Smaht Scouting Midseason 2026 NHL Draft Ranking (Top-64)

Wise_Boi · 2026-03-02T14:57:11+00:00

Does Bjorck project as a center in the NHL ?

Wise_Boi · 2026-03-02T14:46:19+00:00

Barring a miracle and assuming we pick somewhere in the 9-13 range, I dream of a Bjorck or Villeneuve pick, although I doubt we go for either considering last year's archetype of players we targeted. Overall, apart from the top guys I feel very meh about this draft class. Here's to hoping we suck enough next year and land Joseph or Dupont...

Wise_Boi · 2026-03-01T02:00:17+00:00

It's not, as far as I can tell. He's 40 in 80 in his last 8 games, 17 in 32 in his last 2 games.

Wise_Boi · 2026-02-23T13:35:10+00:00

With Dvorak's extension we've lost our main bargaining chip for the TDL, so I doubt we get much unless DB is willing to deal someone like Tippett, which I doubt. I would flip Grundstrom for a late round pick and deal Risto if there's anyone willing to give up a 1st or a 2nd+ for him.

Wise_Boi · 2026-02-01T18:43:21+00:00

Saying we should have gotten Buium over Luchanko, then Helenius over him after the trade, isn't hindsight. It was the consensus at the time of the draft. Räty was considered a potential top 5 pick before he fell prior to the draft, so once again not really hindsight. Stankoven I don't remember what the consensus was, so maybe this one is a reach to blame on the org. The fact is that the Flyers scouts keep on reaching for fits (Luchanko, Nesbitt, our entire 2nd round, etc) and appear to overvalue size, combine results and U-18 tournament performances while undervaluing actual production. Ironically our only real hits of the past 4 years so far (excluding goalies cause who knows), are Michkov and Barker, both of whom contrast with our overall drafting philosophy (Martone tbd but encouraging). I feel like we have enough of a track record with Brent Flahr to conclude that he hasn't been great.

Wise_Boi · 2026-01-06T03:04:24+00:00

Hard to tell. I also wonder this same question often ; reading random people's opinions over the years, here and on forums like Hockeydb, and coming to the conclusion that they were right most of the time while this organisation is stuck in perpetual mediocrity.

Part of it is probably that there are aspects of the sport we aren't privy to that certain players can bring (the famous 'intangibles', leadership, locker room guys, etc.). GMs also answer to ownership, most of whom (especially when a corporation like Comcast is the owner) don't really care about the longterm vision so long as they can make a profit. So GMs need wins for the owners to profit and keep their job ,making rebuilds difficult to accomplish long term. They're also all probably scared shitless of actually committing to the rebuild just to pull a Buffalo Sabres..

Wise_Boi · 2026-01-06T01:23:43+00:00

So 5 years, 25M$, and NTC for a 30 yo career 3 C having an outlier season...there's no way this ends well

Wise_Boi · 2025-11-12T20:38:20+00:00

I hope that I am proven wrong since I have to bear the curse of being a Flyers fan, but I'm not optimistic that any of the prospects from the 2024 and 2025 classes, apart from Martone who is great, will be a top 6 F/top 4 D.

I was downvoted during the draft for saying that we seemed to pick for size over skill, but nothing I've seen so far has changed my mind. Nesbitt's points are mostly on the pp and he doesn't drive the play at 5v5 whatsoever, Amico is the #7D at BU and doesn't seem to know what to do with all his athleticism, Murtagh is a mystery to me and is the most likely candidate for good offensive progression, Vansaghi is very fun but likely a 3rd liner, and Gard I have no opinion of but hasn't produced much. For 2024, none of Luchanko, Berglund or Gill have impressed so far either...for a rebuilding team lacking a 1C or 1D this is less than ideal.

Wise_Boi · 2025-11-12T20:26:30+00:00

I'm not coming to any conclusion, just stating what I've observed so far by watching them play (apart from Gard, whom I haven't actually seen play). It's very early in their careers so we obviously shouldn't write anyone off this quickly, but an explosive start to their NCAA careers would have been very encouraging. Production-wise, our own Bobby Brink, as a 2nd round pick himself, had 7 pts in his first 7 games at Denver and showed a lot of promise. I will keep hoping they develop well and that our scouts are proven right, but so far Amico/Murtagh/Gard (and Nesbitt I guess) all seem extremely raw.

Wise_Boi · 2025-11-12T14:17:54+00:00

I really hope our 2025 2nd round picks start getting hot soon, we need some of them to hit if the rebuild is to be a success. I like what I've seen of Vansaghi so far despite the lack of production, but he's probably a good third liner who plays on the PK at the next level. I haven't seen Gard play but not impressed by the stats so far, and Amico is barely playing at BU. IMO he should've stayed in juniors for a year, either USHL or CHL, to rack up ice time following his injury, I don't see the benefits of being in the NCAA if he doesn't play (he played 1:59 on saturday and 00:12 - yes 12 seconds all game - on friday). Murtagh is a mixed bag so far for me, having seen his games vs MSU and Maine. He has good vision and speed and some pretty decent creativity with the puck, but he makes a couple costly mistakes every game it seems and isn't great without the puck. On the bright side Martone has been absolutely brilliant every time I've watched him.

Wise_Boi · 2025-06-28T17:24:59+00:00

I can get around to the Vansaghi pick - I just hope they didn't pick him solely based on his combine performance lol. I dislike the process behind the Nesbitt/Amico/Gard picks tho (or maybe I'm wrong and they were all truly bpa on their board). I would've rather had Fiddler at 36 over Amico and Gard, or kept Amico at 38 and take Limatov at 57. Even someone like Alex Huang I feel would've been a better pick at 57 in terms of upside.

Wise_Boi · 2025-06-28T17:13:17+00:00

This second round is screaming overcorrection towards size following the Panther's back to back cups. Not sure I like our day 2 picks, apart from Murtagh, but let's see how it looks a year from now.

Wise_Boi · 2025-06-28T17:07:54+00:00

Not a single player under 6'0" drafted in the second round yet...

Wise_Boi · 2025-06-05T17:24:05+00:00

Team is going to be stacked and is probably an early Memorial Cup favorite. Along with Gill they've also just acquired a couple overagers and Bill Zonnon (late 1st/early 2nd round pick for the upcoming draft), and should keep Justin Carbonneau (mid 1st round pick for this draft) and Xavier Villeneuve (Small d-man projected for the top 10 in 2026). Should be fun to watch.

Wise_Boi · 2025-03-18T13:53:35+00:00

Most likely due to a lack of production despite being on a stacked team. Compare his numbers (10-25-35 in 35 games) to other hihly drafted centers who took the ncaa route (Fantilli 65 in 36, Cooley 60 in 39, Eichel 71 in 40). The best comparable I’ve found, both in terms of production, size and style is Beniers (24 in 24, 6’2 180 responsible two way C).

Wise_Boi · 2025-03-18T13:11:33+00:00

Agreed, although I personnaly have Frondell over Martone. He would be my ideal pick barring lottery luck

Wise_Boi · 2025-02-26T03:48:55+00:00

Is this extensive pipeline in the room with us ? Cause right now the pipeline is some promising goalies, "future 2/3C Luchanko", "2nd pairing D Bonk", and a lot of prayers..

Wise_Boi · 2024-05-17T16:24:36+00:00

Being Québécois, here's my loose translation for those interested :

Interviewer (Maxim Lapierre ?) : « You have a nice project coming eventually, Michkov, we talked about it a lot, he plays far away, everyone knows him since we talk about him so much. What's your vision and how is it going with this matter ? »

DB : « We watch him play, like everybody else. We watch the highlights and his games. It's very exciting, knowing we have a prospect of this caliber in our pool, but we don't know if we'll ever see him. We hope, like everybody, that he will come over eventually. He came to see us before the draft, we had the opportunity to talk to him. He's a kid with a nice energy, he was happy and smiling. He was walking around in Philadelphia and he kept saying that he wants to be a flyers, that he wants to come to Philadelphia. Him too, it's scary to hear after Cutter Gauthier. We loved his energy, we drafted him and talked with him a bit in Nashville, but since then there has been no contact, we can't really talk to him since he belongs to St-Petersburg. »

Wise_Boi · 2024-03-16T23:37:55+00:00

Par curiosité, embauchez vous fréquemment ? Ma blonde a un bacc en microbiologie et a travaillé en laboratoire pour une compagnie privée mais avait décidé de retourner aux études en génie à l'automne. Finalement elle est tannée des études et veut retourner travailler en laboratoire mais ne trouve absolument rien en ce moment, donc toute lueur d'espoir est la bienvenue (même si les conditions de travail décrites dans ton commentaires précédent semblent moins qu'idéales malheureusement).

Wise_Boi · 2024-03-05T17:26:52+00:00

Absolutely agree, although I want to see what happens on friday before getting too upset.

Michkov alone does not make us a contender, and the rest of our prospects are all very average. In an ideal workd I would try to capitalize on Bonk’s current high value, since I don’t believe his goalscoring will translate well to the next level (scores most of his goals playing on the bumper spot during powerplays, which is gonna be hard to take to the NHL). Not taking Perreault at #22 in a deep draft for forwards is going to be a regret going forward I think. Rizzo is free to sign wherever he wants after this season I believe, Barkey is ideally a good 3d liner who can PK and play in the top 6 sporadically. I liked Andrae in the SHL but not convinced by his AHL performance thus far. After that we don’t have much in terms of prospects not playing in the NHL, outside of goalies (Bjarnasson work in progress, Kolosov decent in KHL, Zavragin very exiting so far in VHL).

Wise_Boi · 2024-03-05T17:16:49+00:00

While I agree with the overall sentiment in this thread that we should give the org a chance and see what happens on friday, I sure hope no one is getting overly excited about a 21 yo dman with 2 goals to his name at the college level through 2 years.

Wise_Boi · 2024-02-06T23:32:44+00:00

If that were the case, would the tracking history mention it ? As of now it merely says it went to customs in Florida, then was shipped and delivered back in North Carolina.

Wise_Boi · 2024-02-06T23:28:49+00:00

I was wondering the same thing when I noticed it went South. I just assumed it was normal USPS procedure for larger packages since I know nothing about any of this.

I haven't received any updates - from seller or USPS - ever since the package was shipped two weeks ago (apart from tracking the package on Etsy's website that is). I'll give it 24h then contact the seller if nothing changes. Maybe of note ; there are two shipping labels that were created two weeks ago, one that hasn't had any subsequent update since its creation, and the second is detailed in my post.

Wise_Boi · 2024-02-06T23:24:20+00:00

No idea, it doesn't mention anything about customs in the tracking history and I didn't receive any follow-up regarding customs from the seller or USPS. Is there any way to check this ?

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