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Flyers will not sign Jay O’Brien, receive second-round pick

Photo Credit: Heather Barry

The Philadelphia Flyers might be getting some extra draft capital ahead of the all-important NHL Entry Draft this June.

According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the team will forego signing former 2018 first-round pick Jay O’Brien, making him an unrestricted free agent, and the team will be receiving a second-round pick at the draft in a couple months.

“I have heard that the decision has been made, that the Flyers will not sign him,” Friedman said on Saturday night’s broadcast. “That allows O’Brien to test free agency. … And as a result, the Flyers will receive a second-round pick in the upcoming draft.”

The 23-year-old just finished his senior year at Boston University and has been a steady producer but nothing near of what should be expected of a first-round pick. For example, O’Brien finished fourth in scoring on his own team and some undrafted seniors scored more points than he did. Even fellow Flyers prospect Devin Kaplan scored just nine fewer points than he did this season – and Kaplan is a freshman.

The progression didn’t happen and the Flyers are moving on while being able to take advantage of this compensation rule. If an NHL team does not sign their first-round pick by the time the draft rights expire, they will receive a second-round pick in the same spot as the pick that they drafted player in the first. So, in this case, the Flyers drafted O’Brien with the 19th pick in the first round, so they will be getting the 19th pick in the second round, which will be 51st overall selection.

Despite the deadline to sign O’Brien being August 15, if the team and player decide to part ways early enough, the compensation pick could be for the draft this year instead of waiting until next year to reap the rewards for messing up the pick two general managers ago. This has been unconfirmed, but with Friedman’s usage of the words “upcoming draft” we are led to believe that it will be for, well, the upcoming draft.

If Friedman is wrong and was just under the hot lights of being on national television, and O’Brien and the Flyers are actually waiting until August to make the decision, then the draft pick will be in the 2024 NHL Entry Draft.

The most recent example of a team receiving a compensation pick for not signing a former first-round pick is with the Minnesota Wild as they did not sign defenseman Filip Johansson and received the 56th overall pick just last year.

O’Brien will now have the opportunity to pick the team where he wants to start his professional career – there should be at least some suitors willing to take him on for free – and the Flyers get to actually have a pick in the second round this year after Chuck Fletcher traded theirs away for Rasmus Ristolainen. Everybody (kind of) wins!

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