Flyers’ Draft Prospect Profile: Noel Gunler

It should come as no surprise that the Philadelphia Flyers might look to the Swedish Hockey League (SHL) when they find themselves on the clock to make their first-round selection in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft. Looking into the past, you will see the Flyers had some great success with the Swedish players that have donned the Orange and Black over the years:  Pelle Eklund and Pelle Lindbergh in the 80’s (Lindbergh was awarded the Vezina Trophy in 84’-85’ for being the league’s best goalie- posting 40 wins that year.) In the 90’s, these players were Kjell Samuelsson, Tommy Soderstrom, and Mikael Renberg (Renberg was part of the Legion of Doom line which was arguably one of the best lines ever put together in the NHL). Peter Forsberg was the 2000s version of this player. Fast forward to present day and you’ll see that trend still holds true currently, with Swedish players like Robert Hagg and Oskar Lindblom finding a home on the Flyers’ lineup. Looking into the future Chuck Fletcher has already signed one of the SHL’s leading goal scorers (from last season) Linus Sandin to suit up for the Flyers next season.  

This, of all years in recent memory, would be a good year to pick up another Swedish sharpshooter, with names like Lucas Raymond (a forward who is projected to be selected in the Top 5), forward Alexander Holtz who is projected to be selected in the Top 10 in this year’s draft, or the underrated marksman Noel Gunler who is also projected to go in the 1^st round. The other two might be gone by the time Philadelphia makes their selection, but lucky for Philly Gunler might just still be on the board when it’s time for the Flyers to make their choice. Who is Noel Gunler you ask? Well, he is the 18-year-old Swedish winger who stands at 6’2″ (Raymond is just 5’10 and Holtz only 6’0″), weighs in at 174-pounds, plays for the Lulea Hockey Forening, and who loves nothing more than to rifle off shot after shot with precision-like accuracy at the back of the net. This is a trait that the Flyers so desperately need in a lineup full of playmakers. Gunler’s elite goal-scoring ability derives from his desire to get into the high percentage shooting areas while continuing to move on the ice. Noel’s knack for skating the puck in close to the net before firing off a rapid shot leaves the opposing goalie with little to no time to react, which often results in a goal. 

So why would a player with Gunler’s talents fall so far in the draft? Scouting reports have identified a weakness in his defensive ability, which is puzzling because Noel has been a positive player the past two seasons, in both the SHL (Sweden’s top professional league) and the Super Elit league (Sweden’s Elite Prospects league). In fact, if you were lucky enough to watch Gunler in games this year, you would have seen a vast improvement from him in his own zone. Another reason for scouts overlooking his efforts is that he only managed to post 4 goals this year in the SHL: A stat that just so happened to tie “the great” Lucas Raymond’s goal totals on the year in the SHL (a league that is focused on defense.) A reason for Gunler’s drop in production this year was his lack of playing time this season: Noel went from playing first line minutes in the Super Elit to turning pro and playing third and fourth line minutes in the SHL. 

To get a fair assessment of all three players you must look back to last season when all three players played similar minutes in the same league.

2018-19 Season in the Super Elit

When looking at their numbers you can see Gunler outscored Raymond and had similar points in far fewer games than either Raymond or Holtz. Gunler had fewer games last year in the Super Elit league not because of injury, but because he was called up to the SHL before the other two. 

Diving deeper still into these stats, you can see by the following chart that Gunler dominated both Raymond and Holtz, so much so that Gunler’s 0.887 Goals Per Game average is the best in the Super Elit league’s history!

2018-19 Season in the Super Elit.

On top of that, Noel turned pro in that same season, advancing to the SHL last year where he continued with his success by scoring a .33 Point Per Game Average in Sweden’s top league a year before even being eligible to be drafted. When you look at the SHL history books for players that have competed in the league a year before they’re eligible for the draft, this PPG Avg. not only surpassed Lucas Raymond’s totals, but also both Swedish greats Daniel and Henrik Sedin’s totals as well!    

So, do not be surprised if you hear General Manager Chuck Fletcher say, “The Flyers would like to select Noel Gunler of the SHL with our first pick in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft!,” for his goal scoring ability may be just what the Flyers so desperately covet.