The New Regime

The Vegas Golden Knights are your 2022/23 Stanley Cup Champions and just like that, the post season is over. The draft is about 2 and a half weeks away and the Flyers have been making some pretty interesting moves. Firing of Mike O’Connell, John Riley, Kjell Samuelsson and hiring of Keith Jones, Patrick Sharpe, Alyn McCauley, promotion of Nick Shultz and Riley Armstrong to the list, may actually show you what the issues were these past couple years. My favorite one is the Riley Armstrong addition, Director of Player Development, shows that there was a flaw for awhile in player development. The Phantoms made it to the post season this past season and have some young guns down there to boot. In my opinion, player development for the Flyers has been an issue for a long time and this is a positive move in the right direction. So, as of right now, The Three Amigos, being Torts, Briere and Jones, have my vote. Valerie Camillo stepping down, effective July 1st, may show that some of the old guard may be next. Now onto some draft talk.

There are a couple players I’d like to talk about in this coming draft and my 1st pick wasn’t popular until I shined some light on him a couple weeks ago. (yes, I am taking credit for that) Zachary Benson is a 5’9 163 lbs 18 year old left-handed left winger, haling from Chillwack, British Columbia and is currently playing for the Winnipeg Ice.  He notched 35 goals, 62 assists and had 98 points in 60 games played. To me, this is atleast one of our picks. He was sitting at 7th place, directly in front of the Flyers 1st round pick 2 weeks ago at 7th and according to NHL.com, at 9th this week, in direct sight of the Detroit Red Wings. Oliver Moore is who sits at 7th, as of today and fits the bill for Flyers past draft picks, being in the United States Development team but maybe it’s time to fall back from those picks. Now stats aren’t everything as the Great One did say “Stats are for losers” but the comparison between these two players isn’t even fair. Oliver is a 5’11, 180 lbs, left handed 18 year old center from Mounds View, MN and totaled 8 goals, 17 assists and had 25 points in 23 games played. Good old American boy but unfortunately for me, Benson is the pick. Not a popular opinion but I would choose Zach over some of these other guys. There are some honorable mentions we could go after like Will Smith and Brayden Yager but it seems like they’re in everyone’s sights as well.

The clock is definitely ticking and us at Olde City Sports Network and Flyers Alley think this draft is going to be an exciting one for Flyers fans. Expect a bunch of movement here soon including Kevin Hayes, Carter Hart and Tony DeAngelo. Even some rumors are popping up about Scott Laughton and Travis Konecny but Danny B said he was answer and listening to calls regarding every player on the team. Don’t let the rumor boys get ya!

Jesse Bell - Flyers Alley/Olde City Sports Network

Photo Credit - The Athletic & The Hockey News