A 2023 draft primer for Flyers fans

At long last, we’ve made it! The 2023 Entry Draft is tonight, and after what feels like a thousand years of talking leading up to it, we’re finally going to see the Flyers make some picks and welcome some new prospects into the organization.

And before we kick things off tonight, here’s a rundown of all you’ll need to know before the festivities begin.

The when and the where

The draft itself is being held at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, but most of us won’t be watching from there. With any luck, some of you will be watching the draft tonight with us at Sports & Social at Live! Casino.

If you can’t make it to the party, though, and you’ll be watching from home, you can keep up with first round coverage starting at 7:00 PM on ESPN and ESPN+, and then pick up with the second through seventh rounds on Thursday starting at 11:00 AM on ESPN+.

The what

Barring any very late trades changing things up here, the Flyers are heading into this draft with 10 picks through all of these seven rounds. The specific picks, broken down by round, are as follows:

Round 1 – seventh overall

Round 1 – 22nd overall (from CBJ)

Round 3 – 87th overall (from NYR)

Round 3 – 95th overall (from FLA)

Round 4 – 103rd overall

Round 4 – 120th overall (from EDM)

Round 5 – 135th overall

Round 6 – 167th overall

Round 6 – 172nd overall (from OTT)

Round 7 – 199th overall

It’s worth noting that the Flyers, though they do have a wealth of picks, once again don’t have a second round pick this year, and it will be interesting to see if they make any moves to pick one up, or if they stick where they’re at. Time will tell!

The who

Now, this is the part that’s the big question mark. More so than in any draft in very recent memory, it feels like there are any number of weird and wacky and fun things that could happen in the first six picks and then have an impact on what the Flyers do when the seventh overall pick rolls around. After that first, maybe second, pick, nothing is certain, and that’s equal parts fun and terrifying. What great suspense!

And this is all to say that your guess for how this first round plays out is as good as ours, and we would not feel confident putting any of our (sentient blog) money on any outcomes here. The pool of players that might become Flyers this evening is broad, so here’s a list of each one we profiled for this year’s Community Draft Board, for your reference:

Previously on the 2023 Community Draft Board…

1. Connor Bedard
2. Adam Fantilli
3. Matvei Michkov
4. Leo Carlsson
5. Will Smith
6. Zach Benson
7. Oliver Moore
8. Dalibor Dvorsky
9. Ryan Leonard
10. Eduard Sale
11. Axel Sandin-Pellikka
12. David Reinbacher
13. Nate Danielson
14. Gabe Perreault
15. Brayden Yager
16. Matthew Wood
17. Samuel Honzek
18. Colby Barlow
19. Andrew Cristall
20. Daniil But
21. Calum Ritchie
22. Mikhail Gulyayev
23. Gavin Brindley
24. Dmitri Simashev
25. Gracyn Sawchyn
26. Quentin Musty
27. Ethan Gauthier
28. Oliver Bonk
29. Bradly Nadeau
30. Lukas Dragicevic
31. Riley Heidt
32. Tanner Molendyk

And that’s all we’ve got! We’ve done the research, the preparation, we’ve steeled ourselves against any weirdness that might unfold here, and all that’s left to do is watch it unfold. And we’ll be back to recap it once it’s all said and done.