With all the talk of the last few seasons about the Flyers’ overall size on the blue line, if there’s ever a draft to add some big defensemen to the cupboard, this is it. There isn’t a defenseman under six feet tall in the first 150 players on NHL Central Scouting’s North American rankings, and not one in the top 50 of the European list.
Like everywhere else in the draft, the Flyers will have their own internal rankings on these players that may widely differ from Central Scouting. But there appears to be a vein of 6-4 to 6-6 guys that should line up with where the Flyers are selecting, and chances are we may see a couple of them come into the fold.
We will probably see the top defenseman in the draft shuffle right on up to Long Island. Matthew Schaefer is the consensus first overall pick, and one ping-pong ball boxing out another in the last draw of the draft lottery in May probably sends him to Garden City instead of Haddonfield. Schaefer broke his collarbone in December at the World Junior Championships and hasn’t played since, but that hasn’t done much to lower his draft stock. He comes out of OHL Erie, which also produced Connor McDavid and Jamie Drysdale, and will likely become a mainstay on the Islanders blue line for a decade or so.
After Schaefer, there are so many good forwards at the top of the draft that it will likely push the next defenseman past the Flyers’ pick. But if it were to happen, it would be Radim Mrtka, a 6-6, 218 native of Czechia playing for Seattle in the WHL. He’ll bring size and a right-handed shot to one of the NHL clubs; many teams are still getting to know him, as he remarkably only started playing competitive hockey in 2021 at the age of 15.
Coming right behind Mrtka in the middle of the first round should be Jackson Smith, a 6-4, 199-lb playmaker from Tri-City of the WHL. He’ll head around the corner to Penn State next season, where he’ll be capable of running both the power play and penalty kill.
Kashawn Aitcheson is a thorn from Barrie of the OHL who is one of the oldest players in the draft with a September 2006 birthday – he was just a week shy of being eligible for last year’s draft. While not the biggest blueliner at 6-1, 198 lbs, reportedly he’ll leave you wishing you were playing against one of the 6-6 guys. To say he’s physical is probably not strong enough of a word to describe his game – he told the Detroit News that he looked up to Wayne Simmonds growing up, and Flyers fans loved Simmonds for the way he played the game. But again, Aitcheson probably falls in a spot between the picks the Flyers currently have.
From there though, you get a bunch of blueliners that could probably drop into the Flyers’ lower-first-round range. They include:
Cameron Reid from Kitchener in the OHL, another defender who isn’t the biggest but makes up for it with a physical game. He projects as a two-way defenseman who still has a pretty high ceiling on the offensive side of his game. How high he goes on the offensive side could determine whether he ends up as a steal in this draft when we look back in five years.
Logan Hensler, another older prospect with an October 2006 birthday who has one season of college hockey at Wisconsin under his belt already. While old for the draft though, he’s young for a college freshman, and was able to handle it well by all accounts. He’s a 6-2, 196-pound right-handed shot who also has a solid two-way game and can spring the rush either with a good first pass or with his own speed. Hensler was in the US National Team Development Program before joining the Badgers, but prior to that, he was playing high-level youth and high school hockey in Minnesota, where Brent Flahr still has clandestine operatives alerting him to diamonds in the rough in what’s essentially the only area of the country where players can get drafted right out of high school. But Hensler isn’t likely to fly too far under the radar.
Blake Fiddler, a 6-4, 220-lb defenseman from Edmonton of the WHL. He’s the son of former NHL veteran Vernon Fiddler, and there’s something to be said about pedigree and a kid who literally grew up hanging around NHL locker rooms – he was born in Nashville while Dad was playing for the Predators and started playing AAA hockey in Dallas while Dad was playing for the Stars. Fortunately for Blake, he didn’t get his dad’s size – his large frame plays very well into his strengths as a shutdown defenseman who doesn’t let a whole lot get by him. Also a right-handed shot, Fiddler’s offensive contributions will be complementary to what he does defensively, and could continue to grow at the professional level.
Sascha Boumedienne, a 6-1, 184-lb defender from Boston University. Boumedienne has also been around the game his entire life, as his father Josef was a fourth-round pick of New Jersey in 1996 and played a globetrotting 17-year professional career that started in Sweden and included 47 NHL games for the Devils, Tampa Bay and Washington. He played 295 AHL games, 198 pro games in Finland and 185 pro games in Sweden before retiring and becoming the Director of European Scouting for the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2013. That’s where Sascha’s road started as a player, with the AAA Ohio Blue Jackets, and he further developed his game in the USHL before going to college essentially a year early – he didn’t turn 18 until this past January, halfway through his first season with the Terriers. So his runway is still extremely long, and by all accounts he handled the NCAA quite well despite his young age, improving as the year went on. He plays internationally for Sweden and had a goal and 13 assists at U-18 Worlds, where he was named the tournament’s best defenseman. He looks to take a bigger piece of the pie at BU next year.
As the draft rolls on into the second round and beyond, some of the names with size will be there for the taking:
Henry Brzustewicz, 6’2, 203 from OHL London. There’s no doubt the Flyers know him well. He’s played with Oliver Bonk in championship situations the last couple of years and will now take a large part of Bonk’s role as Bonk joins the Flyers organization. Could he continue on Bonk’s tails to the Flyers down the road?
Haoxi Wang, 6’6, 222 from OHL Oshawa. Wang will become just the third native of China to be drafted into the NHL. He is a late bloomer, coming over from China at age 12 and landing in the vaunted Greater Toronto Hockey League before going to the OJHL and then the big OHL with Oshawa. His development will be very interesting to watch as one of the first players to take advantage of the new NCAA rules, as he plans to play one more year for Oshawa before going to Boston University as a freshman in 2026-27.
Peyton Kettles, 6’6, 195 from WHL Swift Current. Kettles played in all situations for a Swift Current team that endured a tough season, and has developed a reputation for solid defensive play that enables him to shut down the best players in the league. He’ll work to develop the rest of his game once the draft comes and goes, but as the old adage goes, size is something you can’t teach.
Max Psenicka, 6’5, 185 from WHL Portland. Psenicka just completed his first season in North America after playing in his native Czechia prior to that. Central Scouting dropped him from 8th among North American skaters at the midterms to 40th in the final rankings, so he may be a later-round find. It’s a huge jump between those levels, and Psenicka adjusted the best he could. Next year he’ll have a bigger role in Portland, and certainly still has a very high ceiling.
Carter Amico, 6-6, 232 from the USNTDP. He was establishing himself as a headache-causing defender before his season ended due to a knee injury. He’ll make attacking opponents regret coming through the middle of the zone and already possesses the offensive ability to send play the other way. Like many others, Amico is scheduled to attend Boston University.
Jacob Rombach, 6-6, 209 from USHL Lincoln. Another product of the youth system in Minnesota, Rombach is returning home to join the Golden Gophers at the University of Minnesota after playing with Lincoln in the USHL the last two seasons. Rombach has that unteachable size, and indications are he’s still learning how to use it. He is a shutdown defender because of his reach, and to this point doesn’t have to be super physical to do it, which may save wear and tear on his body in the long term. He’ll work on developing the offensive side of his game as he makes the jump to the NCAA next year.
Linus Funck, 6’3, 183 from Lulea in Sweden. He’d be a later-round grab, but that Flyers jersey would fly off the shelves. Praised as an intelligent, low-risk defender, his development over the next couple of years will be a better indicator of his long-term potential.
