NHL draft 2022: Flyers picks and predictions; how to watch and stream

The 2022 NHL draft will be held Thursday and Friday at the Bell Centre in Montréal. The first round begins at 7 p.m. Thursday while Rounds 2-7 will be Friday beginning at 11 a.m. Montréal, which holds the No. 1 overall pick, will be hosting the event for a record 27th time and the first time since 2009.

Thursday’s first round will be televised live on ESPN, while Rounds 2-7 will be televised live on NHL Network. All rounds can be streamed via ESPN+.

Early. The Flyers currently hold the No. 5 overall pick, and will pick behind Montréal, New Jersey, Arizona, and Seattle. After No. 5, the Flyers have a pick in every round except for the second, as the team traded away that pick to Arizona last year to get out of Shayne Gostisbehere’s contract. As it currently stands, the full list of Flyers picks is:

» READ MORE: NHL draft: Meet five players the Flyers could take at No. 5

First round: No. 5

Second round: None

Third round: No. 69

Fourth round: No. 101

Fifth round: No. 133

Sixth round: No. 165

Seventh round: No. 197

Montréal is expected to choose between Canadian center Shane Wright of the Ontario Hockey League’s Kingston Frontenacs and Slovakian winger Juraj Slafkovský, who played last season in Finland with TPS. Wright had been cemented in the No. 1 spot until recently following a late push by Slafkovský following the Olympics and world championship. Wright still could go No. 1, but it is far from a sure thing at this point. Pittsburgh-born Logan Cooley is likely to go after Wright and Slafkovský, but after that, it is anyone’s guess.

Assuming Wright, Slafkovský, and Cooley are off the board by the fifth pick, the Flyers are likely to pick from among Šimon Nemec, David Jiříček, or Cutter Gauthier. Nemec, of Slovakia, and Jiříček, of the Czech Republic, are defensemen, while Gauthier, a U.S. National Team Development Program player, is a 6-foot-3 center but could be moved to wing at the next level. If the Flyers were to go off the board a little bit, Finnish sniper Joakim Kemell, Austria center Marco Kasper, and 5-foot-9 dynamo Matthew Savoie are three other names to keep an eye on.

Yes. Chuck Fletcher said last week that the team is exploring all options at No. 5, including moving it for the right player. He did specify that the player would need to be in the age range to help the Flyers win now and in the future. There have been recent reports that the Flyers have talked to Chicago about 41-goal scorer Alex DeBrincat, while Vancouver Canucks center J.T. Miller, Arizona Coyotes defenseman Jakob Chychrun, and Edmonton Oilers winger Jesse Puljujarvi are three other high-profile players reportedly being shopped ahead of the draft. That said, no team has traded a top-five pick in the lead-up to the draft since 2008, when the Toronto Maple Leafs acquired Luke Schenn, a future Flyer, from the New York Islanders.

Fletcher also said the team would consider trying to get back into the end of the first round or the second round, given that the team does not have a pick between No. 5 and No. 69.

Almost certainly not. After the top three picks, there aren’t many NHL-ready players in the 2022 draft class. Most of the European players the Flyers are linked with probably will stay and play another season with their professional teams abroad, while many of the Americans like Gauthier (Boston College), are committed to play at least a year of college hockey.

» READ MORE: Five years after selecting Nolan Patrick at No. 2, the Flyers must get it right in the 2022 draft

If the Flyers hold on to the No. 5 pick, it will be just the eighth time the franchise has picked in the top five. The Flyers have drafted some good players near the top of the draft but no great ones. Serge Bernier (No. 5 in 1967), Mel Bridgman (No. 1 in 1975), Ron Sutter (No. 4 in 1982), Mike Ricci (No. 4 in 1990), Joni Pitkanen (No. 4 in 2002), and James van Riemsdyk (No. 2 in 2007) have been productive NHL players but not superstars.

The jury remains out on the last Flyers top-five pick, Nolan Patrick, who is still just 23 but is already on his second team, the Vegas Golden Knights. Patrick has played just 222 out of a possible 371 games since he entered the league in 2017 because of injuries and a migraine disorder.

In recent years, the draft has been an area in which the organization has struggled. The Flyers will hope to strike gold this time around at No. 5.