That’s a wrap, folks! After two long days and now nine selections made by the Flyers, the 2025 NHL Draft is officially in the books. The Flyers closed things out with their final pick of the draft, their lone sixth round pick, and used it to select Nathan Quinn, a toolsy center out of Quebec in the QMJHL.
🔶 ON THE CLOCK! 🔶
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) June 28, 2025
With the 164th overall pick in the 2025 #NHLDraft, we are proud to select Nathan Quinn. pic.twitter.com/ECHljkqJKV
Quinn is an interesting pickup, to be sure, and falls into the second of the two lanes the Flyers seem to have emphasized in this draft. While their previous pick in Vlooswyk certainly was another player to address their size situation, Quinn, with his slightly more diminutive size (5’11 and 168 pounds) and early birthday (he won’t turn 18 until August 29), Quinn is another bit of a swing on a player with a little bit more developmental runway in the back pocket.
For the last time today, we’ll toss it to the fine folks at Elite Prospects and their Draft Guide:
“One of the best defensive players in the daft, Nathan Quinn aims to always stay between opponents and the net, anticipating the play, and backchecking and forechecking as hard as he can to achieve that. When he spots an opportunity to engage, he drives in and rams opponents off the puck, lowering his centre of mass to get more leverage in the battle.
A net-driver, Quinn creates space in the slot with his body, taking the inside lane to the goalie to catch passes and fire. He can pass the puck off the boards and spot teammates in space across the ice and behind him, relaying them the puck to expand the attack and generate higher-quality looks.
“He works delays into drop passes, slips pucks through pressure before muscling through, and consistently works off-puck to facilitate his teammates’ entries. His lone goal in this game came off of some tidy net-front work on the power play — a staple of his game at this point. Timed his spin off a check down low with the point shot and slipped the rebound home,” wrote QMJHL regional and crossover scout Hadi Kalakeche in a January report.
The main limiter of Quinn’s NHL projection is his size. If he had a couple extra inches, with his defence, physical skills and flashes of playmaking, he would likely rank inside our top 64. But few 5-foot-10 players manage to earn checking roles on an NHL bottom-six.
Quinn’s career path may play in his favour at the draft, however. Quinn was one of the first players out of the CHL to commit to the NCAA this season, picking Northeastern University for the 2026-27 season. That commitment adds value to his profile. He will get a few years past his QMJHL career to hone the two-way ability that could one day make him an NHLer.”
There’s certainly an interesting foundation in place for Quinn — there hasn’t been heaps of offense that’s shown up for him so far (with a respectable but not dazzling 46 points scored over 54 games played in his draft year) but the already so highly developed defensive game raises the floor for him pretty significantly. And, what’s more, he’s on a really promising developmental track, as he’s set to leave the QMJHL and graduate to the NCAA next season, heading to Northeastern (a team that the Flyers will have some connections with already, back from Hunter McDonald’s time there). It’s a steep jump, and there’s no rush for Quinn to put it all together quickly, but his eagerness to push himself to that level is notable.
We like this writeup from Mitchell Brown of Elite Prospects to sum up really nicely where Quinn is at with his game.
“It’s never one big highlight for Quinn — it’s just a non-stop barrage of little things and effective play that really stands out. He had one shift that was a great example. He redirected a puck off the wall to the middle for an exit, joined the rush, collected the puck down low, and spotted a teammate with a quick pass to the slot for a walk-in chance. He makes a lot of these skillful plays in transition and effectively supports every play. He has skill, too, like catch-and-drag shot off the rush, backhand passing, and handling skill with some speed. He’s a strong defensive player who eliminates threats and gets inside position on opponents. I don’t see many dynamic qualities, but he’s an effective, well-rounded player who could fill a role lower in an NHL lineup as he develops his physical game further.”
There’s still a lot that needs to come together for Quinn, but the tools make for an intriguing situation. And, considering that he came out of this ranked 125th by Elite Prospects and was still there to be had at 164, the Flyers might well have gotten themselves a bit of a steal here.
