After managing to make four selections in the second round of the 2025 NHL Draft, the Philadelphia Flyers are making their prospect pool a whole lot bigger and better.
Though Flyers GM Danny Briere insisted Friday that he and his team were not setting out to add size, they did just that to kick off Round 2.
With the 38th overall pick, having traded down with the Seattle Kraken, the Flyers landed right-shot defenseman Carter Amico, who stands at a casual and certainly unimposing 6-foot-6, 240 pounds.
Amico was felled by a major knee injury this season, limiting him to just three assists in 13 games. But at his best? The 18-year-old is a one-on-one monster whose impressive skating ability, especially for his size, allows him to destroy plays before they happen.
Adding Amico to a pool of right-shot defenders that already includes Oliver Bonk and Spencer Gill means the Flyers are not banking on Jamie Drysdale becoming the force he has the talent to be at the NHL level.
Bonk, Gill, and Amico are all 6-foot-2 or taller, so size shouldn't be an issue for the Flyers going forward on that side of the ice.
Why the Flyers Passed on James Hagens in the NHL DraftAfter drafting top winger Porter Martone over center James Hagens at the top of the 2025 NHL Draft, the Philadelphia Flyers will have to wait a little longer to find the No. 1 center of their future.
The Flyers followed up the selection of Amico with the NHL Draft's two most tenacious, annoying ankle-biters in wingers Jack Murtagh and Shane Vansaghi.
But, Jon, how many wingers can the Flyers really have? That's not something I have the ability to answer, but Murtagh and Vansaghi both could've very easily been first-round talents. The Flyers landed both in Round 2.
Murtagh, at 6-foot-1, 200 pounds, was one of my best players available heading into Saturday's proceedings.
A versatile winger, Murtagh is unrelenting in his pursuit of the puck, skates like the wind, and already has an above-average shot, even for NHL standards. I think he has a future as a top-nine left wing with 30-goal potential depending on his role and linemates.
As for Vansaghi, his skating needs a lot of work, even by his own admission, but he hits opponents like it's personal.
The Michigan State flanker has some real skill, but his role at the NHL level will primarily be to serve as an effective power forward. Vansaghi will be a fun addition to a Flyers winger group that is on the smaller side, especially on the right with Bobby Brink, Matvei Michkov, and Travis Konecny all shorter than 6-foot.
NHL Draft 2025: Can (or should) the Flyers draft Porter Martone?With a guaranteed top six pick in the 2025 NHL Draft, the Philadelphia Flyers have an array of potentially franchise-altering options at their disposal. But is Porter Martone, a winger in the purest sense, one of them?
To wrap up Round 2, the Flyers added another massive player in the form of Matthew Gard, a 6-foot-5, defense-first center who can move around surprisingly well for his size.
The big concern here is that the Flyers have drafted a big, tall center with a capped NHL ceiling three times in two years, following Jack Berglund last year and Jack Nesbitt on Friday night.
Gard is a much better skater than Nesbitt and Berglund are, but his offensive skills are more on the average side.
The Flyers still have smaller, more talented centers in Trevor Zegras and Jett Luchanko, but you have to wonder how they plan on getting that guy who screams future No. 1 NHL center.
Right now, they don't have one, and if the team improves on their 29th-place finish next season, the task becomes that much harder, especially with James Hagens off to Boston.
Gard is talented and boosts the center prospect pool regardless, but the Flyers can only conceivably have one or two of these players in their lineup at center as Stanley Cup contenders in the future. Stocking up on them probably isn't the best of ideas, but we'll have to wait and see.
Notably, by drafting Gard, the Flyers missed out on top goalie prospect Jack Ivankovic, the fourth-highest rated goalie on my Flyers big board, and a big left-shot defenseman they really need in their cupboard in Kurban Limatov.
I ranked Limatov ahead of Haoxi Wang, who went to San Jose 33rd overall at the top of Round 2.
So, ultimately, the Flyers have a plan: get bigger and stronger. They added some of the skill in Nesbitt, Murtagh, and Porter Martone, and pure size and traits in Vansaghi and Gard.
The Flyers will still need to add more of that skill in future trades and drafts, but the NHL Draft has been an important exercise in building team identity to this point. That identity is now readily apparent.