In terms of system depth, the Flyers are significantly stronger at wing than they are at center. However, Flyers general manager has pledged that the team will take whichever available player is at the top of their internal rankings of Draft-eligible prospects when their first selection comes up in the first round. Whether the player is a center, winger or defenseman will not be the deciding factor.
In our look at some of the most notable centers available in this year's Draft, we noted that several are "swingman" candidates who could end up primarily playing on a wing in the NHL even if they are currently listed as centers.
For this edition, we'll look at five natural wingers. While it's not unheard of for a junior winger to be converted to a center at the pro level -- longtime Flyers captain Claude Giroux being the most notable Philly example -- this is less common than a junior league center or swingman become exclusive wingers in the NHL. For example, longtime Flyers star left winger Simon Gagne was a center in the QMJHL. Current Flyers winger Travis Konecny played both center and right wing in the OHL.
In the projected defenseman-heavy top half to top 18 of the 2024 Draft, here are five wingers who could hear their name called in Vegas on Friday:
Ivan Demidov (RW, SKA St. Petersburg, KHL)
Demidov is often compared by fans and scouts to current NHL star Kirill Kaprisov or to another player who came up through the SKA development chain: Flyers 2023 first-round pick Matvei Michov. Demidov has a very high offensive ceiling, although Michkov made a quicker impact offensively in the KHL.
Demidov spent most of the 2023-24 season at Russia's junior level (MHL, 30 games). He also saw four games in the KHL top pro and dressed in one game at the minor league pro (VHL) level. Conversely, Michkov spent a combined 30 games in the KHL between SKA and HC Sochi in his Draft-eligible 2022-23 season.
If Demidov comes close to maximizing his potential, he is capable of becoming a high-end scorer in the NHL. Other areas of his game need work as he gains experience but the 6-foot, 192 pound winger is considered to be a potential top-three (possibly even top two) to top-five pick based upon his talent level. He's especially deadly in transition.
Beckett Sennecke (RW, Oshawa Generals, OHL)
Sennecke rose with a bullet in pundit Draft projections during the second half of the 2023-24. There's still some rawness to his game but Sennecke has a projectable NHL 6-foot-2 frame that should fill out in the next few years. He is willing to go to the hard areas of the ice. competes for the puck in all three zones and has shown the potential both to finish and set up plays.
Sennecke has become a popular pick to land in the top half of the first round in this year's Draft, even among some who see his upside primarily as a future top-six complementary linemate to a high-end center.
Cole Eiserman (LW, USNTDP)
Eiserman entered the 2023-24 season widely considered to be a potential top-two Draft candidate for this year's Draft. Although he went on to set a new USNTDP scoring record, Eiserman fell out of the projected top-10 (in some cases, out of the projected top-half) of the 2024 Draft according to the pundits.
Eiserman is a divisive player in much the same fashion as longtime NHLers Phil Kessel, although they are not clones as players. Eiserman, like Kessel, has A+ hands and the ability to score in bunches. He can also finish from range. Eiserman has more of a physical dimension than Kessel.
However, Eiserman has just as many critics as admirers, ranging from his overall contributions if not scoring, to coachability, to motor. For these reasons, he went from a pre-season "slam dunk" for a top-five pick to a wildcard who could be taken off the board early or could slide into the middle-round territory.
Liam Greentree (LW, Windsor Spitfires, OHL)
As long as Greentree can work around some skating deficiencies -- in much the same fashion as Flyers winger Tyson Foerster -- he has all the tools to become in impact forward in the NHL someday. He's already physically mature (6-foot-3, 210 pounds), showed the ability both to make plays (54 assists) and the potential to finish (34 goals) as well.
Defensively responsible, unafraid of battling for pucks or playing through contact, and already showing leadership potential, Greentree has many of the elements of a classic power forward but he also possesses more finesse to his game to easily categorize with that label. Big-and-skilled is an attractive combination of attributes for most organizations, but the skating issues are something the player will need to address over the next few seasons.
Andrew Basha (LW. Medicine Hat Tigers, WHL)
Pundit Draft projections for Basha tend to range anywhere from the top-18 to the early second round. However, it would not be a surprise if he comes off the board closer to the front end of that range.
Playmaking wingers tend to be valued a little lower than goal-scoring types, but Basha also possesses well above-average speed. He has a projectable middle-six upside in the professional game.
Although Basha is a pass-first type of attacker, he can also score opportunistic goals. He finished the 2023-24 season with 30 goals (55 assists and 85 points in 63 games) during the regular season. He scored three goals and added two assists in five playoff games as his team was knocked out by the Red Deer Rebels in the first round of the 2024 playoffs. His No. 1 asset, however, is his creativity with the puck and his deft passing touch.
Basha possesses average size (listed at 6-0 and 185 pounds by some sources, 5-foot-11, 175 pounds by others). He is a late-year birthday player (born Nov. 8, 2005), which is something that works against him in public rankings.
Other names to watch: Michael Brandsegg-Nygård (Mora IK, Allsvenskan), Teddy Stiga (USNTDP), Ryder Ritchie (RW, Prince Albert Raiders), Igor Chernyshov (Dynamo Moscow, KHL).
