In this year’s NHL Entry Draft, the Philadelphia Flyers don’t need to take another defenseman. They don’t need to draft another playmaker that will cycle the puck around endlessly, and they need not add another defensive center who is more worried about not letting goals in than scoring them! What they do need is a player who possesses a natural goal-scoring ability- one who is a threat to light the lamp every shift they are on the ice. One that is willing to fire the puck on net whenever they receive it on their stick. It has been over a decade since the Flyers have had a player score over 40 goals and it has been over 20 years since the Philadelphia’s fans have had the luxury of seeing one of their Flyers score 50 goals in a season!
Philadelphia’s Power Play Unit’s conversion rate was horrid in the playoffs this season, mostly because they were lacking a high-volume shooter who could be the trigger man while on the one-man advantage. Veterans Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek are some of the best set-up men the league has to offer but currently lack that finisher on the ice with them that can make the penalized opponent have to leave the penalty box early and skate back to the opposing teams bench with their head down.
One player that the Flyers could select in this year’s draft who could develop to be that type player is the Ontario Hockey League’s (OHL) Mississauga Steel Heads’ left winger James Hardie. Hardie, who currently stands at 5’11 and is 176 pounds, has never seen a shot he doesn’t want to take! Throughout the 2019-2020 season James showed that he could fire the puck from anywhere on the ice with extreme accuracy. Hardie’s accuracy and high hockey IQ allow him to take advantage of whatever hole the opposing goalie has left open for him; he then pairs those traits with his rapid release to capitalize on it. In fact, how James is going to score may be his toughest decision of the night, seeing that his arsenal is full of different types of shots that he is proficient with. Such shots include: his wrist shot, snapshot, slapshot, one-timer, backhand, and redirection. Having the ability to utilize all these type shots helped James amass 252 shots this past season. With Hardie putting up that kind of shot totals, he was able to score 34 goals and 29 assists, for 63 points this season in just 59 games played. What the Flyers should take note of is that 11 of those goals were on the power play.
Now you may think for a player that can tally these type numbers the Flyers would have to select James in the 1st or 2nd round of the draft, but you would be wrong. Hardie is vastly underrated and unheard of by many scouts. Of the scouts that do know of him, they have James not being selected until the 4th or even 5th round because James didn’t come into his own until the second half of the 2019-2020 season. There are a few reasons for that though: Hardie had to deal with his mom being diagnosed with cancer during his first season (last year) with the Steel Heads. Another is that James was not promoted to Mississauga’s top line until the second half of this past season. As you can see on the chart below, once he was given that opportunity (to play alongside guys that could get him the puck) he made the most of it!
| Parts of Season: | Goals | Assists | Points |
| First Half | 11 | 7 | 18 |
| Second Half | 23 | 22 | 45 |
In the second half of the season James was averaging an impressive 4.97 shots per game, 0.79 goals per game and was operating at a 1.55 point-per-game pace. In doing so, he quickly became the team’s finisher: A true sniper who this writer could see continuing to develop his game if he is able to put on weight and get stronger. If Hardie accomplishes that, you can expect to see this talented forward prospect scoring upwards of 50 goals next season in the OHL.
The Flyers would be wise to take advantage of this late-round draft STEEL by selecting Hardie with their 4th round pick. Like so many Philadelphia players before him that are currently on the Flyers’ roster that were unsigned free agents or just taken later in the draft (by the Former Flyers’ general manager Ron Hextall), James’ talents are still largely untapped. Hardie is just beginning to show the type of offensive prowess that could one day land him a job as a top six forward in the NHL; And, if drafted by the Flyers, James Hardie could potentially become Philadelphia’s next great sharp shooter that the team has been seeking for some time.
