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NHL Draft 2018: Philadelphia Flyers select Wyatte Wylie with 127th overall

With the 127th overall selection, the Philadelphia Flyers have selected right-handed defenseman Wyatte Wylie out of the Western Hockey League. The Everett Silvertip was one of the biggest risers in Central Scouting’s draft rankings, as he jumped from 179th at the mid-term rankings to 71st in the final rankings.

The 6’1”, 192-pound rearguard had six goals and 25 helpers for 31 points in 72 regular season games before he had eight points in 22 games for the Silvertips during their deep postseason run. Wylie failed to score a goal in 81 games (regular season and postseason) during the 2016-17 campaign.

After taking Adam Ginning and Jack St. Ivany, Ron Hextall picked out a d-man who is a little smaller, but is considered another defensive defenseman that skates well. From Ryan Pike of The Hockey Writers:

“Wylie’s bread and butter is his defensive game. Simply put, at the WHL level he’s established himself as a reliable, responsible two-way defender. He has effective mobility and skates well, but he’s elevated by his superb defensive awareness and ability to anticipate offensive attacks from the other team. He uses his size well, and just seems to know where to be in his own zone to minimize enemy offensive rushes. He’s also not afraid to block shots.

His offense is more of a work in progress. His contributions with the puck this past season were sporadic – he went through stretches where everything went in (December and January) and ones where he fought the puck a bit (the rest of the season) – and the key to future success will be finding some consistency in that area. He’s a player that’s played a safe, simple game at the WHL level thus far and has to seemingly learn to be comfortable taking a few risks (and being a bit uncomfortable) with the puck. If he can channel the confidence he has in his shutdown game into the offensive side, he’ll make some progress.”

According to Prospect Stats, Wylie was one of 33 defensemen in the WHL to play in 70 games or more this season. Of those 33 d-men, Wylie was tied for 19th with three 5-on-5 goals, tied for 22nd with four 5-on-5 primary assists, and tied for 22nd with 14 5-on-5 points.

The Flyers acquired this pick from the Arizona Coyotes back in June of 2017, when they added Brendan Warren to the prospect pool and grabbed this pick in exchange for Nick Cousins and Merrick Madsen.

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