Philadelphia Flyers 2026 Mock Draft 4.0

It is time for the fourth mock draft for the Philadelphia Flyers, and this time, they are moving up.

General manager Daniel Briere has said he is open to trading up in the first round, and the Ottawa Senators just handed him the opening. Ottawa acquired Pick 9 from Florida as part of the Brady Tkachuk deal, giving them three first-round selections and a clear path to trade down. The Flyers send pick 21 and Owen Tippett to Ottawa for the ninth overall selection.

Tippett is 27 years old, has scored 28 goals in back-to-back seasons, and is locked in at $6.2 million through 2032. Ottawa gets a proven top-six winger and a mid-first to continue rebuilding their forward group. The Flyers get a top-10 pick.

Moving Tippett is not a sign that his stock has dropped. The Flyers’ prospect pipeline runs deep at wing and is thin down the middle. Franchise centers are harder to find than scoring wingers, and Briere knows it. Packaging Tippett with Pick 21 is how you close that gap without gutting the blue line or stripping the roster.

Rasmus Ristolainen is not part of this deal. The veteran defenseman enters the final year of his contract, and that situation remains open for separate negotiations before the season or at the deadline. Moving him down the road still frees ice time for Oliver Bonk and David Jiricek to develop in the NHL rather than the AHL.

TRADE: Round 1, Pick 9: Caleb Malhotra, C, Brantford Bulldogs (OHL)

Most mocks have Malhotra gone by Pick 5, and getting him at nine requires things to break right. The most likely obstacle is the New York Rangers. They pick fifth, have no centers in their pipeline projected to play NHL games, and Malhotra is the top center in this class. That is a clean match, and if New York makes the obvious pick, this trade never happens. The case for him sliding is that the Rangers’ defense situation is just as dire. Carson Carels, the smooth-skating two-way defenseman out of Prince George, addresses a structural problem that forward depth cannot fix. With Gabe Perreault stepping into a full-time role on the wing, the argument for taking the best defenseman available at five is real. If New York goes that route, Malhotra stays on the board.

He will not last much longer. The 18-year-old finished second in OHL scoring among draft-eligible forwards with 29 goals and 84 points in 67 games for Brantford, then took his game to another level in the playoffs. Malhotra posted 13 goals and 26 points in 15 postseason games, the fourth-most playoff goals by a rookie in OHL history, playing 19-plus minutes a night in all situations on a roster stacked with NHL prospects and veterans acquired for a championship run.

At 6’2″ and 182 pounds, he wins battles at the wall, takes the puck to the interior, and his defensive zone reads are advanced well beyond his age. The comparable that keeps surfacing is Anze Kopitar, two-way reliability built on elite hockey sense rather than elite athleticism.

His skating is the legitimate knock. Malhotra does not have first-step explosiveness and will not beat NHL defensemen in open ice. He compensates with positioning and anticipation, and it is worth noting that the skating concern is probably the reason he reaches nine at all.

A player with his hockey sense and average NHL explosiveness does not slide out of the top five. Malhotra will head to Boston University in the fall, giving the Flyers two or three years of development time. If the Rangers take Carels, Briere lands a potential franchise center at a discount.

Round 2, Pick 53: Giorgos Pantelas, RD, Brandon Wheat Kings (WHL)

Pantelas ranked 46th among North American skaters in NHL Central Scouting’s final ratings, which puts him squarely in range at 53. He is not the flashy pick. At 6’2″ and 214 pounds, he plays a suffocating defensive game built on positioning, gap control, and one of the better sticks in this draft class. He posted 37 points in 68 games for Brandon this season after managing just 10 the year before, showing real offensive development without abandoning what makes him effective.

Pantelas is the kind of defenseman coaches end up trusting for 18 minutes a night because he kills plays before they become problems. The right side of the Flyers blue line already has Jamie Drysdale, Jiricek, and Bonk competing for ice time at the NHL level. Pantelas is not competing with any of them yet. He is a pipeline piece on a timeline that fits exactly where this organization is headed.

Round 6, Pick 181: Dayne Beuker, LW/C, USNTDP

Beuker ranked 76th among North American skaters in NHL Central Scouting’s final ratings, which makes taking him in the sixth round a swing on projection over production. He spent two seasons with the U.S. National Team Development Program, earned consistent mention from scouts at the U-18 World Championship as one of the better two-way forwards on the ice, and finished the season with 43 points with the NTDP and 18 more in 25 USHL games. He is 5’10” and lacks a true game-breaking skill, which is why he is here at 181 and not 81.

What makes Beuker worth the pick is his hockey sense and defensive reliability at an age when most prospects his size are still figuring out where to stand. He kills penalties, backchecks hard, and processes the game fast enough to compensate for average skating and limited physicality. His ability to play both wing and center gives the Flyers roster flexibility down the line. A forward who can fill multiple roles without losing effectiveness is exactly the kind of depth piece that goes undrafted and then surfaces on a rival’s third line four years later. He heads to Lethbridge next season before eventually landing at Denver. The bet is that the hockey sense translates. Plenty of 5’10” forwards with processing speed have stuck in this league.

Round 7, Pick 213: Ola Palme, D, Växjö Lakers (SWE)

Palme does not generate buzz because his offensive game does not pop off the page, which is also why he is available at 213. The 6’2″ Swede ranked 38th among European skaters in NHL Central Scouting’s final ratings, posted 14 points in 20 games in the U20 Nationell, and averaged over 15 minutes a night for Sweden at the U18 World Championship while helping them win gold. He is mobile, reads the defensive zone well, and plays a reliable two-way game that projects as depth on the right side of a second pair.

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