Welcome to Broad Street Hockey’s Summer 2024 Top 25 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. 4: Jamie Drysdale
With Jamie Drysdale, it is all about promise. There was loads of potential promise of being a top-pairing defenseman when he was selected sixth overall four years ago. There was even more when people saw that he was providing electric offense for the OHL’s Erie Otters during his draft year. And now, there is more just because of where we are at right now in terms of his journey.
While we might know a little bit of what a player is four years after they have been drafted, any possibility feels wide open when it comes to Drysdale — considering that he is the primary example of COVID messing everything up for a hockey player. After scoring almost a point per game in Erie, the pandemic hit. His draft was postponed and no hockey was being played. And when the OHL had a full season lost because of it, what would have been a crucial year of Drysdale scoring even more points in junior before turning pro, he went straight to the AHL. And because he was just so good, he earned a call-up to the NHL at just 18 years old. There are hardly ever any 18-year-old offensive defensemen in the NHL anymore, and we all know now that that most likely really stunted his development.
After playing 81 games in the 2021-22 season — and scoring 32 points; a respectable production rate in what should have really been his rookie year — he suffered a brutal shoulder injury the following season and then was traded to the Flyers as soon as he was healthy enough to get dealt. And of course, he was never fully healthy and then had to go for some offseason surgery.
It isn’t crazy to think that we haven’t seen Drysdale be himself for the last two seasons and now that he is starting the 2024-25 season fully healthy, that dreaming of potential and promise is still alive.
Continue reading…
