After months of speculation, mock drafts, and rumors aplenty, the 2024 NHL Entry Draft came and went, and the Philadelphia Flyers added seven more prospects to their pipeline.
Round 1, Pick 13: Jett Luchanko (F)
Round 2, Pick 51: Jack Berglund (F)
Round 2, Pick 59: Spencer Gill (D)
Round 4, Pick 107: Heikki Ruohonen (F)
Round 5, Pick 148: Noah Powell (F)
Round 6, Pick 173: Ilya Pautov (F)
Round 7, Pick 205: Austin Moline (D)
Day One
Originally slated to draft in the 12th slot of the first round, Daniel Brière elected to trade down one spot with the Minnesota Wild, acquiring a 2025 third-round pick in the process. At the time, prospects like Zeev Buium, Konsta Helenius, and Cole Eiserman were still on the board. The Wild drafted Buium while the Flyers selected Jett Luchanko out of the OHL’s Guelph Storm.
The pick brought about quite a bit of disdain, mostly because the center-deprived Flyers seemingly had a gold mine in Helenius staring them right in the face. He was touted as being one of the more NHL-ready prospects heading into the draft and even put up 36 points (14G, 22A) in 51 games in the Liiga – the top men’s professional league in Finland. Nevertheless, they saw something in Luchanko that they couldn’t let slip through the cracks.
Luchanko was a late riser, and by Friday night, he was projected to be selected in the 18-22 range. Some final draft rankings had him as high as 12, while others had him as low as 44. Jason Bukala of Sportsnet had Luchanko ranked 12th, TSN’s Bob McKenzie and Craig Button had him ranked 18th and 19th, while Elite Prospects had him 34th and Draft Prospects Hockey had him 44th, respectively.
Luchanko isn’t as flashy as some of the other prospects but he hones a two-hundred-foot game, is responsible on and off the puck, has great hockey senses and abilities, and is extremely fast. Skating and speed are generally the most obvious knocks for most prospects, something that a select bunch never seem to figure out even when they get to the big leagues, but Luchanko has it in spades.
His offensive game took big strides, and he improved from 14 points (5G, 9A) in 46 games for the Guelph Storm in 2022-2023 to 74 points (20G, 54A) in 68 games, pacing the club. He added seven points (2G, 5A) in as many games at the U18 World Junior Championships for Team Canada, which was the perfect platform for the 17-year-old to shine as he rose through the rankings after a scintillating performance.
Luchanko immediately fills a positional need down the middle where the Flyers don’t have many top-end talents. Even on the NHL roster, they are extremely thin down the middle and should be looking to improve as soon as possible with a solid quartet of wingers in their midst the arrival of Matvei Michkov coupled with Travis Konecny, Tyson Foerster, and Owen Tippett.
The Flyers held another first-round pick as they were expected to close out the night with the 32nd selection, however, they decided to trade it to the Edmonton Oilers for a 2025 or 2026 first-rounder. The conditions on the pick are that it’s top-12 protected in 2025, and based on Edmonton’s trajectory, the Flyers are expected to have three first-rounders in 2025, including their own and a first from the Colorado Avalanche from the Sean Walker deal.
Day Two
The second day of the 2024 NHL Entry Draft brought about a lot of movement. The Flyers moved up twice. They acquired pick 59 from the Nashville Predators for pick 77 and the third-round pick from the Wild acquired the night before, then they moved up to pick 107 for picks 150 and 177, sent to the Calgary Flames.
They added a solid amount of skill and size on Saturday with their first second-round pick being used to draft Jack Berglund. The 6’4”, 210-pound power forward hails from Karlstad, Sweden, and gives the Flyers another center with a mix of aggression, physicality, and soft hands around the net.
For Farjestad BK of the SHL, he scored once in eight games but most of his playing time was spent with Farjestad BK J20 of the J20 Nationell where he tallied 34 points (15G, 19A) in 41 games. At the very same U18 World Junior Championship tournament, he impressed with five points (2G, 3A) in seven games for Sweden.
He uses his big body and frame to his advantage, he will go into the corners and the dirty areas to retrieve the puck, he has a solid two-hundred-foot game, and he’s “disruptive” which is a perfectly good intangible to hone as a center. Wherever he’s played, he has found a way to contribute offensively as he notched 22 points (10G, 12A) in 15 games for Farjestad BK J18 in 2022-2023 and 41 points (15G, 26A) in 22 games for Farjestad BK U16 in 2021-2022. Expect Berglund to challenge for a spot at this year’s World Junior Championships.
With Luchanko and Berglund in the mix, the Flyers added another center with the 110th pick when they traded up and selected Heikki Ruohonen out of Finland. Similarly to Berglund, Ruohonen is a big kid, standing in at 6’2” and 205 pounds, and truly uses his size to his advantage.
He is said to be a powerful skater, a full two-hundred-foot player, a two-way center, and a playmaker. He is coming off a successful campaign with Kiekko-Espoo U20 in the U20 SM-Sarja where he tallied 47 points (20G, 27A) in 37 games before scoring five points (3G, 2A) in as many games at the U18 World Juniors for Finland.
Ruohonen played for the same U20 squad the year before but only tallied 13 points (3G, 10A) in 39 games, which showcases the strides he made in 2023-2024. He is committed to the University of Harvard of the NCAA for 2026-27. Ruohonen is expected to cultivate his skills furthermore in the Finnish circuits before taking his skills to North America. While he may seem like a work in progress, Ruohonen was ranked 95th by Elite Prospects and 97th by Chris Peters of FloHockey.
It was a forward-heavy draft for the Flyers, who used five of their seven picks to address their offensive woes. After taking three centers, the Flyers added Noah Powell and Ilya Pautov in the fifth and sixth rounds, respectively.
Powell was a re-entry prospect after having gone undrafted in 2023, which inadvertently worked in his favor as he improved drastically playing for the Dubuque Fighting Saints of the USHL. In 2022-2023, Powell scored 19 points (8G, 11A) in 53 games but then tore things up this year with 74 points (43G, 31A) in 61 games. He is committed to Ohio State University of the NCAA for 2024-2025.
The Flyers prioritized size in this draft with the 19-year-old from Northbrook, Illinois, standing in at 6’2” and 200 pounds. He is known for his hockey IQ, driving to the net, getting to the dirty areas, and finding every way to score a goal. His creativity is off the charts and the Flyers might have found their steal of the draft at 148th overall, ranked 77th by Elite Prospects and even 124th by Dobber Prospects.
Another trend the Flyers seemed to follow this year was selecting the late risers as Powell scored 38 goals in his final 44 games. His 43 goals topped not only the entire USHL circuit but also the most goals in a single season for the Dubuque Fighting Saints, seven more than Johnny Gaudreau (36). His 74 points were also fifth most in the USHL. It remains to be seen if he can translate the goal scoring into the NCAA, but he should get plenty of opportunities with Ohio State in 2024-2025.
Compared to the aforementioned forwards, there’s not too much information out there about Pautov, who the Flyers selected in the sixth round with the 173rd pick. However, he was nothing short of electrifying for Krasnaya Armiya Moskva of the MHL, which is the top junior league in the Russian circuit.
Pautov scored 45 points (15G, 30A) in 46 games, which was good for second on the club. While he’s not diminutive by nature, he is compared to the rest of the prospects the Flyers drafted as he stands in at 5’10” and just 165 pounds. Nevertheless, he is a crafty and skilled playmaker who fits the Russian winger profile to a tee.
The Flyers addressed their back-end by drafting Spencer Gill in the second round and Austin Moline in the seventh round to round out their 2024 draft class.
Another 17-year-old, Gill was ranked 51st by Button and 53rd by McKenzie, which might have aided in the reason the Flyers jumped to grab the right-handed shooting defenseman. Every other board had him between 60-80, but the Flyers loved what they saw between his aggression, physicality, size, and scoring ability.
Playing for Rimouski Oceanic of the QMJHL, Gill improved to the tune of 46 points (12G, 34A) in 65 games compared to his 2022-2023 season where he accumulated four assists in 41 games. The 6’4”, 185-pound defender fits the Flyers’ mantra to a tee and his scouting report should bring about some excitement, especially if he can find a way to remain offensively-minded in the big leagues:
“Gill is a physical and imposing defenceman who flashes impressive playmaking and scoring abilities. He can hit the smallest of passing lanes, beat opponents with fakes and float shots to the top of the net from the point. Operating with confidence and timing, he’s constantly attacking space and participating in all his team’s plays in the offensive zone.” – 2024 Elite Prospects Draft Guide
Part of the reason they skipped over Buium in the first round was because Brière noted that the Flyers lack size on the back end while name-dropping Cam York, Jamie Drysdale, and Emil Andrae as the future pillars on defense. They addressed that “weakness” by drafting both Gill and Moline.
Moline is another towering prospect as he comes in at 6’4” and 195 pounds. He is committed to the Brooks Bandits of the BCHL for the 2024-25 season before making his way to Northern Michigan University of the NCAA in 2025-26. This year he played for Shattuck St. Mary’s, where he scored 35 points (8G, 27A) in 57 games after tallying 22 points (1G, 21A) the year prior.
Similar to a lot of the prospects drafted this year, Moline is a physical player first and foremost, he was described as an “ever-willing activator” by Elite Prospects, and he has the proclivity to join the rush, adding some size and space to the offensive game. The Vegas native will be added to the mix of defensive prospects that includes Gill, Carter Sotheran, Matteo Mann, Hunter McDonald, Brian Zanetti, Ty Murchison, and Ethan Samson from recent drafts.
While the draft wasn’t as flashy as some would have hoped, the Flyers believe they added a good mix of offense, defense, size, and physicality for years to come. They added three centers, two wingers, and two right-handed shooting defensemen, which seems to be a common theme; they drafted three last year, to an ever-growing pipeline.
Only time will tell if picking Luchanko over Helenius, Buium, or Eiserman will come back to haunt the Flyers or if it will be seen as sheer brilliance from the Flyers’ brass. Buium and Helenius, especially, are as NHL-ready as ever and would have represented upgrades over most of the prospects within the pipeline. Nevertheless, Luchanko is expected to have an even larger role for the Storm next year and is expected to make massive leaps and bounds in 2025-2026.
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