The Flyers’ front office and scouts woke up on Saturday morning to get right back to work.
They picked up skilled power forward Porter Martone and promising center Jack Nesbitt with the sixth and 12th overall selections, respectively, in the first round of the NHL Draft on Friday night.
Now, on Saturday, they’ll look to keep stocking their prospect pipeline with Rounds 2-7.
Below is a tracker of the Flyers’ selections so far, along with the picks remaining and any possible trades as they come in from the team’s draft HQ stationed up at the Hard Rock in Atlantic City…
• Round 1, No. 6 – RW Porter Martone, Brampton (OHL): A powerful winger with a laser of a shot and some slick passing, too, Martone brings both skill and some much-needed size into the Flyers’ future at a listed 6’3 and 204 pounds.
The 18-year-old from Peterborough, Ontario was a 37-goal, 98-point scorer in juniors this past season skating with an aggressive and physical game, and upon getting his Flyers hat and jersey on the draft stage in L.A. on Friday night, he said soon after that his immediate priority is to get stronger so that his style can translate as seamlessly as it can into the pros.
Martone is a right winger, and the Flyers have a bit of a logjam at that position right now, but his selection was a matter of best player available. He has the ceiling to be a star in Philly, so they’ll find an opening for him when the time comes.
Also, he liked the Flyers growing up, and said he has a Claude Giroux poster up on the wall in his basement back home.
Read more about Martone HERE.
• Round 1, No. 12 – C Jack Nesbitt, Windsor (OHL): A 6’5′ centerman who’s willing to dig in and battle after pucks in the corners and in front of the net, Nesbitt was another clear play on size and one for upside on the Flyers’ part after they traded picks 22 and 31 to the rival Pittsburgh Penguins to jump up the board at 12.
Nesbitt was a 25-goal scorer for Windsor this past junior season, and fell just shy of a point-per-game production (64 points in 65 games). His play especially picked up in the back half of the year, though, which caught Brière’s attention and instilled a belief that Nesbitt has much more to him.
“We’re pretty confident that he’s just touching the tip of the iceberg in his development,” Brière said of Nesbitt after Round 1 concluded Friday night.
Nesbitt was a needed pick at center for the Flyers, and adds to a developmental pipeline at the position that now consists of himself, last year’s first-rounder Jett Luchanko, Jack Berglund out of Sweden, and Heikki Ruohonen at Harvard (by way of Finland).
The Flyers still have a major need at center up at the NHL level, which still won’t be fulfilled for quite some time, but Brière believes that Friday night’s addition of Nesbitt is another step toward solving it…eventually.
Read more about Nesbitt’s fit into the Flyers’ center plans HERE.
Remaining picks
• Round 2, No. 36.
• Round 2, No. 40 (from Anaheim).
• Round 2, No. 48 (from Calgary).
• Round 3, No. 68.
• Round 5, No. 132.
• Round 5, No. 151 (from Carolina).
• Round 6, No. 164.
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(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
