Philadelphia Flyers: 2020 draft date shouldn’t matter

Debate is raging about whether or not the NHL should keep its entry draft in June or push it back, but it shouldn’t really matter at all to the Philadelphia Flyers.

The National Hockey League has a number of pressing concerns, and one of them is the status of its entry draft, which usually occurs in late June shortly after the Stanley Cup Final. Given the situation we’re in, however, there is much debate about whether to keep the draft in its typical time frame or kick it down the road until after the season is hopefully completed. This might be a big deal for some teams, but the Philadelphia Flyers are not one of them.

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The league wants to hold the draft in June, no doubt enticed by the recent success of the NFL Draft. It’s misguided, because the NHL and NFL Drafts aren’t even in the same stratosphere, but you can get where they’re coming from. Some coverage is better than nothing.

Despite this, most general managers and the teams they represent want the draft pushed back, citing numerous reasons. They didn’t get to fully scout all of the eligible players since seasons were cut short. They don’t know where they’ll finish or how their season will end yet, so that might affect the kind of players they choose. They might have been looking to trade a player at the draft to acquire more picks. This last one is a valid point, but overall it seems like a lot of excuses are being thought of already in the event that a team has a lousy draft, even though hockey players take much longer to sink or swim than in sports like football and basketball.

Again, though, it really shouldn’t make much of a difference to the Flyers. They’re not a “bubble team” who still had a wide range of possibilities of where they might have drafted. And they wouldn’t have been in the lottery. They also don’t have conditional draft picks, either coming to them or going out the door, riding on how the season may finish. Some teams do, and they’re going to need to figure out a compromise regarding picks they’ve swapped. Tough turkey. I don’t care about that, and neither should the Flyers. Their picks are set; Chuck Fletcher and company don’t need to worry about anything.

The Orange and Black have done a pretty nice job with their drafts over the last few years (for the most part), so 2020 didn’t shape up to be a critical one for them. That doesn’t give them carte blanche to screw up, but they have about as little flesh in the game at this year’s draft as any other team in the league.

Whether the draft is in June, October, or sometime in between, the Flyers will be in the same boat as every other team. But they played well enough this season so that they don’t have to concern themselves with what happens at the top of the draft. The pressure is off, and they’ll be able to get a good prospect picking in the 20’s without having to worry about the future of their franchise hinging on him. They just need to be smart, and not overthink things. Whoever they get in the first couple rounds won’t be expected to contribute until years down the line.

The Flyers and their fans should just kick back and relax while we enjoy other organizations going crazy and putting up a fight about when the draft should be. It’s at least somewhat entertaining, and we need to take any form of that we can get right now.