Draft-Day Steals The Flyers Should Be Watching

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With the season now over and the offseason just getting set to ramp up rather quickly, the main focus of most teams’ General Manager’s and their staff will now shift to the NHL’s player entry draft, seeing that this is what they will be able to control the most after submitting their teams’ protection list for Seattle’s expansion draft to the league’s officials.  With that being said, most teams already have a list of guys complied who they would like to select. However, we all know that with so many teams now making selections it is highly possible that the players who the Flyers like in the draft might be taken by another club. So, if that happens, here’s a few names of players who are highly underrated in this year’s draft who the Flyers could select instead who may later be viewed as draft-day steals.

First up is the 6’0 18-year-old winger Ville Koivunen from Finland. This versatile winger has shown he can play on either side of the center but has been widely overshadowed by fellow countryman and Karpat teammate Samu Tuomaala for quite some time. While Tuomaala is good, and projected to be a potential 1^st round pick, it leaves this writer befuddled as to why Koivunen is not? Instead, Ville finds himself in many mock draft projections as a 2^nd or 3^rd round pick at best, even though Koivunen either surpassed or matched Tuomaala’s statics for multiple years now. Case in point: This season, both were playing on Karpat’s U20 team in which Koivunen was able to amass 23 goals (G) and 26 assists (A) for 49 points (P) in just 38 games played, all the while managing to maintain a +29 average. Tuomaala, while playing on the same team as Koivunen, was only able to achieve 15 G and 16 A for 31 P in 30 games played and only managing to preserve a +19 average during that time. The only reason why Ville was able to play in more games than Samu was because Tuomaala was given the chance to play in Finland’s top league (the Liiga) this season. Where without Koivunen, Tuomaala managed to go scoreless in five games played for Karpat’s top club. 

Another example of the lapse in judgement when it comes to the evaluation of talent of this young player is his latest performance at the World Junior Championships where managed to stay right on par with his Finnish teammate Tuomaala when he amassed four goals and six assists for 10 points to Tuomaala’s five goals and six assists for 11 P.       

Besides his obvious offensive prowess, if taken by the Flyers what would be perhaps most impressive to the team’s executives is Koivunen’s aggression shown towards retrieving the puck and the seemingly unmatched willingness to compete that he displays during each shift while out on the ice. That hunger and will-to-win that Koivunen has racing through his veins is something that the Orange and Black are surely lacking at this time and, if selected, Flyers’ general manager Chuck Fletcher better hope it’s contagious.

Next up is right-hand-shot defenseman Jack Bar from the United States Hockey Leagues (USHL’s) reigning Clark Cup Champion Chicago Steel. Jack- at just 18-years-old- already stands at 6’2 and 195 pounds and, while he may be overlooked by the scouts of this now-offensively minded league, he does all the little things right that the majority of the Flyers defensive core have somehow managed to fail to recall. Such things like how Jack never seems to stop moving his feet. This state of constant motion allows Bar to seemingly never be caught off guard. To add to that, Jack’s head always seems to be on a swivel, constantly watching for anther team’s offensive threat trying to sneak in behind him so that if and when those players do try and set up a screen on his goalie Bar can quickly clear out or tie his man up when a shot is coming in from the point. 

Jack is projected to be a 3^rd or 4^th round pick and will make any GM look like a wise man with his play in the near future if they select him. Speaking of a wise man, Bar is committed to attend Harvard in the fall where he will continue to grow his game while playing at the collegiate level.     

Bar is just the kind of player who the Flyers have truly needed on the back end: For far too long they have selected these so-called defensemen that spend more time in the offensive zone trying score than tending to their own. It’s high time that Philadelphia drafts someone who will patrol their blue line with their main objective in mind being to prevent goals from happening, and Bar is just the one to do it if the Flyers’ ideal draft picks are taken when they go to select.

Last but not least is 20-year-old goaltender Cameron Rowe from the Wisconsin Badgers. Yes, you read that right- 20-years-old.  Rowe epitomizes what it is to be called a late bloomer. While he impressed team USA enough to be selected to its development team a few years back, saying he struggled while suiting up for the Red White and Blue would be putting it mildly. It wasn’t until Cameron got up to Madison, Wisconsin and started to play for head coach Tony Granto that everything seemed to click. In fact, this freshman’s play was so good that Rowe forced Granto’s hand to play him and his senior partner Robbie Beydoun in a tandem scenario. In a smaller serving size of games his numbers of 2.05 goals against average (GAA) and a .933 save percentage (SV%) seem to have some people starting to sit up and take notice. 

While Rowe may have only had the chance to compile a regular season record of 9-2-1 (with two of those wins being shut outs), he did manage to take over the net towards the end of the season where he was especially solid in the Big 10 regular season championship game against Michigan State.  

To put his early colligate success into perspective, let’s compare Rowe’s numbers to that of the now Standard of excellence that is the Florida Panther’s Spencer Knight, who played for Boston College this year. Cameron ranked 4^th in the nation this season in win percentage with a .792 while Knight ranked 5^th with a .786. Rowe also ranked 4^th in the nation this year in SV% with his previously mentioned .933 compared to Spencer’s 5^th place finish with a .932. Lastly, in GAA, Rowe ranked 13^th this season with a 2.05 verses Knight’s 15^th place finish with a 2.17 GAA. 

While Rowe will now be considered an overage prospect for this year’s draft, the Flyers might want to take a chance at him in the 7^th round if he’s still available. For he is sure to not only start in-goal but continue his success next season for the Badgers and would replace Chuck’s recently released 2019 draftee (goaltender Roddy Ross (in the team’s prospect pool)) who at this point should be considered nothing more than a failed experiment.  

While these underrated players might not be the ideal picks the Flyers are looking for when they go to make their selections in the coming weeks, they all will surprise you with their play. Whether it’s because they were overshadowed by their teammates, don’t fit into the new stereotypical mold of what their position has grown to be, or simply considered a late bloomer if taken by Philadelphia in this coming draft, rest assured they all could one day find themselves being labeled draft-day steals.