On today’s show, Russ & Rachel look at the Philadelphia Flyers 2025 Draft Class with a day of reflection on the picks as well as the new NHL CBA extension changes to player contracts and more. Then we look ahead to tomorrow’s NHL Free Agency Day and what the Flyers might do vs what they need to accomplish. Finally, we name our Nemesis of the Week and ask this week’s listener poll on top Flyers prospects Jett Luchanko & Porter Martone cracking the lineup this season.
Offseason Poll Question of the Week:
Do you think either Jett Luchanko or Porter Martone crack the Flyers lineup for 8 or more games this season?
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30 Comments
Question for you guys you said "Nesbitt will be a good player not a great player and I am ok with that" Is he really worth the #12 pick plus the trade to get him? Like you said I like Nesbitt but no way at #12 plus a first round draft pick to acquire him. I think you could have used that 1st round pick to get a better player rather than a developmental #3 center. Still no #1 center, #1 Dman, #1 goalie
The season is already too long – 84 games, ugh. It will be like those seasons in the early 90s when they went to 84 games.
the big question is why trade up for nesbitt?
Both will ,make the flyers , Tocchet will be pushing for that to play his style of play
Mixed reviews on their selections. I like the height & toughness qualities. Martone may get one of those 9-game trials with the big club. The rest will be 2-3 years away. Wish they had found a late round goalie. I expect them to make a trade or 2 — involving York, Brink, or Tippett.
What if Phantoms do not sign anyone in free agency; goalie and defencemen? We're better upfront to improve development, but still leak at the back. How good is the 2026 draft for Centres? If we don't sign a goalie we get by with what we have and maybe tank. If we don't buy a defencemen we finally give more space for prospects. There seems quite a bit of value in this approach as part of the rebuild….
Im already feeling like this will be another throw away season. Wake me up in the offseason type.
Russ, last year you didn’t have Luchanko in your top 32 prospect rankings yet the Flyers picked him at 13. This year Nesbitt was not in your top 32 and yet the Flyers traded up to select him at 12. In your opinion what are the key differences between how you rank a player and how the Flyers rank a player?
Flyers need to refurbish their scouting department
Flyers should bring back Carter hart after his case is over July 21st.
First time viewer. Very enjoyable. Thanks.
Everyone said the flyers had a great draft. Any publication, sports site, etc… But I just knew what to expect when I started this video.😂😂 It negadelphia fails. 😂.
We still need a legit top center and a top pair dman with PP skill. I really thought we were gonna pick Jackson Smith. I'd prefer a skilled dman over a checking center.
They're 18 year old players. Stars came out of the 7th round. There's no telling what players want to be and what theyre willing to do to get there without an interview. Let's cool off on predicting what their careers are.
Until the TEAM says what it is aiming for, we are ants running around the feet of a giant.
We don't want to be in the way, but we don't want to get too far away. If we do, we can't see the subtle stuff.
Obsession never grants satisfaction.
Im agree for Martone pick, but not the trade I keep 22 and 31 and draft defensemen Sacha Boumedienne 22 and Alexander Zahrovsky 31 , they' re chosing the position position but they ' re losing talented players , second round is ok maybe at 57 I go with Kurbin Limatov
Luchanko is only 2 months older than Porter Martone
Hey Russ, how about sitting in your seat on a jet, having a young kid, [sitting behind] kicking your seat in your lower back. And the parent thinks it's kinda cute. Had to tell the woman You're not at home. Have respect. Had to get a Flight Attendant involved. The husband was a Real Ass Wipe during this scenario. Poor excuse for Parenting.
Zegras is young he could become a number 1 or 2c for a long time
What's wrong with a dress code? What's wrong with dressing like a gentleman for a few hours, as opposed to as a gangster or beach bum? Another sign of the times. Sadly, eventually the NHL will be no better than the NBA or NFL.
York is overrated. Unfortunately, he's their 2nd best D-man. The Flyers' blue-line is almost as bad as their goaltending. But we keep getting "depth" defensemen, bottom 6 forwards, and AHL level goalies.
8:03 Good!!!! I wish there was a five year cap on contracts. So much can happen in eight years. Also… Some of those long term contracts for the Flyers…back in like 2000s… Seems like we are still suffering from some of those just horrible deals. Idk….Maybe I need to hear more arguments on the other side of it and consider them but…five seems plenty.
I think the Flyers had concerns about Hagens a) sticking at center and b) being more of a 2C. If they had Martone above him, then it’s the right pick. I’m concerned about them getting a 1C as well, but Misa and Desnoyers and even Frondell were already gone.
Tale of two drafts for me. Picks 1-39 was terrible, then they pulled their heads out of their butts from picks 40 onward. Martone is a really good prospect, but for roster construction and what the Flyers needed, Hagens was the proper pick. Nesbitt was such an awful reach and terrible process — if any team other than the Flyers had made that trade and pick we would have laughed. Amico is another bad reach; Fiddler is the better prospect 1000 times out of 1000. Fiddler was great value there, and Amico was poor value. As for Zegras, he can't win 40% of his faceoffs — that's disqualifying for top 6 center play. ANH caught on and moved him to LW. The Flyers very likely will end up doing the same. Zero expectations for FA. They'll likely overpay for refurbished players.
New viewer here and it appears I am going to be a regular. It is good to see a podcast without some twerp shouting, blabbering and using the word 'literally' every other word. You two are level headed and very informative and don't have phony Breaking News claims every 5 minutes. Good job! The Flyers problem is they don't understand you need a top 5 goalie. They gave away Bobvrosky who won the last 3 Stanly Cups and Anthony Stolarz who was number #1 this past season in Save Percentage .926.
The Flyers had a good overall draft which was tainted by using in essence 2 first round picks for a guy projected to go late first to second round. That was dumb.
To Rachel and Russ – do you think Martone would have gone higher if he were a center? Is his being a wing the reason he fell to us at 6?
They dont need a veteran depth D. They need a 2nd pairing guy to play with Drysdale. I love Seeler but he is a 3rd pairing guy on a playoff team. I would like to see them sign Ryan Lindgren who is a super solid guy defensively to pair with Drysdale. A defense with Sanheim, York, Drysdale, Risto, Seeler is not playoff worthy.
The current edition of this franchise is a hot mess. I know that Briere-Jones-and Hilferty inherited a virtual nightmare left by Fletcher, with the Clarke & Holmgren combination overseeing everything about this team, but DB & Co. have a mediocre collection of players, many of whom should be career AHLers, and a handful of aging bottom 6 players, without a worthy NHL goalie, and one potential star who just played his rookie season under a coach who should have remained retired. The new coach has a questionable record, and has mainly been coaching subpar teams like the Phoenix Coyotes, which is who the Flyers have turned into.
There are zero star quality players who'd be interested in joining this train wreck of a team, but they will sign another bottom six player and hype to the fanbase that this is the newest edition of the new era of orange.
We're not buying it.
I used to be a season ticket holder and I still get requests to rejoin, but I won't waste my money on a team that just appears to be clueless from top to bottom.
Size definitly a theme this draft