The 2026 NHL Draft is just around the corner now that the Stanley Cup has been handed out. We can all start thinking about which prospects we want the Philadelphia Flyers to take and how upset we might get if they don’t select one of our favorite teenagers.
But who are those prospects we would love for our Flyers to grab and be the envy of all 31 other fan bases in a couple years? Who are some draft-eligible players that people will be questioning why they weren’t taken dozens of spots higher than they were and in those re-drafts everyone loves to do, is a top-15 pick just a few years from now?
We have some idea who those could be. Or, at the very least, who some prospects are that we would love for the Flyers to snatch up with their 53rd overall pick in a couple weeks, and have the potential to really be, at the very least, solid contributors when the Flyers are at the peak of their competitive cycle and can be a part of this young core that they are building.
Victor Plante, LW
Victor Plante is someone who we do not understand why he’s not getting more hype around him. He’s ranked anywhere from No. 51 by Elite Prospects or as high as No. 22 by Tony Ferrari over at The Hockey News. Yeah, those rankings make it seem like he belongs right where the Flyers could take him at 53rd overall, but he possesses so much more potential to his game that deserves more credit than just a throwaway mention as a mid-second-round pick.
Plante is a 5-foot-10 workhorse. We already know what that looks like in Denver Barkey, but think of him as a less wirey version, with a much more stable base, built more in the Zach Benson sort of style. Playing for the U.S. National Team Development Program, Plante is just relentless on the puck and does not stop moving his feet. He’s just one of those wingers that you see a coach falling in love with and at the very least, him becoming a third-line player whose impact goes beyond his role on a very good team — what Blake Coleman was to those championship Tampa Bay Lightning teams.
It might be a lofty projection for a second-round pick, considering him as someone who wins Stanley Cups, but it just feels like someone who you take at 53rd overall, have him develop in college for two years, and then he’s instantly playing the role he will be for the next decade and never being brought into question if he’s working hard enough.
While some first-round picks this year will flame out or settle into being middle-pair defensemen who don’t really do anything all that special, taking a Plante brings you closer to a championship than that.
Ryder Cali, C
Ryder Cali might be one of the more interesting prospects who will most likely be selected in the first 64 picks later this month. His stock is rising so he might not even be available to the Flyers at 53rd, but there’s a full profile here that is just so incredibly intriguing.
With a September 6 birthday, Cali is one of the youngest (if not the youngest) player in the Draft, and that immediately makes his runway feel so much longer than other players who will be taken way earlier than he will. Add that he’s a 6-foot-2 center that is built extremely solid at 214 pounds, with plus skating and hands and is as physical as you want a center his size to be; and Cali just becomes some high-floor type of prospect to land.
And, he can pull off some insane stunts.
It really makes you wonder what his ceiling is. There’s no real massive holes in his game and considering he’s heading to the NCAA next season and will be 18 years old the entire time, there is the possibility that he is seen as one of the better prospects in college a year from now.
Heck, we might just be talking ourselves into the Flyers taking him at 21st overall and not even waiting for a team to scoop him up a dozen or so picks later. But for now, if there is a world where he slips and he’s there in the second round for the Flyers, it seems like an instant selection that is so incredibly easy.
Wiggo Sorensson, C
Now that we’ve covered some players who feel likely to make the NHL in some capacity, let’s look at some insane high-upside swing that the Flyers can make in the second round. Welcome Wiggo Sorensson.
A center who was lost in the depths overseas playing in Hockeytvåan, which is the fourth tier of Swedish hockey, and played the vast majority of his games in there, Sorensson feels like a potential hidden gem. No one can be certain what type of ceiling he has since the level of play was questionable, but when he was on Sweden’s Under-18 squad next to potential first-rounders like Elton Hermansson, he did not look out of place at all.
All of that is why he’s ranked at No. 147 by Elite Prospects and No. 84 among European skaters by NHL Central Scouting. Sorensson does have his believers in the online public scouting space, as some have him firmly in the top half of the second round, but he does fit a high-risk profile. There are rumblings of some issues that might make him drop in the Draft, but nothing that other players have already overcome in the past.
Sorensson is just electric and is more than worth some gamble — especially if the Flyers go more safe with their first-round selection.
He just reeks of someone who explodes once they get to play with a higher level of teammate that can truly take advantage of his skill.
Sorensson could be available even after this, but he just seems like someone that the Flyers don’t normally go after but absolutely should in this spot. They need some high-upside bets and there may not be one that has a higher upside after the first round than Sorensson. Just a smart and rapidly quick offensive player that will eventually climb the ladder of Swedish professional hockey and explode.
Brek Liske, RD
The name of the game for Brek Liske is just a do-it-all type of defender. While the right-handed blueliner doesn’t really pop in any category, he just seems like the type of prospect that every single team loves to have in their system and doesn’t really think about for a little bit. And then all of a sudden, three years from now he’s an impact player on the second pair and is going to stay there until he’s 32 years old and you might have a couple memorable moments locked in by that time where he comes up big.
Liske’s transition game among CHL defensemen is one of the strongest in the draft class. He just knows how to make great outlet passes, get into the zone cleanly, and doesn’t mess around with possession of the puck. What he was able to show with the WHL’s Everett Silvertips — one of the best teams in the entire CHL this past season — is just being able to play anywhere in the lineup and not be a detriment to his team. He was the underrated motor that brought that team to the Memorial Cup Final.
Per the tracking data from Elite Prospects, Liske’s transition success percentage was higher than some other WHL defenders like Carson Carels and Daxon Rudolph, two defensemen that will surely be taken in the top 10 in a couple weeks. He just knows how to make your team better the better team on the ice, and taking that just feels like an easy lay-up in the second round. Not the shiniest or flashiest, but surely someone that can play a whole lot like the current defensemen the Flyers have and just keep on rolling with that same underrated success at the NHL level.
Mathis Preston, LW/C
This is the true gem. The entire reason why I’m sitting here writing this blog, frankly. Because in my heart of hearts, in the deepest pits of all the hockey thoughts I think throughout a day and what draws me to watching and trying to understand prospects for the months leading up to the NHL Draft — it all leads me to thinking that Mathis Preston has the stuff. He’s been projected to go anywhere from a late first-round pick or even drop into the second round and some team is going to be the beneficiary.
Preston has explosive speed and is one of the best pure skaters of the entire draft class, and he just happens to have extremely slick hands and a shot that can rifle pucks behind any netminder. It’s those tools that have carried him so far, but when you truly watch any full game of his, he just impacts the game from everywhere on the ice and that is extremely enticing.
Sure, fast forward five years from now and maybe he’s on a path to be the next Nic Petan as an AHL scorer that never really gets it going in the NHL. But given the right treatment for his development and get a third or fourth game of his outside of the mind-bending skill and speed, and there’s such a strong offensive forward here.
The knock on his game is that it can be very individualistic. He doesn’t incorporate his teammates a whole lot — playing more like you’re on EA Sports and just flying down the wing to then try and beat a defender wide and put the puck on net. But the problem is that his Spokane team had trouble scoring any goals whatsoever so the offense was really all up to him. And then when he arrived in Vancouver after a trade, it was somewhat the same problem. Maybe all he needs is to reach college or the AHL, where there are players at his skill level (or at least close to it) and he can start relying on players that can do what he can do more often. Maybe it all just clicks down the line.
Looking at who is in the Stanley Cup Final right now, I’d rather take the risk on skill and speed and effort, and then figure out the rest later. There’s such an incredible amount of tools right here that beat out any projectable bottom-six center in terms of who you should be drafting in the second round and has one of the strongest foundations to build upon in the right development system. Preston feels like the steal of the draft.
