Flyers Drop to No. 5 Pick, Canadiens Land No. 1

Flyers get a top-5 pick in 2022 draft; Metropolitan team climbs to No. 2 originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The Flyers landed where they were most likely to in the 2022 NHL draft lottery Tuesday night.

The club, which held the fourth-best odds to win the lottery, fell one spot to earn the No. 5 overall selection in the July draft.

Per Tankathon.com, the Flyers had a 44.9 percent chance to finish in the fifth position, their greatest odds of all the picks. They had a 9.5 percent chance at No. 1, 9.8 for No. 2, 15.4 for No. 4 and 20.5 for No. 6. With the modified format, the Flyers could not finish at No. 3 and could slide no lower than No. 6.

The reason the Flyers dropped one spot is because the Devils climbed from No. 5 to No. 2. New Jersey went in with an 8.8 percent chance at landing the second overall selection.

The last time the Flyers finished with a pick in the top three overall was 2017, when they improbably climbed from the 13th position to No. 2 overall. They had a 2.4 percent chance at the second pick that summer and landed it, selecting Nolan Patrick out of the WHL.

Here is the organization’s history at picking No. 5 or higher:

The Flyers have six selections in this year’s draft, which will be held July 7-8 at Bell Centre in Montreal. It marks the Flyers’ fourth draft under general manager Chuck Fletcher and assistant general manager Brent Flahr. The fifth overall pick will be the regime’s third first-round selection. The top-five slot should have the club’s amateur scouting staff pretty excited.

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Last summer, Fletcher dealt the Flyers’ first-round pick to the Sabres in the trade for Rasmus Ristolainen. The Flyers’ two first-round picks under Fletcher and Flahr were Cam York at 14th overall in 2019 and Tyson Foerster at 23rd overall in 2020.

York, a 21-year-old puck-moving defenseman, played 30 NHL games this season. The Flyers are hoping he plays a big role in an area of need next season as they try to rebound from a disastrous 2021-22 campaign.

Foerster, a 20-year-old winger with an NHL shot, spent most of this season rehabbing from shoulder surgery. He finished the year in junior hockey and is expected to open next season with AHL affiliate Lehigh Valley.

Samu Tuomaala headlined the Flyers’ 2021 draft class. The 19-year-old Finnish winger was taken in the second round at 46th overall and had a tough 2021-22 season in Liiga, Finland’s top pro league.

In the 2022 draft, Shane Wright, a center for the OHL’s Kingston Frontenacs, is considered the consensus top pick. NBC Sports’ Sean Leahy listed Matthew Savoie, Logan Cooley, Brad Lambert, Simon Nemec, Seamus Casey, David Jiricek and Juraj Slafkovsky as potential top-five selections.

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