that would need that timeline.”
Among the 2024 NHL draft prospects, Boston University center Macklin Celebrini is the consensus top overall pick. Berkly Catton, Carter Yakemchuk, Cole Eiserman, Beckett Sennecke and Trevor Connelly are five players that could be within the Flyers’ range at No. 12, according to TSN’s Bob McKenzie.
2024 lottery results
1. Sharks
2. Blackhawks
3. Ducks
4. Blue Jackets
5. Canadiens
6. Utah
7. Senators
8. Kraken
9. Flames
10. Devils
11. Sabres
12. Flyers
13. Wild
14. Sharks (from Penguins)
15. Red Wings
16. Blues
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