The Philadelphia Flyers could possibly have the chance to right their wrong at the top of the 2022 NHL Draft. With the fifth-overall pick a couple years back, the Flyers selected Cutter Gauthier and we all know what happened after that. Some miscommunication (to put it very lightly) led to the top draft pick getting traded for Jamie Drysdale and now the Flyers were left in a funk.
Directly after Gauthier was selected, the Columbus Blue Jackets made their pick and it was Czech defenseman David Jiricek. The 6-foot-3, right-handed blueliner was seen as a blue-chip prospect guaranteed to get top opportunity everywhere he went. He broke the scoring record for draft-eligible defensemen playing in the top Czech division, as a teenager playing against grown men in one of the better European leagues out there. Simply put, if everything broke right, Jiricek would become any team’s top-pairing defenseman and he was joining a team in desperate need for someone to match Zach Werenski’s efforts.
Well, two years later and Jiricek finds himself as a healthy scratch more often than in the lineup for the Blue Jackets this season. And it has all come to Columbus general manager Don Waddell telling media on Saturday, that they are going to have to make “some decisions” in the next several days.
Waddell on Jiricek: "The games he's played, to be fair, maybe he hasn't had a great opportunity. … But in those games, we haven't seen enough to keep him in there on a regular basis. We're going to have to make some decisions here in the upcoming week about what we do." #CBJ
— 1st Ohio Battery (@1stOhioBattery) November 17, 2024
How did we get here? We know we don’t cover the team or even try to think about the Blue Jackets more than we have to, but it just feels like mismanagement. Through Jiricek’s 52 career NHL games, he has averaged 14 minutes and 36 seconds of ice time, which virtually ranks last among all Columbus defensemen whenever he is actually in the lineup. Seems bad to have one of your top draft picks just barely given an opportunity.
But, there could be something else. Maybe the jump into the NHL truly is giving Jiricek a hard time — despite scoring loads of points as a teenager in the AHL, younger than almost everyone in the league, maybe going up to the National is just too much of a jump for the youngster.
All of this might come to the team moving on way earlier than any team expected them to. A team just fed up with a development plan or unwilling to cater to a top draft pick so much, that they ship him off in a deal that might leave them feeling a little sour but they would at least think “Thank God, that’s over”. Feel familiar?
Yes, this might just be some cathartic thought experiment to think that the Flyers can actually be on the other end of the transaction. That they can be the beneficiary of a team being too stubborn in their ways, and to take advantage of a management that just wants to move on from a top prospect. But, it goes beyond that. It isn’t just for the sake of a transaction that there is some desire for the team we like to make this move, but it feels like something that they themselves have been clamoring for.
The fit makes sense
We have heard it so many times since this front office took over: They are looking for top-end talent. They know that this roster is not all that full of it. There are some very good players, but beyond the obvious names, there are no game-breakers; the players that can score at will and take over from where they are on the ice. If Jiricek continues to progress and overcomes the little speed bump that is the Blue Jackets’ handling of his development, then he can be that player on their blue line.
He had all the promise in the world. Some people were putting him in the conversation among Juraj Slafkovsky, Shane Wright, and Simon Nemec as the top pick in the draft two years ago. By draft pedigree alone, Jiricek is exactly the player that the Flyers have been craving to have on their blue line, but it goes even further.
We all know that this management likes to think about size. They famously did not prefer Zeev Buium over Jett Luchanko just a few months ago because they view the University of Denver defensemen as just another smallish blueliner and they have loads of them like Cam York, Jamie Drysdale, and Emil Andrae. Jiricek stands at 6-foot-3 and unlike some younger players with his frame, he looks the part. Jiricek was known for his defense, his ability to use his long reach to breakup plays and just be a demanding force on the ice. There is no passiveness when it comes to Jiricek’s play — it’s being active in all three zones and looking for the right opportunity to make his move. Some scouts, during his draft year, loosely compared Jiricek to Mikhail Sergachev — a defenseman that is physical and always looking forward up the ice but isn’t a slouch defensively, either.
That feels like a dream for a team that is truly lacking that high-end defenseman that fits the timeline. Because as well as Travis Sanheim is playing this season, the question will always be his role on the team when they want to flick the switch and truly expect to compete for the playoffs and whatever his age will be when that happens. Jiricek just fits the age of this new wave of Flyers prospects so well. Like, he’s just 13 months older than Matvei Michkov, for context.
When thinking about the match between Jiricek and the Flyers, it just feels like it makes too much sense. Acquiring him would check just about every box that the Flyers are looking for and what they are telling us they want to do. A defenseman with some size and physicality? Yes. Enough skill to warrant an eventual top-pairing role? Yes. Responsible in all three zones? Yup. Age fits the timeline? Perfectly. Would it be taking advantage of a team and getting some high-end, young talent outside of selecting them in the draft? Yes.
There should certainly be interest there and maybe, just maybe, he’s another young defensemen that they think was developed poorly post-Draft and they can do the right thing.
So, if they pull the trigger, what would Jiricek look like on this team?
Where Jiricek would fit on the depth chart
The big question is whether or not he stays in the NHL or truly starts cooking in the AHL. The pedigree and everything screams NHL at 20 years old, but after just participating in Blue Jackets practices for so long and not getting into a string of games, being able to warm up for the season with the Phantoms would not be bad at all.
But, ideally, if the Flyers did not move anyone off their blue line, where would Jiricek fit in when he is in the NHL?
That’s where it gets a little dicey. For the Flyers to make a move like this, once every defenseman is healthy, someone needs to be shown the door. We know Cam York and Travis Sanheim will be here. We know Nick Seeler and Rasmus Ristolainen will be hanging out. Erik Johnson will be fine as the extra blueliner. And Jamie Drysdale will be here when he’s healthy, trying to just play some hockey.
Beyond those concrete names — which leaves us with just one open spot in the lineup — Egor Zamula and Emil Andrae have their hat thrown into the ring for being on the ice. Andrae has certainly deserved it; we have spilled a whole lot of digital ink expressing our delight about Andrae’s game. And even Zamula as of late as not been terrible.
So, if the team acquired Jiricek and wanted him in the NHL; something would have to give. Either it’s sending both Andrae and Zamula down to the AHL, or making a related move and trading someone like Ristolainen a little bit quicker than they initially thought to. A resulting move would have to be made and that gets a little messy; a little more uncomfortable so early into the season and for a team like the Flyers, it might be a little bit less realistic to imagine them doing exactly that for a maligned prospect like Jiricek. They would simply have to absolutely love him to make this move; but if they do, what would the specific trade package for this all-around blueliner look like?
What would the Flyers have to give up?
Now, while we have been comparing this to the Gauthier transaction, the context surrounding Jiricek’s early NHL career sets it apart. Gauthier was moved without an NHL contract and was red-hot after scoring so damn much at the World Juniors and the World Championships before that. He just appeared unstoppable and with sky-high potential before he even played a second in a professional hockey game. The hype was palpable and that means high value.
For Jiricek, it’s almost the opposite. He came in to the Blue Jackets with as much hype as a needle-mover on the blue line, but a stuttering start to his career has sunk his value and Columbus would most likely be taking a hit compared to what a former sixth-overall pick just two years removed from being drafted, would normally be valued at in a trade.
But, it still means the Flyers need to give up something worthwhile. And considering that Jiricek would be fitting in that long-term top-four spot on the right side, could someone like Oliver Bonk be seen as available? Especially considering that he still has that former first-round pick gleam on him and that there is not really a projectable spot for him to be on the Flyers, maybe they can view it as a swap of talented right-handed blueliners. And then, because of the pedigree, the Flyers would have to add something like a very good draft pick — maybe a conditional 2025 first-round pick and it would end up being the worst pick of the three they have — to balance it out.
That’s just a thought, especially if Columbus wants another defenseman prospect in return. But if they don’t, could we see one of the current young players be moved? We have long thought about a Morgan Frost trade and maybe the team thinks they can live without Bobby Brink on the third line.
This is all hypothetical. We just know that historically, moving on from a player this early in their career usually means the team giving up on them is taking a hit and will be selling low.
When it comes to Jiricek, it just kind of fits perfectly with what the Flyers have going on. This team doesn’t have anyone that can do what he does with a high enough ceiling to get excited about, and it just feels like the right opportunity to do something maybe a little uncomfortable but would hopefully work out in the end.
Maybe, just maybe, the Flyers are the team that takes advantage of a team making a stupid decision, this time.
