Flyers double down on defense, also add a goalie early on Day 2 of the NHL draft
With two second-round picks, the Flyers nabbed defenseman Brek Liske from the Everett Silvertips with the 53rd pick and 6-foot-5 Czech netminder Martin Psohlavec at No. 62.
ATLANTIC CITY — After making a “big” splash on Day 1 with the selection of 6-foot-7 London Knights defenseman Maksim Sokolovski with the 27th pick, the Flyers were back at it early Saturday with five scheduled picks.
The Flyers picked twice in the second round at picks No. 53 and 62, and also have one pick each in the fourth (120), fifth (136), and seventh rounds (213).
» READ MORE: Flyers draft grades: Philly goes back to the size well with London Knights blueliner Maksim Sokolovskii
General manager Danny Brière suggested Friday that the team could double down on defense early on Day 2 and grab a more offensive-minded blueliner to go along with Sokolovskii. The Flyers were also looking to get faster after their playoff series loss to Carolina, not to mention that there’s always room for more lottery tickets down the middle. Lastly, the team was expected to snap up a goaltender at some point during this draft since they hadn’t drafted one since 2023.
Here’s a running list of the Flyers’ Day 2 selections:
Second round
No. 53: Brett Liske, D, Everett (Western Hockey League)
A teammate of Luke Vlooswyk for the Silvertips, the defenseman was paired in the playoffs with projected 2027 No. 1 pick Landon DuPont for the Memorial Cup finalists. Before Tarin Smith got hurt, Liske was paired with Vlooswyk, the Flyers’ fifth-rounder last June.
A 6-2, 190-pound right-shot defenseman from Manitoba who can play the left side, he had 24 points (seven goals, 17 points) in 52 games but broke out in the playoffs with four goals and 17 points in 18 games as Everett won the WHL.
According to Elite Prospects, he does have to — wait for it — work on his skating. But he is a versatile, well-rounded blueliner who projects to be a third-pair guy down the road.
No. 62: Martin Psohlavec, G, Karlovy Vary, Jr. (Czechia)
Stop if you’ve heard this before: A 6-5 goalie from Czechia donning orange and black. No, this isn’t Dan Vladař; meet Martin Psohlavec.
The size and athleticism are surely what enticed the Flyers to make the pick, along with his performance at the U18s. Philly has a long-standing trend of taking players who performed well at the spring tournament, and Psohlavec is no different, posting a 3-1-0 record with a 1.68 goals-against average and .926 save percentage.
That came after he went 31-11-0 with a 1.92 GAA and .928 save percentage at the Czech junior level in the regular season and won five of eight games in the playoffs with a 1.78 GAA and .925 save percentage. But this is a U20 team, and the expectation is he will be a bit of a project — yes, he needs to work on his skating and is a little raw, according to Elite Prospects — and that makes sense for the Flyers with Aleksei Kolosov, Carson Bjarnason, and Egor Zavragin rising in the pipeline.
