Welcome to Broad Street Hockey’s Summer 2024 Top Under 25! The series is back and with the Philadelphia Flyers focusing so much on the future, it’s more important than ever. Join us as we rank the 25 best players under the age of 25 for the next few weeks.
No. 16: Hunter McDonald
Hunter McDonald is an interesting player to think about. He doesn’t score a whole lot, most likely never will, and therefore his actual highlights do not translate well at all to us online. Unless you are really watching Northeastern University games, or just watched some late-season Lehigh Valley Phantoms games, McDonald is an enigma. A player that you really have not been exposed to at all.
But, according to almost everyone in the Flyers front office, this 22-year-old defenseman might just be the perfect fit to compliment their smaller, more offensive-oriented blue line that they are building right now. Keith Jones, Danny Briere — whoever you can think of, if they were sat down in front of a microphone this past season and asked a question about the future group of defensemen on this team, McDonald’s name came up.
At first, it was a little puzzling. Why would they really praise a guy who scored six points in college? And then you start to think a little bit more about what they really like about some blueliners. He might just be the counterweight.
2023-24 Primary League/Team: Northeastern (NCAA)
2023-24 Statistics: 1 G, 5 A in 23 GP
Age as of 9/15/2024: 22 (5/11/2002)
Acquired Via: 2022 NHL Draft – Round 6, Pick 165
How did McDonald’s 2023-24 season go? Is his stock trending up or down from where it was entering the year?
In McDonald’s sophomore season at Northeastern, and what would ultimately be his final year of college hockey, he put up a moderate six points in 23 games. He didn’t get in as many games as expected, as he unfortunately suffered an upper-body injury in a pre-season exhibition game that would severely limit his opportunity, but he still managed to get enough in to eventually turn pro and sign with the Flyers.
He finished his season by appearing in 11 games for the Phantoms in the regular season and then went on to play in their brief cameo in the AHL Playoffs of six games. In 17 games, he did score a goal and earn four total points — just right about what you expect from him, I guess.
Overall, beyond the stats and just reading some numbers, it feels like McDonald took a massive step. From everything that everyone wants say about the player, he really demonstrated his smarts on the ice — obviously, it was enough to get him signed.
It certainly feels that his stock is rising, but it might just stagnate unless he really impresses in the next couple of months.
What are we expecting from McDonald this season? What should we be looking for from him?
This is a massive year for McDonald. Beyond the typical development and leap that a player at his age needs to take to then be serious about being a full-time NHLer, the pressure is really on for him to make an impact at whatever level he is playing to cement his role as a projectable prospect.
McDonald is most likely — unless he suddenly plays better than just about everyone not named Travis Sanheim or Cam York at training camp — going to be spending his entire season in the AHL with the Phantoms, and he might earn a late-season call-up to make his NHL debut and have a cup of coffee. That is just the projected path his season is going to take.
But all of that really depends on the performance. Of course, in the AHL we won’t have all the eyes and ears to really keep close attention to see how he is playing shift-to-shift, and with his point production probably going to be still low, we will just have to wait and see if he gets some praise from somewhere. With this being said, we should really be looking for just steady improvement and for him to, by the end of the season, almost be knocking on the door so hard that he should be penciled into the 2025-26 blue line.
How does McDonald fit in the Flyers’ rebuild? Is it likely he’s going to be a part of the next good Flyers team?
Every single championship team needs a player like what Hunter McDonald is projected to become. This steady defenseman that will kill penalties and sit comfortably as your No. 4 or 5 blueliner and takes more out of stopping a play than scoring a goal at the other end of the rink. And honestly, McDonald is really the only one that has a feasible path to the NHL that the Flyers currently have in their system.
As of right now, the Flyers have a boatload of defensemen who are under 6-foot and can move the puck up the ice, but what about the other side of it? Maybe the only other defenseman that is projected to be as good at defense as McDonald is Oliver Bonk, and he is just a do-it-all type of blueliner and doesn’t have the size that the 22-year-old does.
But again, this is all hypothetical. We have barely seen McDonald even play a full season in college hockey and now he is slated to be playing professional hockey for more than a handful of games a couple years after players normally get started on that route. If these million question marks get answered and McDonald is a steady NHL talent, then he can certainly find himself in a bottom-pairing role on the next great Flyers team.
Essentially, if he can be a better, younger, faster Nick Seeler, than the Flyers would certainly welcome that with open arms.
What do we think McDonald’s ultimate NHL upside is, and how likely is it that he gets to something approaching that?
While we have spent some time discussing what McDonald could be in the NHL, you have to feel like his ultimate ceiling is even higher than what has been discussed. Most likely, he will be that bottom-pairing player if he sticks in the NHL, but players that have played like him and with the same style, are also top-pairing players as some of the best defensive defensemen in the league.
If we want to go with direct comparisons, the ultimate upside of McDonald could be something like a left-handed Brett Pesce, or like a familiar name, in Mattias Samuelsson over with the Sabres. A player who is a perfect complimentary defensemen in a pairing with an electric defenseman — as Samuelsson is locked in with Rasmus Dahlin, for example.
At the very top of the range of outcomes, McDonald is the sidekick to Jamie Drysdale and covers all the bases behind him. At the other end, he doesn’t even stick around in the NHL but still plays pro hockey for a living.
Previously in Philadelphia Flyers Summer 2024 Top 25 Under 25:
