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Flyers 2014 Second-Day Live Draft Blog |
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DAY TWO WRAPUP
Taken collectively, the Flyers' crop of picks at the 2014 NHL Draft consisted of players who can add some speed and puck skills to the farm system. With the exceptions of first-round pick Travis Sanheim and fifth-rounder Oskar Lindblom, Philly did not add much in the way of projectable "NHL size" but they did select players who play the game hard and with some skill upside.
Flyers scouting director Chris Pryor runs down the Flyers' draft picks
Paul Holmgren Post-Draft Interview Transcript
Special Note: Thank you as always to the Flyers' media/PR department for their yeoman, time-saving work in providing interview transcripts.
Q: What was the perspective like for you this draft for the first time being the club president, sitting back and watching everything from a different vantage point?
A: “It’s still an interesting event… you’re looking at the… basically the future of our team and our franchise, so it’s still interesting and exciting to be involved in, and I thought that our fans were tremendous… the support last night, the emotion in the building was great. Had a lot of comments from a lot of teams about that, so it was great.”
Q: Do you feel like through the trade this week, and through the draft that Ron (Hextall) has a similar vision to one that you had when you were General Manager?
A: “I think we have a lot of the same thoughts, but Ron’s his own man… There’s some differences there too, which I think is good.”
Q: How would you characterize the situation moving forward where the cap number is now, where you’re at, and what you have to do to be obviously competitive for next season?
A: “We’re no different than a lot of teams, we’ve got some work to do… to put ourselves in the best position moving forward, and into the season, so… get to work starting, I’m sure tomorrow… The pro scouts are in town now, trying to chip away at ideas and put some pieces in place to get going.”
Q: The event here was able to show off Philadelphia, what did it mean for the organization, for you to kind of be the center of the hockey world for a week?
A: “I think our staff, obviously the league does a lot of the stuff too, but our staff working behind the scenes did a tremendous job. I was really proud of our organization last night, and again today. We had a good turnout again today… what’s normally a light day, the second day, but last night was incredible.”
Q: Was it fun here? The fans we’re still pretty loud, especially during the Rangers and Penguins.
A: “They were loud. That’s Flyers fans. They’re awesome.”
Q: What’d you think of the number one pick (Flyers first pick)? You guys really have a lot of young defensemen in the system now.
A: “Yeah, it’s been a process over the last couple of years… I think Travis (Sanheim) is a smooth skating guy, he’s real good defensively, I think his offensive game picked up with the confidence he started to acquire going through this season… he made some huge strides this year, we’re excited to get him at 17.”
Q: Why did the scouts when you were there at 17 like him over a kid like Anthony (DeAngelo), and his offensive upside?
A: “There’s a lot of good players that we’re talking about and the layers of when Ron and the scouting staff go on through building your lists…it’s just the way it worked out. I mean we liked the player you mentioned as well and there’s some other guys we had right there too, but we decided to go with Travis. He’s the guy that we all as a group liked.”
Q: Hexy said he’s getting some teasing for drafting a relative (Sanheim). Are you one of the guys that teased him a little bit?
A: “Oh, no. I would never do that!” (laughter)
Q: You also talked about a discussion he had with you recently about later round draft picks…can you elaborate on that?
A: “Well, I think you look around the other teams in the league and their draft records it’s something that we… you know, you go through the draft book and you see who drafts well and who doesn’t draft well, and you see teams that have guys that they get in the sixth, seventh, fifth round that are productive players in our league and I think as an organization is it something we need to look at and we need to do a better job? I think you pick and choose times throughout the Flyers history where they have… you know Rick Tocchet was a great pick, Pelle Eklund was a great pick, you could argue Hexy is a tremendous pick later in the draft. You know that’s where your area guys gotta really hone in on a guy they like and then step up, be excited about that guy… And then that’s part of their job. We’ve made some changes to our scouting staff over the last couple of years and that’s kind of a work in progress too. I’m happy with the work they’ve done the last couple of years.”
Q: Is that an evaluation process or is that getting to know kids a little deeper and a better understanding?
A: “A little bit of both. I think… the communication of your staff is so important, making sure there’s the right cross over… You get different eyes on different players that maybe that area guy likes. It’s a whole body of work.”
Q: You think it’s fair to say from just from a philosophy stand point that maybe there’s been a shift more toward faster skating, more diminutive kind of prospect than as Hexy included rather than “the grinder type”? Do you see that?
A: “That might be just the function of the league. You know as the league continues to get faster, puck possession becomes so much more important. Probably a little bit of what it’s about.”
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PICK-BY-PICK INFORMATION
ROUND 2: 48th OVERALL PICK -- Nicolas Aube-Kubel (W/C)
The Flyers selected Val-d'Or (QMJHL) forward Nicolas Aube-Kubel with the 48th overall pick of the draft. An undersized but skilled forward who can play both wing and center, Aube had a good second season of major junior hockey.
The word on him is that he is better with the puck than without it at this stage of his career, and needs to add some muscle. Aube-Kubel (5-foot-11, 179 pounds) notched 22 goals and 53 points in 65 games this season.
The Hockey News had Aube-Kubel ranked 60th overall. The general consensus on him was that he would fall in the second or third round. Side note: Aube-Kubel's agent is Phil Lecavalier, the brother of Vincent.
ROUND 3: 86TH OVERALL PICK -- Mark Friedman (D)
With the conditional Draft pick acquired from Boston in the Andrej Meszaros trade, the Flyers selected Waterloo (USHL) defenseman Mark Friedman.
A small (5-foot-10, 182 pound) offensive-minded blueliner with a righthanded shot, Friedman was one of the top offensive defenseman in the league this year, notching 10 goals and 40 points in 51 regular season games and posting seven points in the playoffs.
Friedman is slated to play collegiate hockey next season for Bowling Green University. He will play under head coach Chris Bergeron and assistants Barry Schutte and Ty Eigner. The Flyers will have a four-year window to hold Friedman's rights and evaluate his progress; an advantage over the 2-year window for signing CHL players.
"He's in a good spot," said Flyers scouting director Chris Pryor.
Side note: The New York Islanders select Russian goalie Ilya Sorokin with 3rd-round pick acquired from the Flyers in the Andrew MacDonald deal. The Flyers also traded their 4th-round
pick to the Islanders in the trade, which New York used on the selection of Quinnipiac swingman Devon Toews.
Round 5: 138th overall -- Oskar Lindblom (W)
A big, strong winger in the Brynäs system, Lindblom started out the year on a downward trend from his preseason rankings. However, he finished the season with a flourish to occupy the 23rd spot on Central Scouting's final European skater list. At the Swedish J20 level, he was dominant in the SuperElit playoffs, racking up six goals in seven games. To cap off the season, he posted six points (three goals, three assists) for Sweden at the U18 Worlds.
Lindblom spent most of the 2013-14 season with the Brynäs J20 team but appeared at three different levels over the course of the season. He played six J18 games but was clearly too good for that level. Later, he made his SHL debut with the senior team, dressing in four games but playing very sparingly. It took him a while to get going even at the J20 level, but when he finally hit his stride late in the year, he began to trend back in the right direction.
There are no frills to Lindblom's game and he is willing to battle for the puck. His size and style are well-suited to the North American game and his skating is improving. The 6-foot-2, 185-pounder played his best games of the year at the most important time of the season, and that is an encouraging sign.
Round 6: 168th overall -- Radel Fazleev (W/C)
A smooth-skating Russian forward selected 52nd overall by the Calgary Hitmen in the 2013 CHL Import Draft, Radel Fazleev had a relatively quiet offensive first season in the Western Hockey League but showed a willingness to battle for pucks and display hints of two-way upside. Offensively, Fazleev posted 25 points (five goals, 20 points) in 38 games. He was a teammate of Flyers' first-round pick Travis Sanheim.
Fazleev also represented Russia at the Under-18 World Championships, posting one assist in five games.
Listed at an even six-feet tall and 180 pounds, Fazleev is a "tools" player who has yet to translate that into a defined role. However, he was highly regarded enough to be selected ninth overall by Ak Bars Kazan in the first-round of the 2013 KHL Draft.
As with many Russian players, Fazleev may opt to return home if his NHL opportunities seem limited. In the short term, at least, he is expected to remain in North America.
Round 7: 198th overall -- Jesper Pettersson (D)
With their final pick of the 2014 Draft, the Flyers opted for soon-to-be Linköping defenseman Jesper Pettersson. A valuable member of Team Sweden's blueline corps at the 2014 World Junior Championships, Pettersson is a regular starter in the SHL.
Built like a fireplug at just 5-foot-9 but with a muscular 190 pounds on his frame, Pettersson plays with a huge heart and is not at all afraid to mix things up physically. He has a very high level of hockey sense and also makes a quality first pass.
Pettersson has never displayed much of an offensive bent to his game, but sometimes surprises opponents with intelligent pinches. His moxie, work ethic and defensive sense are his his main attributes.
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FIRST-DAY RECAP, SECOND DAY PREVIEW (7:30 AM EDT)
After reportedly making a heavy push to land the first overall pick in the 2014 NHL Draft from the Florida Panthers, the Philadelphia Flyers ended up standing pat for the time being. The club used the 17th overall pick of the Draft to select fast-rising Calgary Hitmen defenseman Travis Sanheim.
Defensemen have longer learning curves that forwards but Sanheim has very good if still raw materials to have all or most of the coveted four S's (size, speed, skill, sense). The speed is already there, the rest are works in progress. That is to be expected.
People who are automatically criticizing the Philadelphia pick based on Sanheim's Central Scouting rating need to understand that every team in the NHL had Sanheim ranked much higher than that by the end of this past season. At the highest end, TSN's Craig Button had Sanheim ranked 8th overall on his final Craig's List.
Sanheim interviewed with all 30 teams at the NHL Combine, which means that every team in the NHL was interested to some extent. The teams picking in the top 10 to 12 may have just been doing due diligence in the event they either acquired an additional first-round pick later in the round or Sanheim slipped to the early second round in an unpredictable Draft class.
The bottom line: What happened last night was that Sanheim was the highest-ranked player on Philadelphia's list by the time the 17th overall pick came up, meaning they project his long-term upside as an NHL defenseman to be slightly higher than they comfortably projected the impact of the remaining forwards (including Kasperi Kapanen, Alex Tuch, Adrian Kempe and some others).
I personally really like Kempe a lot, and he would have been my pick once Dylan Larkin was off the board to Detroit. I stand by my comparison of him stylistically to Mikael Renberg, with a bit more pure speed (Renberg was no slouch in the skating department, either) but maybe not quite as good of a natural finisher as Renberg was before all of his injuries. The latter is hard to assess right now, because Kempe was the youngest player taken in the first round and actually did pretty well offensively for Modo last season in limited ice time. What I like is that the offense he provided was NHL-style offense in the greasy areas and he also is hard on the puck.
Kempe ended up going to the defending Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings with the 29th overall pick. I have a hunch that the rich got richer, but we won't know that for at least four or five years. Kempe is going to take awhile to develop (just as Renberg did, putting on 30 pounds of muscle between the time he was drafted by Philly in the second round of the 1990 Draft and when he signed his first NHL contract in 1993).
Nevertheless, I am quite comfortable with the Flyers' selection of Sanheim. Even if the Flyers don't hit a home run with the pick, the scouting behind the selection was sound in terms of the way hockey people -- not hockey fans, I mean the people who work in the game -- think. Fans look at stats. Hockey people look at a combination of physical attributes and things like poise and coachability. Sanheim has a lot to work with. From there, we will see.
Moving ahead to day two, the Flyers own the following Draft choices:
Round 2 - 48th overall pick
Round 3 - 86th overall pick (acquired from Boston in the Andrej Meszaros trade)
Round 4 - None
Round 5 - 138th overall
Round 6 - 168th overall
Round 7 - 198th overall
Last night, Flyers general manager Ron Hextall told me that the team would still go the BPA (best player available) route in the second round, but that he ideally would like to add to the forward depth in the system at some point in the Draft.
Perhaps the most surprising player to drop out of the first round was Moncton (QMJHL) left winger Ivan Barbashev. However, it seems rather unlikely that he will drop an additional 18 spots to be available to the Flyers when their next selection comes up. Other still-available forwards of note are three sons of former NHL players -- Brendan Lemieux (son of Claude), Ryan MacInnis (son of Al), and Ryan Donato (son of Ted). An intriguing wildcard is Russian forward Vladislav Kamenov (a favorite of Button's).
Beyond those four forwards, there are the likes of skilled and feisty but extremely undersized Brayden Point or skilled WHL center Brett Pollock (knocked out of first-round consideration by some skating deficiencies) and skilled but somewhat enignatic Peterborough Petes center Eric Cornel. In terms of potential European sleepers, the likes of Axel Holmström (Sweden) and Juho Lammikko (Finland) raised their stock significantly after standout performances at the Under-18 World Championships. Noah Rod (Switzerland) also fits the potential sleeper category.
Top-ranked goaltender Thatcher Demko is still on the board entering the second round. As with Barbashev, I expect him to be gone before the Flyers make their next pick. However, he would be a no-brainer BPA selection if he inexplicably makes it down that far.
The Flyers will probably take a goaltender at some point in the Draft but might as well wait if Demko isn't there, because everyone else is a sheer leap of faith based on an encouraging physical frame and raw athleticism.
There are also quite a few defensemen with some promise still on the board: USNTDP players Jack Doughterty (mobility and raw offensive skill with OK size), Jack Glover (similar raw tools to Sanheim), Jonathan MacLeod (big and physical defensive defenseman) and Ryan Collins (huge frame and extremely raw skill tools) remain available heading into Day 2. There are also the likes of Roland McKeown (elite tools and much-hyped entering the season but a player whose hockey sense has been questioned over the course of the season), mobile-with-size European puck-movers Marcus Pettersson and Dominik Masin, hard shooting and huge QMJHL blueliner Alexis Vanier, well-balanced Edmonton Oil Kings back Dysin Maso and big-framed Swedish defensive defensemen Andreas Englund and Adam Ollas Mattsson.
Speaking of defensemen, Sanheim established very strong chemistry over the course of this past season with his blueline partner Ben Thomas. They worked well together both for Calgary and for Team Canada at the Under-18 Worlds. I am intrigued by the possibility of Philly also drafting Thomas at some point on Day Two if he is available.
As the Flyers make selections, I will update the blog. For now, these were my updates from yesterday's blog over the course of last night:
HEXTALL: WE TRIED SEVERAL TIMES TO MOVE UP (10:30 PM EDT, 6/27/14)
Flyers general manager Ron Hextall just got finished speaking to the media about the Flyers' selection of Travis Sanheim with the 17th overall pick.
I asked him if the way Sanheim got better and better over the course of the season made him someone the team ranked higher than some players (I didn't mention him by name but had Roland McKeown in mind as an example) who started the season with much more hype but may have stagnated or even went backward a bit from where they were initially expected to be by the end of the season.
"It's a matter of feel," said Hextall. He added that when determining upside one of the things the team considers is how much bigger, stronger and refined the player can become from season to season. If the same players drafted this year got ranked again next December, the list would undoubtedly look different.
Hextall said that the Flyers talked to several teams in recent days about trading up in the first round. He would not specifically comment on the rampant rumors of the team trying to trade with Florida for the first overall pick, but that is a moot issue at this point since no deal was made.
The Flyers general manager also said the team had offers to move down, including one that came just before they made the Sanheim pick.
At the end of the interview session, I asked if the Flyers will be targeting some of the forwards who fell out of the first round (such as Ivan Barbashev, Ryan MacInnis, Ryan Donato or perhaps even Brendan Lemieux).
"We are looking for the best available players still but, yes, I want to come out of this Draft with some forwards," he said.
Asked if the Flyers might try to jump up in the second round, Hextall sounded doubtful that was in the offing right now.
FLYERS SELECT SANHEIM WITH 17TH OVERALL PICK (9:00 PM EDT, 6/27/14)
With the 17th overall pick of the first round, the Flyers selected Calgary Hitmen (WHL) defenseman Travis Sanheim.
The Flyers took a long time to come up to the podium. It was possible they were thinking of trading down -- most likely, they had Sanheim as the best available player at that point with the forwards they preferred the most off the board. Ultimately, they made the Sanheim pick.
Scouts crave "the four S" attributes in a defense prospect: size, speed, skill, and hockey sense. Shortly after the Flyers made the pick, Flyers scouting director Chris Pryor texted me that it is fair to say Sanheim has the potential to have all four of those attributes.
The speed is already there. The size should be as he fills out his still lanky 6-foot-3 frame, The hockey sense appears to be above-average. The skill level is the area that opened eyes in the second half of this past season as he gained confidence, but he has the tools to be a two-way defenseman.
Asked what made the difference over the course of the season, Sanheim said, "Just confidence. I played with confidence and did more things with the puck. That’s what you need to do to be successful in the Western Hockey League, and I felt like I did that in the second half."
Sanheim played very well for Team Canada at the Under-18 World Championships, which helped further propel him up some teams' final rankings.
"It was huge. I think I opened up a lot of scouts eyes and showed that I was capable of playing at the top level against the best kids in my age group. I showed that I could be one of the top guys and be relied upon in all situations, so it was a good tournament for me," said Sanheim.
This is what I wrote about Sanheim in my June 5 blog:
The 2014 NHL Draft may not have as many highly touted names as last year's crop of talent, but that by no means makes this a subpar year for NHL prospects. Every year, it is common to hear that, beyond the top few picks of the first round, there really isn't much of a difference between the projected ceilings of most of the players chosen in the top 40 to 50 picks.
That does not mean, of course, that no one thinks there will be breakout stars beyond the top couple picks or that some players will develop into NHL regulars while others will not. Likewise, it does not mean there won't be some pleasant surprises (or even a future star or two) to emerge from the later rounds.
What it means is that every team will have its own internal rankings of prospects that could, on the surface, differ widely from what other teams and Central Scouting produces. One team may have a player in its top 10 whereas another organization has the same player 35th and Central Scouting has him 15th on its North American/European list. The rankings vary widely but the disparities in the actual evaluations are usually subtle ones.
For example, in his most recent Draft-related podcast on TSN, former Calgary Flames general manager Craig Button opined that this year's draft could prove to be a rather deep one in terms of players who go on to become NHL regulars for a number of years. He added that he had puzzled over whom to leave off of his personal top 60 and top 100 rankings for TSN this year, whereas that is not is the case in other years.
One of the biggest late-risers in the 2014 NHL Draft class is Calgary Hitmen (WHL) defenseman Travis Sanheim. Although he doesn't get much notice among those who rely primarily on Central Scouting's ratings to determine the top prospects in each year's Draft class, the 53rd-ranked North American skater is very much on the radar screen of NHL teams to the point that it would not be much of a surprise -- or a reach by the team that selects him -- if he is taken in the first round of this year's Draft. Even in the Central Scouting ratings, Sanheim rose with a bullet from his mid-term (167th) to final ranking.
Sanheim reportedly met with all 30 NHL teams at the recent Combine. A team not meeting with a player is not necessarily due to a lack of interest (for instance, the Flyers did not meet with Sean Couturier in 2011 but selected him with the eighth overall pick). However, when a team does meet with a player, they do so because they like something about the player on the ice and want to find out a little more about him.
In Sanheim's case, the odds are pretty good that even teams that were simply doing a little extra due diligence on the player but have early first-round picks would consider taking him if they were to acquire an additional pick later in the round. If he makes it to the second round, Sanheim is a strong potential candidate to be taken by the first team that does not have a higher-ranked player on their internal list fall to them.
Sanheim fits the profile of the type of defenseman that NHL teams look for nowadays. He has a 6-foot-3 frame that still needs to fill out a bit but also has good wheels and two-way upside.
An untouted first-year WHL player, Sanheim kept things very simple early in the season. He posted three points through the first 21 games of the season as he focused mainly on positional play. His physical profile, skating and first-pass ability along with his general reliability in his own zone were sufficient to get him the 167th spot on the Central Scouting mid-term list.
Thereafter, Sanheim got increasingly comfortable and started to assert himself offensively. As his role grew into that of all-situations player, Sanheim's point totals rose steadily. Paired with fellow 2014 Draft prospect Ben Thomas, Sanheim finished the season with five goals, 29 points and a plus-25 ranking.
Sanheim also made a strong final impression on NHL scouts. Once again paired with Thomas, he had a very strong Under-18 World Championships tournament for Canada, posting six assists and a plus five rating in seven games while also taking care of business in his own of the ice.
Travis' twin brother, Taylor, is a forward whose WHL rights belong to the Brandon Wheat Kings. He was limited to nine games -- all at the Junior A level -- this season. In the meantime, Travis shot up the charts among NHL scouts. The Sanheim twins turned 18 on March 29.
Travis Sanheim's rapid development this season, which was partially hastened by an injury to Hitmen captain Jaynen Rissling (a Washington Capitals prospect), was remarkable. Rather than being a "reach" of a first-round Draft candidate, he may actually be a fairly safe pick relative to the inherent risks of drafting defensemen and nurturing them through their learning curve.
Does Sanheim currently project as a franchise defenseman in the NHL? No, and he may not be a number two, either.
However, assuming that he continues developing and stays healthy, Sanheim has all the tools to become the type of two-way defenseman that moves the puck efficiently, occasionally chips in some timely offense and also provides reliable coverage in his own zone without being outmuscled by the league's big, strong forwards. Those players are highly desirable.
Players like Sanheim will never be "sexy" draft picks because they probably won't post eye-catching point totals. However, he fits the profile of many long-tenured NHL defensemen when they were his age. That is not a guarantee of an NHL career but he's off to a good start in the pre-Draft phase of his development.
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