Flyers NHL draft updates: Philly picks giant Russian defenseman after trading down; latest moves and rumors; a new alternate logo?

Wyatt Cullen, the son of three-time Stanley Cup champion Matt Cullen, is headed to Nashville Predators with the No. 10 pick.

At the NHL combine earlier this month, Cullen told The Inquirer his father had him in skates when he was just "two years old."

"Growing up, I've just always loved the game," Cullen said.

The Flyers have said they want to become a destination for top players and believe that Rick Tocchet can help in that aim.

Well, another one seems destined to soon hit the market, as the Columbus Blue Jackets are fielding trade calls on Norris Trophy winner Zach Werenski, according to Pierre LeBrun.

The report comes after recent rumblings suggested that Werenski, who turns 29 next month, was growing unhappy in Columbus and was not keen to extend with the Blue Jackets when his contract expires in two seasons.

While fans have been rapidly refreshing X with the NHL hot stove on fire and the clock ticking closer to the NHL draft on Friday night, the Flyers might have teased something.

At around 2 p.m., the team posted a picture of the team's draft headquarters in Atlantic City with the following caption:"Ready for action in AC."

On the floor in the middle of the room was a black Liberty Bell outline in highlighter orange trim. Could this be a new alternate logo for the team's City Connect jerseys? Hmm ...

Sam Ersson is on the move again.

Ten days after being traded alongside defenseman Emil Andrae to the Toronto Maple Leafs for goaltender Joseph Woll and depth blueliner Simon Benoit, the former Flyers goaltender's rights were traded across Ontario to Ottawa on Friday.

The Leafs recouped a fifth-round pick for Ersson's rights, while Ottawa will now likely qualify the restricted free agent goaltender. His minimum qualifying offer is $1.6 million.

Who the Flyers will actually select in the first round is now just hours away from being revealed.

Philly picks at No. 21, so there is a lot of intrigue to see who they can get that deep in the draft. And that’s the crux and the reasoning behind why, in the fourth and final draft for The Inquirer, we have the Flyers picking a fourth different player.

First round: Maksim Sokolovskii, LHD, London (OHL)

It's no secret that Danny Brière and the Flyers are poking around the trade market for a top-six center. One name that has come up quite a bit over the past two seasons is Anaheim's Mason McTavish. The 23-year-old center, who was the No. 3 pick in the 2021 draft, has fallen out of favor in Anaheim is reportedly available this summer.

The latest update from Pierre LeBrun is that Anaheim has offers on the table from the New York Rangers and St. Louis Blues for the player but that there is still time for another team to get involved.

The appeal with McTavish is obvious: He's a young player with draft pedigree who two seasons ago tallied 22 goals and 52 points on a bad Ducks team. He's the exact type of reclamation project the Flyers have been attracted to in recent years — Jamie Drysdale, Trevor Zegras, David Jiříček. He's also a rugged player who gets to the hard areas and can help a power play as a net-front presence and as a goal scorer. The Flyers and Ducks have also done two recent deals with one another which adds further smoke here.

One of the top restricted free agent defenseman is off the board as Jordan Spence is closing in on a four-year, $20 million contract extension with the Ottawa Senators, according to multiple reports.

Spence, 25, had 31 points last season and had been mentioned in some recent trade chatter. The undersized blueliner's extension likely doesn't take Ottawa out of the Rasmus Ristolainen sweepstakes, as Spence is a very different defenseman to the Flyers' bruiser.

Ottawa, who are lucky to get bigger on the blue line are one of the teams that have been linked to Ristolainen in recent weeks. Ristolainen, 31, is entering the final year of his current contract and is likely not part of the Flyers' long-term future. With prices high, the Flyers could opt to cash in on the rugged defenseman now, especially given Ristolainen's extensive injury history.

The Flyers have the 21st overall pick in the NHL draft — they also have three more picks on Day 2 — but there doesn't seem to be any kind of consensus on who Danny Brière and Co. will select Friday night. Here's a roundup of who some experts think the Flyers will take ...

The Inquirer: Jack Hextall, C, Youngstown (USHL) — In our first mock draft, published before the NHL scouting combine, this spot belonged to defenseman Tommy Bleyl. In our second, published post combine, it was center Alexander Command. — Jackie Spiegel

[Note: In Jackie's final mock draft, which published after this post went live, she has the Flyers taking defenseman Maksim Sokolovskii]

The 2026 NHL draft officially starts at 7 p.m., but the Flyers won’t be on the clock for a lottery pick.

The first round of the draft will air live on ESPN, hosted by John Buccigross alongside analyst Kevin Weekes, NHL insider Emily Kaplan, and Draft and hockey analytics expert Meghan Chayka. ESPN will also

The second round begins at 11 a.m. on Saturday on the NHL Network, and the draft will end with the seventh round that same evening.

Flyers beat writer Jackie Spiegel's No. 1 choice for the No. 21 pick tonight, if he's available, is 18-year-old Alexander Command, a center for Örebro HK of the Swedish Hockey League.

"Like Shane Vansaghi last year, he oozes Flyer, and he feels a connection to the team and the fan base," Spiegel said in a Reddit AMA Thursday.

Unfortunately, Spiegel expects Command to be "long gone" when the Flyers pick. In her most recent mock draft, published last week, Spiegel had the Flyers taking center Jack Hextall, a distant cousin of former Flyers goalie and general manager Ron Hextall.

The Flyers are making a few changes on the fourth line.

The team announced Thursday that Garnet Hathaway has been traded to the Florida Panthers along with a 2026 sixth-round pick for a fifth-round pick in this year’s draft and a 2027 fourth-rounder. The Flyers now own four picks in this weekend’s NHL draft: 21, 53 (second round), 136 (fifth round), and 213 (seventh round).

Signed as a free agent in 2023, the 34-year-old winger played three seasons in Philadelphia and put up three points in 66 games last season, down from his 21 points in 2024-25 and 17 in 2023-24. Alongside Sean Couturier and Luke Glendening, he was part of a formidable fourth line in the playoffs, scoring one goal and recording one assist in eight games while asserting himself physically.

Maybe?

In a news conference earlier this month, Flyers general manager Danny Brière did say he was OK with having only four picks now in the upcoming draft — one each in the first, second, sixth, and seventh rounds — and he did call the first- and second-round picks “the key.” But he also said everything is on the table.

“We’ve drafted so much the last few years [so] it might not be quite a bad thing to not have as many this year,” he said. “But, if I had the choice, yeah, I would rather have more picks.”