It’s official, folks. The ping pong balls have spoken, the Draft Lottery has been decided, and the Flyers are officially locked in to picking in the 12th overall spot.
And this is, well, not even remotely a surprise. In fact, none of this is — despite a bit of drama earlier this afternoon when it looked like the order might have been leaked and would see some big movement in the order (still not for the Flyers, though), as it turned out, everyone will be picking exactly where they were projected to be picking ahead of the lottery. Thrilling stuff (but hey, at least the Blackhawks didn’t move up again this year).
And as for the Flyers, their first pick is set, and we’ll have to wait a bit longer to see what their second ends up being (because, of course, it all depends on where the Panthers ultimately finish this postseason). And while it’s surely a bit of a disappointment that the Flyers didn’t get tremendously lucky this year and shoot up in the draft order, there are still going to be some very good players on the board at 12th overall (and, as we spoke about a little while back, there have been some pretty good players picked at 12th overall in the past too).
It’s less of a sure thing, but this will be an interesting test for the Flyers and their scouting staff — we won’t have a situation quite as fortunate as last year, a player quite as exciting as Matvei Michkov falling into their laps, so it will be up to them to decide what their priorities are in a player, and to work to find the most value where they can.
We’ll see how this all shakes out when June 28 arrives, and the NHL takes over the Sphere in Vegas. Exciting times!
