We’re really starting to get rolling here, and the Flyers have already knocked out their second pick in the fifth round here. And this pick is, if nothing else, a bit of a funny one. After selecting a big forward out of Red Deer with the 57th pick, they’ve now circled back with the 157th pick and selected… a big defenseman out of Red Deer.
🔶 LUUUUUKE! 🔶
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) June 28, 2025
With the 157th overall pick in the 2025 #NHLDraft, we are proud to select defenseman Luke Vlooswyk. pic.twitter.com/WRPxk0p19n
Luke Vlooswyk is something of a more prototypical shutdown defender. His game isn’t terribly flashy overall, but he brings a lot in his toolkit that combines to make him a generally effective stay at home defender at the junior level. Here’s the rundown from the Elite Prospects Draft Guide:
“One of many tall shutdown defencemen in this draft class, Luke Vlooswyk’s right shot, defensive timing, and physical skills help him stand out.
Defending the rush, Vlooswyk’s mobility, stick work, and instincts shine. He catches opponents with his feet moving after waiting for them to enter his space, never overextending. He excels at tying up opponents and taking them into the wall, immobilizing them and freeing possession.
Occasionally, Vlooswyk lines up opponents for big hits and uses his frame to shield possession on retrievals, too.
While Vlooswyk brings shutdown elements, his puck-moving often puts him right back defending. He chips pucks into inaccessible spots for his teammates, lacks in-motion skill, and gets jammed up by forecheckers. Similarly, his shutdown game must also improve, managing off-puck gaps and cycle threats better.
A long-term prospect with potential No. 6 or 7 shutdown upside, Vlooswyk is a potential mid-to-late round pick.”
While he’s found some success at the junior level with Red Deer, there’s still a lot of room for improvement in his game. There’s a lot that needs cleaning up in his game in order to get him to the next level, in both his execution as well as his mental approach to making plays, and we saw that often coming together even with the positives in a single game setting.
“Not Vlooswyk’s strongest performance of the season,” said Elite Prospects’ Simon Desjardins after his game against Edmonton back on February 14, “but there was still plenty to like. He remains one of the best rush defenders in this draft class in my opinion, consistently closing gaps quickly, using his size and strength effectively, and showing solid mobility. He uses well-timed body checks and an active stick to disrupt plays. While his scanning and puck retrieval habits are decent, he tends to rely too much on rimming the puck, often opting for the easy option. Primarily a defensive-minded player, he occasionally supports the offence and likes to shoot low pucks to the net to generate rebounds. His game is simple, efficient, and translatable, though I would like to see him take more risks. With limited offensive upside, Vlooswyk is still a project, but at 6-foot-4, right shot, and with a mature defensive game, he has a good combination of skills and tools to develop into a solid shutdown defenceman.”
Vlooswyk is, to repeat this, definitely still raw and definitely going to be a longer term project. He’s heading back to Red Deer for next season, and the hope is that both he can continue to mature his game and make some targeted improvements after spending some time with the Flyers’ development staff over the next week and change, and also that the team can get a little better around him to better support that development. But that’s still more size added into the mix by the Flyers, and as much as they’ve shown that in some areas of their lineup, their approach to team building, they’ve shown that they aren’t overly afraid of giving an undersized player a real run at it, they’ve made it abundantly clear that they’re also under no illusions that size isn’t completely overrated even in the modern game.
The name of the game here, then, seems to be balance. The Flyers have been unafraid to load up on more undersized, high skill players over these last few years, and now they’re making a point to swing back around and balance things out again. Having it all come around the same time might make it feel like it’s some overcorrection happening, but looking at the whole of the organizational depth chart, it doesn’t look so extreme. The Flyers are adding some size, some grit, but it’s coming together to make for a more balanced prospect pipeline. It’s a notable swing, but it could well put them in a good position going forward.
