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Philadelphia Flyers: Ron Hextall’s GM draft grades

By Kevin Lagowski

PHILADELPHIA, PA - JUNE 27: Ron Hextall, General Manager of the Philadelphia Flyers (C), looks on prior the first round of the 2014 NHL Draft at the Wells Fargo Center on June 27, 2014 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
PHILADELPHIA, PA - JUNE 27: Ron Hextall, General Manager of the Philadelphia Flyers (C), looks on prior the first round of the 2014 NHL Draft at the Wells Fargo Center on June 27, 2014 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /
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Philadelphia Flyers
(Photo by Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images) /

2015

The picks: Ivan Provorov (7th overall), Travis Konecny (24th), Matej Tomek (90th), Samuel Dove-McFalls (98th), Mikhail Vorobyev (104th), David Kase (128th), Cooper Marody (158th), Ivan Fedotov (188th)

The Flyers were set up for success and hoping for the kind of results they got from having two first round picks in 2003 when they landed Mike Richards and Jeff Carter. And while they certainly didn’t hit a home run, let’s at least call it a solid double.

We all know the deal with Provorov and Konecny by now, so there’s no need to get too deep into their strengths and weaknesses. They are good NHL players, though neither is having his best season at the moment. About the only guys the Flyers could have realistically had in this draft year (because they weren’t getting Connor McDavid) who you wished they had taken were Mikko Rantanen and Sebastian Aho. I honestly can’t find much fault with what Hextall and his team (if he let them have any input) did here.

The rest of the draft is a different story, featuring a goalie who never amounted to anything and a pair of players in Vorobyev and Kase who reached the NHL but had very little impact and are now playing back in their home countries. Also, Samuel Dove-McFalls is perhaps the worst hockey name ever, so it wasn’t a shock that he never made it.

Grade: B

The Flyers obtained two good players, but no stars, in the first round. The rest of their 2015 draft was a black hole.

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