Philadelphia Flyers 2026 Mock Draft 2.0

The Philadelphia Flyers enter the 2026 NHL Draft selecting 21st overall, and for the first time in years, the Flyers aren’t drafting in the lottery after the incredible finish to their 2025-26 season. General manager Daniel Briere traded Samuel Ersson, Emil Andrae and a third-round pick to Toronto for Joseph Woll and Simon Benoit earlier this week. That deal left the Flyers with four picks: first, second, sixth, and seventh rounds.

Briere mentioned the team is still in a rebuilding phase. The organization continues to prioritize young talent to develop as the Flyers push toward becoming competitive again. With that in mind, here is a full four-pick mock draft for the Flyers. No trades will be made in this mock.

Round 1, Pick 21: Jack Hextall (C, Youngstown Phantoms, USHL)

When Flyers fans hear the last name Hextall, many will immediately think I’m thinking of ghosts of goalies past. Jack Hextall may be a part of that same hockey family, but he plays an entirely different game at center. He put up 58 points in 59 games with Youngstown this season. That led every U-18 player in the entire USHL. His 38 assists ranked tenth across the whole league. He won gold with Team USA at the 2025 Hlinka Gretzky Cup and proved he handles high-pressure moments before heading to Michigan State in the fall.

What stands out about Hextall is not one elite skill. It is how often Youngstown leaned on him. He played on both special teams units, handled late-game situations, and consistently drew difficult matchups. Coaches love players they trust, and Hextall earned that trust all season. Michigan State gives him every opportunity to round out the offensive side of his game over the next few years.

Hextall brings the 200-foot game the Flyers need down the middle. He competes on defense, wins board battles, and crashes the net without hesitation. There is a real chance he is gone before the Flyers pick again at 53. Briere said it publicly at the combine: “You can never have enough centers.” Hextall fits that mold and then some.

Round 2, Pick 53: William Hakansson (LD, Lulea HF, SHL)

The Flyers have a left defense problem. Rasmus Ristolainen and Travis Sanheim are both in their 30s. Emil Andrae is gone. Ty Murchison and Hunter McDonald project as bottom-pair options at best. The left side is thin. That is an understatement.

Hakansson is 6’4″, 207 pounds, and shoots left. He is 18 years old and has already played 22 games in the SHL last season. He also logged time in Sweden’s second professional league, adding four points in 16 games. At the World Juniors, he averaged over 14 minutes a night and won gold with Sweden. His teammate on that squad was Flyers prospect Jack Berglund.

Watching Hakansson, the first thing that jumps out is how little panic there is in his game. He rarely chases plays and relies on his reach and positioning to kill possessions before they become dangerous. The offensive numbers are modest, but there is a reason he was already seeing minutes against grown men in Sweden.

The offensive upside may never be enough for him to become a top-pair defenseman, and some teams likely view him as a shutdown option. The Flyers may not care. Their prospect pool has enough offensive-minded defensemen. What it lacks is size, reach, and defensive reliability on the left side. Hakansson fills that hole.

Round 6, Pick 181: Braidy Wassilyn (LW, London Knights, OHL)

Wassilyn was the fourth overall pick in the 2024 OHL Draft. That kind of pedigree does not just disappear. He posted 19 goals and 27 assists across 67 games split between Niagara and London this season. The raw numbers are fine, but not what scouts projected coming out of minor hockey, where he dominated with 31 goals at the U-16 level.

The trade to London was interesting because it showed another organization still believed there was more offense in his game than the numbers suggested. The Knights are not in the habit of making moves simply to fill roster spots. He fit immediately into their top power-play unit and showed exactly why scouts loved him in the first place. He beats defenders to spots in the slot with quick feet, has a release that catches goaltenders off guard, and plays with a tenacity that does not match his 5-foot-11 frame. His game has an edge to it. He gets involved around the crease, fights through traffic, and plays a heavier style than many forwards his size.

The knock is that his on-puck play needs to be cleaner, and his production needs to match his talent level. Boston University will sort that out. If the offensive production eventually catches up to the tools scouts saw a few years ago, this could end up looking like one of the better value picks in the later rounds.

Round 7, Pick 213: Ethan Sturgis (F, Green Bay Gamblers, USHL)

Sturgis is a true project pick. The 6-foot-2, 181-pound right wing from Minnetonka, Minnesota, spent the bulk of this season captaining his high school team, posting 17 goals and 32 points in 30 games and leading Minnetonka to the Minnesota State championship game. He logged only six USHL games with Green Bay. That lack of exposure is exactly why opinions on him vary so much from team to team heading into the draft.

In the seventh round, you are not drafting a sure thing. You are betting on a player with the frame and the work ethic to grow into something useful. Sturgis fits that. Dartmouth is not handing out scholarships to players without something worth developing. If he develops the way the Flyers hope, this pick looks smart in four years. If he does not, it costs them a seventh-round selection.

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