Are you guys sticking with us? It sure has been a while since we last saw the Flyers make a pick, all the way back in the second round. We’re moving into the fifth round now and with their first selection in the back half of this draft, the Flyers have selected Swedish winger Max Westergard.
🔶 THE PICK IS IN! 🔶
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) June 28, 2025
With the 132nd overall pick in the 2025 #NHLDraft, we are proud to select forward Max Westergard. pic.twitter.com/e10AM1xlU5
Westergard, in many ways, is an interesting piece to add into the mix. He’s a little undersized, playing at 5’10 and 158 pounds, but has still put together a very solid draft year for himself, putting up 19 goals and 50 points over 41 games with Frolunda at the J20 National level, and getting his first sniff of action up with the SHL squad (during which he was held off the board, but still showed to positive pace and flashes). This is impressive all on its own, but becomes even more so when we remind ourselves that he’s one of the youngest players in this class, as he won’t turn 18 until September 3 (which is also emerging as an interesting trend in picks for the Flyers).
And, of course, here’s what the experts over at Elite Prospects have to say about him:
“Wherever Max Westergård goes, he finds ways to produce. Always having been a top player for his age group in Finland, he made the unusual jump to the Frölunda organization for his draft-minus-one season. There, he immediately formed a deadly duo with Ivar Stenberg – a potential top-five pick for the 2026 draft –, with Westergård ending up leading the entire J18 circuit in scoring.
This season, the two started where they left off, dominating the play and the scoreboard at the J20 level. When Stenberg was called up to the SHL, Westergård took a more commanding role on the team, ending up with 50 points in 41 games for the third-highest total amongst all draft-eligible skaters at that level. He also made waves towards the end of the season by working himself into a sizeable role with Frölunda’s men’s team in the SHL playoffs and not looking out of place. Internationally, while his role wavered a bit more than in the previous season, he still ended up being one of the more productive members of Finland’s U18 roster across the entire season.
During the first half of the season, even if he scored at a high-end level, Westergård’s play received limited praise from our scouts. His intelligence as an offensive off-puck threat shined together with Stenberg, and he made the occasional crafty play as a playmaker, too, but didn’t provide much play-driving or defensive value.
And while Westergård still projects as more of a complementary piece who benefits from playing with high-end talent but also elevates them, he started to showcase a more diverse skill set during the second half of the season. His explosiveness and overall skating ability notably improved as the season progressed and he started to showcase more consistent ability to create plays for himself and his linemates. In the SHL, he looked very passable, even thrived in more of a forechecking role, still also creating some offence through his ability to anticipate the play. It’s also worth noting that he’s one of the younger players in the draft with his September birthdate.
It’s still fair to wonder what role Westergård would fill at the NHL level. The offensive skill level very likely isn’t high-end enough for a top-six role, and while improvements in his skating, pace, forechecking and overall two-way play have improvedNHL DRAFT GUIDE 2025 his chances of playing NHL games in some kind of role, he’s still on the smaller side and not a very physically intense player.
While there’s a world where Westergård continues to round out his game to a degree where he could play third-line minutes in the NHL, the most likely outcome is that he becomes a quality winger for the European professional ranks.”
So there are some questions here, to be sure, around whether Westergard will be able to pan out as a good pro in North America, which might sound a little scary in isolation, but we’ve moved into the part of the draft where that’s more or less par for the course. Even more importantly, this pick marks an interesting change of pace for the Flyers, as they move away from prioritizing size pretty exclusively, and instead take a shot on an undersized player and one who, while still a bit raw, has a whole lot of extra developmental runway ahead of him.
