Can the Flyers land Top-End talent with potentially two First-Round Picks?

Photo Credit: Avangard Omsk

Philadelphia has been struggling this season and has had multiple, double-digit game losing streaks- with the most recent one setting a new franchise record with thirteen consecutive losses. The Flyers currently find themselves in a battle with the league’s worst teams for their choice of this year’s top prospects and their odds may even increase over the next couple of games given the lengthy list of players out due to injuries (Kevin Hayes, Sean Couturier, Ryan Ellis, Joel Farabee, Wade Allison, Derick Brassard, Nate Thompson, Patrick Brown, etc.). Plus, thanks to COVID, there’s the fact that other teams in their conference have a number of games in hand: for example, the New York Islanders, who have played eight fewer games to date than the Flyers.  

With that in mind, after holding a press conference a few days ago to speak on the State of the Franchise, Comcast Spectator’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dave Scott and General Manager Chuck Fletcher have alluded to the team most likely being sellers come the trade deadline. This means that the club’s unrestricted free agents like Claude Giroux, Justin Braun, Keith Yandle, Derick Brassard, Nate Thompson, and Martin Jones could all potentially be moved by the March 21st deadline. While most of those players will not fetch a king’s ransom when dealt, their now 34-year-old captain Claude Giroux just might. Since his admittance into this franchise and the NHL, Claude has been an integral part in this team’s success over the last 16 seasons. That’s still essentially the case today as he now closes in on 1,000 games played. Despite where his team currently may be in the standings, his stats have not faltered in the slightest with him netting 15 goals and 20 assists for 35 points in 41 games played so far this season. But, while his success is still very impressive, it is proving to be insufficient to aid this abysmal franchise. Chuck Fletcher may have even said it best when asked what the team needs in the previously mentioned press conference: “Look, I don’t think there’s any question we need more top-end talent. Claude Giroux is our best offensive hockey player, he’s 34 years old, he was drafted 16 years ago. We have some good young players. And some of those young players, their career arc is still going to play out. But we do need more top-end talent, there’s no question.”  That’s what this writer has been saying all season long: As good as Giroux is, who does this team have that will make up for his offensive production when he’s gone? Coots is a defensive forward. Farabee, while still very young, is good (but not great), and the team’s once thought to be stocked prospect cupboard has now been left barren. What’s left is only expiring goods like the now-22-year-old center Morgan Frost (who is five years removed from being drafted in the first round back in 2017) whose play still has yet to live up to the hype that the organization- and most of the writers covering this team- claimed it would be. 

With that being said, it may be time to move on from Giroux and thus potentially receive a first-round pick and maybe even an NHL-ready prospect in return, considering Claude looks to be the best player to be available at the deadline. This should bring about a multitude of teams willing to outbid each other in order to acquire a player of his caliber to better their chances at raising the Stanley Cup this season. Now, ultimately the decision to move on from the Flyers still resides solely with Giroux seeing that he holds a full “no movement clause,” but he should be meeting with his agent Pat Brisson in the coming weeks to gather a list of potential teams he would be willing to accept a trade to. 

This would then potentially give the Flyers a second first-round pick to go along with their own potential top-five draft selection. Which, with the exception of the team’s 2017 multiple first-round picks of Nolan Patrick and Morgan Frost, this has worked out for them rather nicely in prior years. In 2018 the team selected Joel Farabee 14^th overall and Jay O’Brien at 19^th overall. Which, in O’Brien’s case, most people may have forgotten about him, but I don’t know why because he has been a point-per-game player for the Boston University Terriers, both this season and last. Then, you have Ivan Provorov who was taken 7^th overall back in 2015 along with Travis Konecny who was taken 24^th. Finally, who could forget the Flyers’ 2003 draft haul where they were able to get both Jeff Carter and Mike Richards in the first round.  

Therefore, this is an opportunity that Philadelphia seemingly can’t afford to get wrong. They have to find the next face of their franchise with their initial pick of the first round of this year’s draft and another player with their second first-round draft selection who will not only be able to make the Flyers’ opening-night roster sooner rather than later but be a key contributor as well. Lucky for them I know just the players to do so. 

Sure, it would be nice for the Flyers to win the draft lottery and receive the number one overall pick this off season and land Zayde Wisdom’s linemate, center Shane Wright- the uncontested number one player available in this draft; but, as good as Wright looks now, he was not achieving the kind of point production he is currently now that Wisdom is back from an injury. Zayde has only played in 10 games this season for the Kingston Frontenacs, but he has already totaled nine points since his return. Now that Wisdom is back, Wright is now averaging 2.20 points per game. I’m not trying to say that Wisdom is the sole reason for Wright’s increased production, but I am saying that if Wright was drafted by the Flyers that he is not the kind of player who can carry the team on his back like he might be forced to do for the first few years while the Flyers try to rebuild. 

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What the Flyers need is a generational type of talent. While these type players don’t come around every year, I do believe there is one in this year’s draft. Who? An underrated player by the name of Ivan Miroshnichenko, a Russian-born player from the frozen tundra known as Siberia. Miroshnichenko is a 17-year-old left winger (Giroux’s position) who currently stands at 6’1 and 185 pounds. Ivan already possesses all the intangibles to be a future star in the NHL. Not only does Ivan have an elite-level shot that he is able to get off rather quickly resulting in the puck touching twine from all over the ice, he is also an elite skater whose hustle is unmatched when he sees an unattended puck in his sights. The opposition would be wise not to get in his way when he is barreling down the ice because, like Alex Ovechkin, Miroshnichenko tends to lay hits that leave his opponents feeling as though they have been hit by a Mac truck. Ivan made a name for himself previously while playing for the Russian U-16 team where in international competition he scored 17 goals and 10 assists for 27 points in 15 games played- a 1.80 point per game (P.P.G.) average. 

He then followed that up by scoring six goals and eight points in seven games played at the 2021 World Junior Championships in the U-18 age bracket. But, where some teams may hesitate on drafting a young Russian player seeing that the KHL (Russia’s top professional league) likes to try and keep their stars over there, Ivan has shown in the past that he has a desire to play in North America. In fact, he has been over here before to train and even signed a US tender to play for the United States Hockey League’s (USHL) Muskegon Lumberjacks back in 2020 but was unable to obtain permission to enter the country due to COVID protocols and Visa troubles. Thus, he had to double back to Russia and play within the Omsk Avangard’s system where he currently suits up for their Vysshaya Hokkeinaya Liga (VHL) team the Omskie Krylia- a team that plays in Russia’s version of the AHL.  This season, at the age of just seventeen (while playing against men), Ivan has totaled 10 goals and six assists for 16 points in 31 games played. 

Ivan is the type of talent who makes scoring goals look effortless and, while delivering bone rattling hits like Ovechkin, his game more resembles that of another former Russian star who went number one in the NHL draft back in 2001 to the then Atlanta Thrashers: Ilya Kovalchuk. Like Miroshnichenko, Kovalchuk was very fast and hard to stop when coming through the neutral zone as well as both having a nearly-unstoppable shot seeing their great release. All of these are traits that would make Miroshnichenko an instant fan favorite and potential super star upon his arrival in Philly if the Flyers were to draft him. The only thing is, with the United States not granting his visa to play for the Lumberjacks of the USHL, they would have to wait until the end of the 2023-2024 season to make that a reality seeing that is when his current contract with Omsk is set to expire. 

With their possible second first-round selection coming from a playoff bound team, if Giroux is traded the Flyers will most likely have to wait until later in the preliminary round of the draft in order to select another player. But that’s ok, because there is an elite, puck moving, right-hand-shot defenseman by the name of Seamus Casey who should still be on the big board late in the first round.  Casey who is an American born player from the hockey hotbed of Miami, Florida (sarcasm), may only stand at 5’10 but his exceptional skating ability- paired with his incredible hands- help him to dangle his way through the opposition as if he was Paul Coffey himself, as well as tightrope-walk the blueline as if he was Brain Leetch. But that’s not all: Where Seamus’s quick and deadly accurate shot may remind you of a young Ray Bourque, his ability to lay long outlet passes right on his awaiting cherry picking teammate’s stick blade (like a young Erik Karlsson) will have you standing on your feet to watch the impending breakaway. Think I’m exaggerating? Just watch these videos provided below. 

I know what you’re thinking, and no, Casey is not another Shayne Gostisbehere who is blessed with amazing offensive talents, but can’t/won’t play defense, at least not anymore. Coming from the sunny state of Florida, Seamus previously had to do it all so his teams would prosper. But, since joining the United States National Team Development Program, he has found a nice balance between the offensive and the defensive sides of his game. This season against the USDP Casey has scored five goals and 16 assists for 21 points in 33 games played while managing to maintain a plus 22 average. When facing off against teams of the USHL this season Seamus has been able to score one goal and seven assists for eight points in 11 games played while being able to sustain a plus eleven average.  

But perhaps what Flyers fans should be most excited to hear is that Casey is set to attend and play for Head Coach Mel Pearson’s University of Michigan’s Wolverines next season (the coach who helped defenseman Cam York to develop his game to the point where it is today). 

If the Flyers were to draft both winger Ivan Miroshnichenko and defenseman Seamus Casey this off season, the road to reaching contention once again will be a short one. Both Miroshnichenko and Casey excel at both ends of the ice and would aid the Flyers’ troubled power play. Both players have amazing skill sets that could one day see them playing not only top-line minutes for the Flyers, but in NHL All Star games, as well. Ivan could very well replace Giroux as the face of the franchise and Casey could solidify the troubled right side of the Flyers’ blueline and play across from Cam York for years to come. All the Flyers have to do is just draft them!