And that’s a wrap! The Flyers closed out their 2026 Draft with one final selection, grabbing one more defenseman in Max Laatikainen.
🔶 WELCOME TO PHILLY! 🔶
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) June 27, 2026
With the 213th overall pick in the 2026 #NHLDraft, we are proud to select defenseman Max Laatikainen. pic.twitter.com/297y60HtvV
This Finnish defendseman breaks, in a way, from the mold that the Flyers have set elsewhere in this draft class, as his profile is more that of an undersized, plus-puck moving defender with some room to grow his production as his offensive game continues to mature.
But, of course, he still ticks another That’s So Flyers box: he’s incredibly young for this class (just one day removed from being eligible for next year’s draft). That gives him some additional developmental runway — and the bit of experience at the highest level in Liiga that he has banked will be useful as he goes on — but he still comes in with some interesting tools in the kit.
For the final time today, we’ll turn to hear what the experts over at Elite Prospects take from his game:
“There aren’t many Finns in this year’s draft class with better resumes than Max Laatikainen.
Already spending his draft-minus-one season playing sizeable minutes at the U20 level while also being featured in multiple U18 international tournaments as an under-ager, he was on track to establish himself as a Liiga regular with Kiekko-Espoo before a season-ending injury in late December put a stop to his ascension. All of this is made even more impressive given that he’s the youngest draft-eligible in this year’s class, just one day shy of not being eligible until 2027.
As an undersized defenceman, Laatikainen’s big calling cards have always been his poise and his skating ability. He’s not particularly explosive, but makes up for it with sheer smoothness, being one of the more effortless skaters Finland has produced recently. This, combined with his never-wavering poise with the puck, solid activation timing, and flashes of projectable offensive instincts, allowed him to already put together mature performances against men.
While Laatikainen’s style is projectable to a puck-moving role in Liiga, he’s likely going to have to prove himself further before getting drafted. His lack of size will likely always limit his stopping power defensively, and while his poise is strength in many situations, he can be criticized him for having a low motor at times and being notably error-prone in transition across our international viewings.
As such, we are having a hard time projecting Laatikainen to an NHL role. As he’s reportedly joining Sport for next season, though, he could already end up turning into a full-time Liiga player next fall.”
Laatikainen is definitely going to be another longer term project, but the initial returns in him as a less physically developed player make him an intriguing final addition to this class. His game brings a different tone to balance out some of the stay-at-home qualities of others drafted higher up, and he’ll be an interesting test of what their development staff can do to push his ceiling, if they’re able to coach some better decision making into him.
