en-us SportSpyder - The Latest Philadelphia Flyers News https://sportspyder.com/nhl/philadelphia-flyers/news Photo Credit: Out very own Rob Windfelder The post appeared first on . Tue, 09 Jun 2026 08:55:24 GMT Jamey Baskow https://sportspyder.com/nhl/philadelphia-flyers/articles/56890554 https://sportspyder.com/nhl/philadelphia-flyers/articles/56890554 false false The Trevor Zegras contract talk is going to be the talk of the summer in Philadelphia as we head towards the 2026 NHL Draft and free agency. However, Zegras isn Tue, 09 Jun 2026 21:33:55 GMT Joseph Groves https://sportspyder.com/nhl/philadelphia-flyers/articles/56898066 https://sportspyder.com/nhl/philadelphia-flyers/articles/56898066 false false #letsgoflyers #hockey #nhl #philly #matveimichkov Tue, 09 Jun 2026 21:32:19 GMT Philadelphia Flyers https://sportspyder.com/nhl/philadelphia-flyers/articles/56898047 https://sportspyder.com/nhl/philadelphia-flyers/articles/56898047 false false The Philadelphia Flyers badly need some new blood in their goalie prospect pool, and the 2026 NHL Draft awaits. Tue, 09 Jun 2026 21:27:49 GMT Jonathan Bailey https://sportspyder.com/nhl/philadelphia-flyers/articles/56897993 https://sportspyder.com/nhl/philadelphia-flyers/articles/56897993 false false For the first time in a while, . That, of course, makes life a little different for the club’s amateur scouting staff leading up to the 2026 NHL draft. Barring a trade, the Flyers will pick at 21st overall. It’s their lowest first-round spot since 2020. But that was when the Flyers drafted a foundation piece, . So the Flyers know the draft is still critical to what they want to do, even when they’re lower in the order. “, we wanted to build a team that was going to be here for a long time; not just to go for it for a year or two,” general manager Danny Briere said last month. “That’s still the same approach on my end.” The Flyers have only five picks in this draft, which will be held June 26-27. The first round is Friday at 7 p.m. ET, while Rounds 2-7 are Saturday starting at 11 a.m. ET. “I’ll tell you how I feel about drafts and I’ll be totally blunt with you,” TSN director of scouting Craig Button said last Tuesday in a phone interview with NBC Sports Philadelphia. “I think it’s f—ing bulls–t when I hear about, ‘Oh, this draft isn’t as good.’ Here are the numbers. Approximately 45 players from any draft will play 350 games or more in the NHL. It might be 47 one year, 42 another year. That’s the number — you get 45 players that’ll play 350 games or more with varying degrees of success. “And I know this about the draft. The teams that get good players from the draft say it was a good draft. The teams that don’t get good players from the draft say it wasn’t a good draft. So when people start telling me about a draft ahead of time, I call bulls–t.” Last summer, , with six coming over the first two rounds. Porter Martone was . Now the Flyers will try to hit on a pick in the 20s. “What you’re trying to do is find a player that you feel has the potential to be an NHL player,” Button said. “That might be a third-line center, that might be a second-line scoring winger. Hey, listen, maybe you get David Pastrnak, who’s a superstar (drafted 25th overall in 2014). “But the focus has to be on, ‘OK, what type of player do we like, what type of player do we think the guy can be?’ And then get after it and understand what the development path is, and then try to help that player be the best he can be. Put a stake in the ground and celebrate who you’re drafting.” Before the draft arrives, we’re breaking down first-round targets for the Flyers. Next up: Ryan Lin Position: Defenseman Height: 5-foot-11 Weight: 180 Shoots: Right Team: Vancouver Scouting report While his frame doesn’t come across as imposing, Lin is a plus defender with strong offensive skills. The Denver-bound prospect consistently has the puck, often making the right play up the ice or in the offensive zone. And when he doesn’t have the puck, he can hold his own in coverage. “He has got the brain, he understands the way that defensemen play the game, transition and everything,” Button, a former NHL GM and scout, said. “I was a little bit harder on Ryan. When I say harder, in terms of watching him. What I realized, I think he’s a much better defender than he gets credit for. … That’s why you watch players over a period of time in different scenarios.” Lin put up over a point per game this season in the WHL, recording 14 goals and 43 assists through 53 games. He had a minus-19 rating, but that came on a Vancouver team that sported a minus-86 goal differential. At the 2026 IIHF U-18 World Junior Championship that ended last month, Lin had six points (one goal, five assists) and a plus-7 rating in five games for Team Canada. Lin is No. 17 overall on and the seventh-best defenseman. “In Vancouver in the Western Hockey League, he was asked to drive offense,” Button said. “When you’re asked to do that, you better do that. And he did it well, he did it really well. So the team isn’t as good and certainly he has got to do his part offensively; well, now you’re not asked to play defense as much. But I’ve seen him in other scenarios where he has been a really good, solid two-way defenseman.” Button believes Lin has “a little bit of the Brandon Montour profile.” Montour owns a 73-point season and a Stanley Cup ring. The 32-year-old has played in 665 career NHL games. has Lin ranked at No. 12, while has him at No. 15. has Lin at No. 16 among North American skaters. (Kai Brown/Portland Winterhawks) Fit with Flyers If Lin is still there at No. 21, he would be a fine pick for the Flyers. The club will draft the best player available, but it couldn’t hurt to replenish on the back end. The Flyers have taken just four defensemen over the last two drafts. They haven’t taken one in the first round since 2023, when they . Lin has the ingredients to be a top-four defenseman. His upside as a power play quarterback should also appeal to the Flyers. They’ve had an NHL-worst power play over the last five seasons combined at 14.1 percent. Lin would give them a good option to run the point in the future. More targets • • • • Tue, 09 Jun 2026 20:51:03 GMT Jordan Hall https://sportspyder.com/nhl/philadelphia-flyers/articles/56897573 https://sportspyder.com/nhl/philadelphia-flyers/articles/56897573 false false Dylan Larkin didn’t include the Flyers on his short list—so what’s holding Philly back? With their latest playoff run, are the Flyers finally shifting the pe... Tue, 09 Jun 2026 20:04:36 GMT Locked On Flyers https://sportspyder.com/nhl/philadelphia-flyers/articles/56897038 https://sportspyder.com/nhl/philadelphia-flyers/articles/56897038 false false The Philadelphia Flyers are fully in offseason mode after their exit from the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The team exceeded national expectations, Tue, 09 Jun 2026 19:37:59 GMT Scott Rogust https://sportspyder.com/nhl/philadelphia-flyers/articles/56896732 https://sportspyder.com/nhl/philadelphia-flyers/articles/56896732 false false JP Hurlbert has a very interesting story. He is one of the case studies that people will point out as someone who is getting new opportunities in the new landscape for NHL prospects that has been created because of the NCAA-CHL agreement. Now that prospects can play in both the CHL and the NCAA — since before a couple years ago, a prospect had to choose just one path since the NCAA deemed the CHL as “playing professional” because of the little allowance players were given — we’re seeing more and more Canadian prospects head down to the United States and lace up. We just saw it with Porter Martone and how well he did playing college hockey. But it also benefits players going the other way. Hurlbert is one of those players. The American winger, born and raised in Texas of all places, worked his way up to play in the U.S. National Team Development Program for their Under-17 squad. But instead of staying in there and then going forward with college, like so many other players have in the past, he decided to take the trip up north and lace up for the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers, to get a little bit more attention as a top prospect. He would not have been able to do this just a couple years ago, but now the Allen, Texas native was able to play in the WHL and get what he needed to get from it. But how does it translate? And how did it affect his draft stock and his development? Well, it is questionable. Pre-draft rankings Ranked #12 by NHL Central Scouting (NA Skaters) Ranked #30 by Elite Prospects Ranked #43 by The Athletic (Scott Wheeler) Ranked #17 by Sportsnet (Jason Bukala) Ranked #21 by Daily Faceoff Statistics What’s there to like? When it comes to Hurlbert, there’s a lot of flash. That’s maybe the simplest way to put it. He’s a creator in the offensive zone that can make his teammates better and be capable of finishing on more chances and we saw that all throughout his time in Kamloops. Hurlbert was crowned the WHL’s Rookie of the Year for leading his own Blazers team in scoring as a first-time player with 97 points in 68 games, and then finishing fourth in league scoring — just under the Ruck twins and Dallas Stars prospect Cameron Schmidt. His 1.43 points per game ranked 10th in the WHL and only those pesky Ruck twins and massively undersized defenseman Jonas Woo, were the draft-eligible skaters who finished above him. The production is clearly there, and the highlights are there too. JP Hurlbert posted 8 goals and 12 assists for 20 points in 12 games in November to earn WHL Rookie of the Month He now sits at a league-leading 48 points Here are the highlights from his dominant month👇 — Colton Davies (@coltonrdavies) Hurlbert is clearly a dynamic player. What he can do with the puck, when given the space to do so, has proved to be very successful in junior hockey. He’s lights-out on the power play and can clearly display some skill with the puck — there’s the soft skill there that so many current NHLers probably wish they had. And we can’t forget about the biggest attribute to his entire game: His shot. Hurlbert can rifle the puck in any way from anywhere in the offensive zone and has proven to find success in scoring a whole lot of goals in the WHL. Whether it’s a one-timer from the faceoff dot, or a snipe from the halfwall, or a forehand-backhand deke right in the slot to put it over the goalie’s shoulder; Hurlbert can do a whole lot of things with the puck that end up in the back of the net. But there are some general concerns. What’s not to like? Sure, Hurlbert can dish the puck and shoot it and do a whole lot else with it in the offensive zone, but there are genuine concerns about his projectability to the NHL and if he’s even a prospect worth paying that much attention to. He profiles as the prototypical player that can reach his highest when the game is slowed down to his liking. His skating is below where you want to see from an offensive player, and he’s not physical at all. So, he’s most perfectly suited on the power play in more stationary positions, or moving around the ice with his team in possession of the puck and if he is handed more space. It may be a personal bias of just wanting the prospects to give a little bit more than that and to have a higher work ethic in all areas of the ice, but Hurlbert just screams someone who is not able to make it into the NHL in any tangible way. Maybe his peak is being a middle-six winger who has defensive holes but can contribute on the power play — and that’s if he adjusts to how fast NHL teams will target him and how aggressive they can be defensively. He is just a smaller winger that can be pushed around far too easily for my personal liking and even though he has a whole lot of puck skills and a solid shot, there are just so many holes in his game overall where he can be a negative impact player on the ice. How would he fit in the Flyers’ system? This is an interesting case to see what kind of player the Flyers really need in their prospect pool. Hurlb... Tue, 09 Jun 2026 19:04:14 GMT Thomas Williams https://sportspyder.com/nhl/philadelphia-flyers/articles/56896290 https://sportspyder.com/nhl/philadelphia-flyers/articles/56896290 false false The Philadelphia Flyers are a team heading in the right direction, as evidenced by them making the playoffs as the third place team in the Metropolitan Division Tue, 09 Jun 2026 18:57:29 GMT Scott Rogust https://sportspyder.com/nhl/philadelphia-flyers/articles/56896186 https://sportspyder.com/nhl/philadelphia-flyers/articles/56896186 false false The Flyers aren't on Dylan Larkin's reported trade list, which was expected. Granted, that highly limited list isn't getting him traded out of Detroit either. Tue, 09 Jun 2026 18:27:46 GMT Nick Tricome https://sportspyder.com/nhl/philadelphia-flyers/articles/56895845 https://sportspyder.com/nhl/philadelphia-flyers/articles/56895845 false false Who will the Flyers add this summer? Is Beniers available? All that and more in this week’s mailbag. Tue, 09 Jun 2026 18:17:18 GMT Anthony Di Marco https://sportspyder.com/nhl/philadelphia-flyers/articles/56895713 https://sportspyder.com/nhl/philadelphia-flyers/articles/56895713 false false Dylan Larkin requested a trade from the Detroit Red Wings, and Danny Briere and the Philadelphia Flyers could have interest. Tue, 09 Jun 2026 17:56:16 GMT Colin Newby https://sportspyder.com/nhl/philadelphia-flyers/articles/56895442 https://sportspyder.com/nhl/philadelphia-flyers/articles/56895442 false false The Philadelphia Flyers have the chance to get even better entering this offseason. The Flyers made it to the playoffs and won a series to make it to the second Tue, 09 Jun 2026 16:59:40 GMT Scott Rogust https://sportspyder.com/nhl/philadelphia-flyers/articles/56894758 https://sportspyder.com/nhl/philadelphia-flyers/articles/56894758 false false With the NHL Draft approaching, it marks a pivotal time for the Philadelphia Flyers Tue, 09 Jun 2026 16:57:46 GMT Haley Taylor Simon https://sportspyder.com/nhl/philadelphia-flyers/articles/56894735 https://sportspyder.com/nhl/philadelphia-flyers/articles/56894735 false false