With slim odds, the Flyers didn’t strike gold in the Connor Bedard sweepstakes.
But they will have a chance to bring in some needed high-end talent near the top of the 2023 NHL draft.
“We’re fortunate it’s a good year,” Flyers general manager Danny Briere said of the draft crop in April. “We have quite a few picks and we have a high one.
“You have to go through a lot of bad times to get there unfortunately, but it’s exciting when you’re at the draft table and you get to pick such a high pick. It’s going to be a critical pick for the organization moving forward, there’s no doubt about it.”
After selecting Cutter Gauthier fifth overall last summer, the Flyers are slotted at No. 7 for this year’s draft, which will be held June 28-29 at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee. With the Ivan Provorov trade, the Flyers acquired the 22nd overall pick, giving them two first-rounders and 10 total selections in the draft. The first round kicks off at 7 p.m. ET Wednesday, while Rounds 2-7 follow Thursday starting at 11 a.m. ET.
Leading up to the draft, we’re breaking down targets for the Flyers at No. 7.
Next up:
Gabe Perreault
Position: Winger
Height: 5-foot-11
Weight: 163
Shoots: Left
Team: USNTDP
Scouting report
Immensely skilled with the puck on his stick, Perreault broke records this season in the U.S. national team development program. He recorded the most single-season points in program history with 132 and dished out the most single-season assists with 79.
Patrick Kane, Auston Matthews and Jack Hughes are just a few players who have come through the program.
Perreault possesses above-the-ice kind of vision and is a smooth, creative scorer. Along with his historic totals, he also found the back of the net 53 times and was a plus-79 in 63 games.
“He’s one of these deceptively skilled guys,” Dan Marr, the director of NHL Central Scouting, said June 1 in a phone interview with NBC Sports Philadelphia. “You watch him and he makes some plays where, like, you think he has eyes in the back of his head. Sometimes he’s a magician out there on the ice where just all of a sudden he makes something out of nothing.”
Among all 2023 draft prospects, Perreault put up the second-most points this season, behind only Bedard (143).
The Boston College commit is not a real fast skater and he’s on the smaller side, aspects that have likely knocked his ranking by draft experts. Playing against pros, his ability to protect the puck and score with less time and space are areas that will be questioned by NHL teams.
Perreault is the 10th-ranked North American skater by NHL Central Scouting, climbing five spots from his midterm mark. He’s the 18th-rated player overall in EliteProspects.com’s updated rankings. Contrastingly, The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler has Perreault at No. 7.
“He improved over the course of the season there,” Marr said. “We needed to see that his skating was going in the right direction, and he showed that. He needed to get stronger and he has gotten stronger. He has put the time in, he has applied himself.
“You can see, when you’re starting to get stronger, you’re a little bit more confident in your 1-on-1 battles, your 1-on-1 play on the ice there. You can see that, as the season went along there, in the 1-on-1 play, his game was getting better. He’s got that scoring touch that you cannot teach.”
Fit with Flyers
It doesn’t hurt that Perreault comes from impressive hockey bloodlines.
His father Yanic Perreault was a third-round draft pick of the Maple Leafs in 1991 and went on to play parts of 14 NHL seasons. His brother Jacob Perreault was a first-round pick of the Ducks in 2020.
“I was with the Maple Leafs when we drafted his father,” Marr said. “He’s got that in his DNA, he’s got that hockey gene there where he can put the puck in the net. His dad wasn’t as good of a skater and he ended up finding his niche as one of the best faceoff men once he got to the NHL. His smarts and his scoring got him to the NHL. Gabe’s got the skating to go along with that. There’s talent in that family.”
For the Flyers, they should be interested in a player with an innate scoring prowess like Perreault. The organization has lacked prolific scorers, guys that just have a knack for making things happen offensively.
Over the last two seasons combined, the Flyers have ranked last in the NHL with a 14.0 power play percentage and second to last with 2.62 goals per game. Perreault has the potential to seriously help the organization address those areas its in rebuild.
Tyson Foerster, the club’s 2020 first-round pick, is a right-handed, shot-seeking winger the Flyers are high on for the future. Perreault, a lefty shot, could be a nice playmaking complement.
It’s worth noting the Flyers, and 13 other teams, passed on the 5-foot-7, goal-scoring phenom Cole Caufield in 2019. The diminutive winger put up 72 goals and 100 points in his draft year on a loaded U.S. national U-18 team.
How will the Flyers view the high-scoring but undersized Perreault? We’ll see.
The Flyers have shown a tendency to tap into the U.S. national team development program. Three of their first-round picks over the last five years have come from the program: Joel Farabee (2018), Cam York (2019) and Gauthier (2022).
More targets
• Could high-scoring center with ‘no holes’ be there for Flyers at No. 7?
• Tage Thompson type of prospect? Big winger should intrigue Flyers at No. 7
• Reinbacher, with ‘all the skills and tools,’ may be draft’s top D-man for Flyers
• Moore would offer Flyers elite speed, skating down the middle
• Another talented center with big shot Flyers will have to consider at No. 7
