Yeah, the Philadelphia Flyers may still be alive and well in the Stanley Cup playoffs, but the NHL draft is still important for them taking a rebuilder and making it a well-oiled machine in the long run.
When we talk about the Flyers, the center position is the one that comes up most often, due to the team’s lack of overall talent at the position.
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With Jett Luchanko, Jack Berglund, Heikki Ruohonen, Jack Nesbitt, and Cole Knuble in the fold, depth isn’t an issue. But it’s unclear if any of those names will develop into a top-six pivot that can match or exceed the impact and offensive production of Trevor Zegras.
One position in the Flyers organization that lacks both depth and talent, though, is left defense.
The Flyers do currently boast a capable NHL top-four with Travis Sanheim and Cam York leading the way, but they don’t have a premium offensive defenseman like many of the Stanley Cup contenders do.
York, Jamie Drysdale, and Emil Andrae were all drafted to be those types of players, but have settled in at the NHL level as analytics darlings who are positives in transition.
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And behind York and Andrae on the left, the Flyers don’t have much youth coming their way.
Hunter McDonald is a pending restricted free agent, and Ty Murchison may be capable of becoming a bottom-pair guy to replace the aging Nick Seeler. These prospects are solid for their playstyles, but not inspiring or exciting.
Fortunately, we are here to solve that with our first Flyers mock draft, getting ahead of the offseason early, as we are used to this time of year.
At the time of this writing, Tankathon has the Flyers drafting defenseman Xavier Villeneuve with the 21st overall pick; I concur with this selection.
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With the 21st overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft, the Philadelphia Flyers select…
Xavier Villeneuve, left-shot defenseman, 5-foot-11, 157 pounds, Blainville-Boisbriand Armada (QMJHL)
The Flyers have missed out on undersized dynamo defenders before. Everyone passed on Lane Hutson in 2022, and the Flyers went with Luchanko ahead of Zeev Buium in 2024.
Now that they won’t be in a position to select any of the top centers (or forwards in general), they should feel comfortable again going with the best talent available.
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Villeneuve, 18, has been regarded as a top-10 talent, but his size, of course, is a major detractor. It also doesn’t help that the Canadian blueliner was limited to just 37 QMJHL games this season, missing nearly three months due to injury.
At the end of the day, though, Villeneuve has 18 goals and 100 points in his last 98 regular season games, and he added 14 points in 17 playoff games for the Armada upon his return.
The Flyers should already be familiar with this player, given that 2024 second-round pick Spencer Gill played with Villeneuve this season, although he dealt with a significant injury of his own.
Gill, 19, is a 6-foot-4 right-shot who added 10 points in 17 playoff contests, and I think these two could be an interesting pairing down the road.
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Villeneuve is a bit on the older side for this class, too, as he turns 19 in September, so it won’t be long before he’s in the pro ranks with Gill.
And if the Flyers can land him in the 20s this summer? They are going to be a scary team to play against in the coming years in many different ways.
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