How Flyers' Coaching Change Bounce Affects Draft Lottery Chances
Jakob Pelletier and Bobby Brink celebrate the Flyers' win over the Sabres on March 29. (Photo: Kyle Ross, Imagn Images)
The Philadelphia Flyers are a perfect 2-0-0 in the Brad Shaw era following John Tortorella's dismissal, which is great for the players, but bad for their 2025 NHL Draft lottery chances.
At the time of this writing, the Flyers are 27th in the NHL in points percentage at .460, putting them narrowly behind the likes of Seattle and Nashville and just ahead of Buffalo, Boston, and Pittsburgh.
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The .001 difference between Seattle (.459) and Philadelphia (.460) actually represents a 0.7% increase in odds to land the No. 1 overall pick. MoneyPuck, the wildly popular public analytics site, gives the Flyers a 8.4% chance of landing the top draft selection this summer, while the Kraken, who are marginally worse, have a 7.7% chance of doing this.
With and without Tortorella, the Flyers have insisted they are not in the business of throwing games away to improve their draft positioning. Matvei Michkov, who was a top draft pick himself, is driving the bus away from the bottom.
The 20-year-old Russian phenom has four goals and an assist in two games since Tortorella's abrupt firing, and the Flyers have scored 13 goals across this span overall.
Indeed, the Flyers were buoyed by Buffalo's shocking 8-5 win over Washington on Sunday afternoon, but they may want to be careful with their results with so few games remaining.
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Philadelphia is in pole position to land a top-5 pick, and potentially a No. 1 pick, for the first time since 2022, when they drafted Cutter Gauthier with the fifth pick.
Who could the Flyers draft inside the top-5?
Assuming the Flyers stay put in the lottery and the standings and pick fifth in the 2025 draft, Tankathon predicts they draft Swedish center Anton Frondell, missing out on top forwards Porter Martone, James Hagens, and Michael Misa.
In this instance, the Flyers pass on forwards Caleb Desnoyers, Roger McQueen, Jake O'Brien, and Victor Eklund, among others.
Frondell, 17, is a versatile two-way center who thinks the game at a high level and has some serious skill, but struggles to impose himself in games consistently.
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The 6-foot center is capable of playing wing if needed, though the Flyers will assuredly require his services in the middle of the ice.
Frondell has bounced back from a slow start to post 11 goals, 14 assists, and 25 points for Djurgårdens IF in HockeyAllsvenskan this season, but his draft projections currently peg him as high as second and as low as 18th on the given draft boards.
So, while Frondell could stylistically be a strong fit with Michkov due to his shot, hockey IQ, and willingness to play a power game, it is evident that the Swede is no sure thing to be a stud in the eyes of many draftniks.
Can the Flyers take a risk like that with such an important draft selection? Maybe, but they already did it once with Jett Luchanko in the 2024 draft.
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MoneyPuck currently projects the Flyers to finish with 75.5 points; they have 69 points with seven games left on their schedule.
Anton Frondell vs Victor Eklund - Who's The Best Prospect?
Anton Frondell vs Victor Eklund - Who's The Best Prospect? Re-uploaded due to a sound problem.David St-Louis breaks down two games of Victor Eklund, Anton Frondell, and Jakob Ihs-Woznkiak and looks at their strengths...
Remaining games for the Flyers include a matchup with big draft implications with Nashville, Montreal, New York Rangers, New York Islanders, Ottawa, Columbus, then Buffalo again.
For more Flyers news and up-to-date coverage, visit The Hockey News Flyers team site and like our Facebook page. Follow us on 𝕏: @ByJonBailey, @SGNolan, @TheHockeyNews
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