Flyers add a U.S. forward with some positional versatility in second round originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — The Flyers added another winger in the 2025 NHL draft by selecting Jack Murtagh at 40th overall.

The 6-foot, 198-pounder was the second of the Flyers’ three second-round selections Saturday afternoon. Murtagh can play some center, too.

Two picks earlier in the second round, the Flyers took 6-foot-6 defenseman Carter Amico. They also select at No. 48 overall.

The Flyers’ headliner of this draft was winger Porter Martone, who they grabbed at No. 6 overall Friday night.

(More coming…)

More Flyers draft coverage

• Flyers take Martone at No. 6 to kick off their NHL draft 2025

• Flyers trade up in first round, grab rising center at No. 12

For the second time in its franchise history, the Senators were involved in a draft day deal that involved a swap of first-round picks with the Nashville Predators.

In 2008, the Senators infamously moved up from the 18th overall selection to Nashville's 15th overall pick to draft Erik Karlsson. Hopefully, the good vibes will continue since that trade worked out well. Although, there is still time for Chet Pickard to pan out.

On Friday night, the Senators moved the 21st overall selection for the 23rd overall pick and the 67th overall selection. They used their first-round pick to select defenceman Logan Hensler out of the University of Wisconsin.

Hensler is a right-shot defenceman who is listed at 6'2" and 190 lbs, and he was a product of the USNTDP. In 32 games for the Badgers, the freshman contributed two goals and 12 points. Hensler's offensive production was relatively modest for a player some analysts projected at the beginning of the season to be one of the first defencemen taken in the 2025 NHL Draft.

Our own Tony Ferrari touched briefly upon this in his 'Final Draft Rankings':

"After a slow start to his freshman season at Wisconsin, Hensler began to showcase the quality that had some believing he could be the second-best defender in the draft coming into the year. Hensler is a mobile, right-shot blueliner who showed he can be a responsible, two-way defender as the season wore on. On most shifts, he plays mistake-free hockey, but every once in a while, Hensler shows the puck skill and playmaking ability to be a catalyst from the back end."

Hensler is described as a big and mobile defenceman, which is an incredibly difficult asset to acquire around the league right now.

"You don't have enough defencemen," Senators head scout Don Boyd explained after Hensler's selection. "You can never have enough defenceman. Right-(shot) defenseman are a premium.

"To select him, (there's) so much room to grow and so much potential. I think there's more offense in his game than if you look at the numbers this year, he's a real good skater. He moves pucks."

There is a good reason for optimism for more offence because Hensler demonstrated at the U17 and U18 levels with the USNTDP that he can produce. In 121 games across two seasons, he recorded nine goals and 60 points.

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There is also the added context of Hensler experiencing collegiate hockey as a true 18-year-old freshman while playing for a retooling Wisconsin program that finished second last in the Big Ten. Playing on a weaker team against older and more physically developed competition can be a challenge for any young player. Therefore, the hope is that with time and more development, Hensler can apply the consistent two-way performances that scouts grew accustomed to while he was on the USNTDP.

"The team itself in Wisconsin may have struggled a little bit," acknowledged Boyd. "He's part of the rebuilding program there. We've known him for a long time at a high level of competition."

There is confidence from Boyd and Hensler himself that he can unearth that potential in his sophomore year.

"We do (have confidence)," Boyd stated confidently with a grin. "He's going to get a lot of ice time. His coaches say he's going to get a lot of ice time. The character of the kid is tremendous."

"I'm a two-way, mobile defenseman," Hensler said while describing his skills to the media following the conclusion of the 2025 NHL Draft's first round. "I use my skating to my advantage to get up and down the ice. I also have an offensive side to me that this upcoming year will definitely be unlocked.

"I think this next year will be huge for me, just confidence-wise. I think we've got a lot of skill coming in this year for Wisconsin and I'm so excited and ready to develop (my offensive side of the game)."

One of the players who will arrive in Madison, Wisconsin, next season is Senators prospect Blake Montgomery. 

Hensler believes his offensive production will continue to grow but also wants to play on the penalty kill and develop into a complete two-way player.

On the defensive side of the game, Boyd stressed how Hensler's skating ability allows him to close quickly.

"Defensively, he can he can meet the rush and stop it," stated Boyd. "He can get a puck. He can go back and get pucks very quickly, turn and move it up the ice very quickly.

"The fact of the matter is that he's, he's a right-handed shot that's that's a real good skater and can move pucks, and we have to have people with that kind of skill to get the puck out of our zone."

Interestingly, when asked which player he would model his game after, Hensler quickly dropped the name of a player Senators fans will be familiar with.

"It is Jake Sanderson. I think we have very good skating. I think just a big piece I'm trying to take is just how simple and efficient is. He's overall an elite defenceman. That's a goal I'm chasing and I think I can reach it."

That would be music to Senators fans' ears. The strongest teams seem to build from the net out and with the addition of Hensler to a group of under-30 defencemen that already includes Jake Sanderson, Thomas Chabot, Tyler Kleven, and Carter Yakemchuk, the Senators are in great shape.

By Graeme Nichols
The Hockey News/Ottawa
Banner image credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

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Flyers open second round of NHL draft 2025 with 6-foot-6 defenseman originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — With their first of four second-round picks Saturday afternoon in the 2025 NHL draft, the Flyers selected Carter Amico at No. 38 overall.

General manager Danny Briere moved back two spots from No. 36 by trading that pick and No. 68 to the Kraken for pick Nos. 38 and 57.

Amico is a 6-foot-6 defenseman out of the U.S. national team development program.

In the first round Friday night, the Flyers took winger Porter Martone at No. 6 and center Jack Nesbitt at No. 12.

(More coming…)

More Flyers draft coverage

• Flyers take Martone at No. 6 to kick off their NHL draft 2025

• Flyers trade up in first round, grab rising center at No. 12

• Flyers add a U.S. forward with some positional versatility in second round

• Busy second round continues with a teammate of a Flyers prospect

• Flyers grab another big center to wrap up four picks in second round

After 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.

In fact, the Flyers themselves even insisted they needed centers after electing to choose Martone over Hagens.

So, what compelled them to do that? The answer, according to Flyers GM Danny Briere, was as simple as Martone being the better, more impactful player.

"We said it all along, yeah, we would've preferred a center, but we felt we couldn't pass up on the chance to bring a difference-maker like Porter Martone to the team," Briere explained at the end of the first round of the NHL Draft.

The 18-year-old Martone, already a captain of Canada's U18s and his Brampton Steelheads, finished second only to Michael Misa in goals (37 to Misa's 62) and total scoring (98 points to Misa's 134) amongst draft-eligible forwards in the OHL this year. 

Flyers Draft Porter Martone: Pick Grade, Instant ReactionThe

Martone's future Flyers teammate and draft classmate, Jack Nesbitt, finished seventh in goals (25)  amongst OHL draft-eligibles and sixth in points (64). That's to give an indication as to how good Martone really is at his age with his natural talents and leadership.

"If there's one thing I would say, it's, in this draft, in the first round, [Martone is] pretty close to being the most ready out of that group," Briere continued. "To be able to select him at six, I don't want to say steal, but we had him higher on our board.

"We felt if Porter was there at six, even though he wasn't a center, that it would be really tough to go by him. . . Porter, in that range, was the one guy we felt we just couldn't let go by."

So, that's the story of how Porter Martone overtook James Hagens and ended up on the Flyers by the end of Friday night.

Briere knows how many right wings the Flyers have just as much as you and I, which should illustrate just how highly this team and these scouts valued this player.

It should be noted that Martone is an Oct. 26 birthday, too, which means he'll be 19 years old fairly early into the 2025-26 season.

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Martone aspires to make the team out of camp, while Briere, cautiously, wouldn't completely rule out the possibility of his newest top draft pick playing NHL games at some point.

After all, a barely 18-year-old Jett Luchanko played four NHL games at the start of last season.

So, by that logic, Martone is closer to the big leagues than we think both from a time perspective and from a skill perspective. Come this time next year, would there be any value in him playing nearly a full OHL season as a 20-year-old? Probably not.

This is a rare occasion where an early birthday and talent intersect to a team's advantage as the Flyers gear up to take the next step in their rebuild.