
[Alexander Appleyard] Buium/Helenius – Eklund/Smith. Seraient les Flyers #2+3 les meilleurs espoirs… et leur donneraient exactement les choses dans leur pool qu’ils recherchent depuis des années… Puis ajoutez la situation de Gauthier… Gauthier, Michkov, Helenius, Smith, Martone dans la piscine ? L’avenir des Flyers s’annonce un peu différent
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seeldoger47
31 Comments
The ole “What if we only did good things and never did bad things” is my least favorite game to play.
Hindsight is 20/20.
You could do this with every team in the NHL.
Except for the Stars in 2017:
3rd – Heiskanen.
26th – Oettinger.
39th – Robertson.
So in the past 10 years only one team got one draft right with their first 3 picks.
So that’s 1 out of 320.
https://xcancel.com/avappleyard/status/2017980030945501653
that’s a lot of meat to leave on the bones when you’re rebuilding.
Cmon why even do this? Like we all know the missteps that were made, do you wanna go all the way back to Nolan Patrick too? This is the laziest type of criticism
Sure, sure. And Makar would’ve helped too. Anyone can do the draft do-over game. It’s a useless exercise.
This is so fckin stupid.
Gauthier: If you don’t wanna be here then….goodbye. Simple as that. Yes I’d love a 40+ goal guy but thats just the reality of the situation.
Helenuis: He’s played 7 games with the sabres. Whos to say he is better than Luchanko at this time?
Smith: If he’s talking about Will Smith, we did not have a chance to draft him as he went 4OA. If he’s talking about Jackson Smith, way to early to tell what he’ll be.
Our writters actually might be some of the most braindead media people out there.
The Zeev stuff needs to stop no one knows what this guy is. Looks promising but he’s a tough watch in his own zone. Helenius struggled in two world jr tournaments in a row as much as luchanko did . None of the guys he listed are sure bets besides maybe the gauthier thing.
Smith maybe but Eklund no.
As for Helanius lets wait a little before making that judgement. Kids doing well but its such a small sample size. Lets see what the kid becomes first before crowning him a miss for the Flyers. Many players have started hot and fizzled out of the NHL. Buffalo literally went from a complete dumpster fire to everything they touch turns to gold in one day
You don’t get to keep the same players that you going a draft after missing other players previously. Your record would be different and so would the draft order.
I mean you could play this game all day. Gauthier was never going to play here. There’s no hypothetical to analyze there. Briere clearly wanted a center over a D. Buium looks like a better player right now and I don’t disagree with people who wanted to take him over Luchenko but your center depth is even more thin without him. Helenius would’ve been a fine pick as well but he’s played less than 10 NHL games. He’s still very far from a sure thing. And you just know fans would moan about the Flyers drafting another two way center. Jackson Smith has played 0 NHL games. Why are we acting like he’s a better player right now? Again, you take a D there who do you have at center on your depth chart? And to cry over spilled milk with Fletcher is overdone now. He’s been gone almost 3 years you just have to move on.
https://preview.redd.it/2sduoalvdxgg1.jpeg?width=1242&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=863e150410743b8ce3671e33b69c43a42e3e7f24
Here we go again…
This is the lamest shit lol
I think he’s partly implying that these are some of the prospects he would have taken with the 1st round picks the flyers had in those drafts. I know he was a fan of both Buium and helenius even before the 2024 draft occurred. Not saying he’s right but it seems he is still of the opinion that these would have been the better picks
The Kings could’ve drafted Giroux instead of Trevor Lewis. Drafting is unpredictable
Love a hindsight 20/20 post lol
It’s easy to win the lottery if you get to pick your numbers after the draw.
People saying Gauthier was never going to play for the Flyers are simply choosing to believe the Flyers perspective. Gauthier would have played here, but on his terms, and the Flyers should have bent the knee & acquiesced. People here can cope and point to Drysdale being a top 4 defenseman, but he will never have near the impact of 40 goal scorer.
I really despise retro-GMing such a total waste of energy. Completely pointless and clickbait like this only stirs up the simpletons/tankards.
So many top free agents come and go, and the Flyers don’t go after any of them.
Yes why don’t we hit on 100% of our picks like every other franchise?
Cole caufield and Zeev were both « Omg jalen carter is available – run to the podium » type situations. When the entire draft panel is pointing at them.
Others weren’t consensus with espn banging the table.
Cutter situation sucks but that should be fleshed out before drafting.
Kinda tired of re-litigating the Cutter situation.
I made a post about wanting Helenius. None of y’all wanted him and were certain his ceiling was a 3C lmao
Add Caulfield instead of York, which was another obvious one
3rd in NHL in goals vs. subpar middle pair defenseman, hmm
Yeah, Chuckles and Hextall could have drafted Caulfield and CALE FUCKING MAKKAR but instead we were stuck with Nolan Patrick at least York hasn’t been a disaster so far but still also Bob was traded for nothing by Homer.

*Culture
The Buium narrative is ridiculous. Guy has been god awful for both teams this year. Luchanko would also be able to tread water on that terrible Vancouver team. They’re 19 year olds… this org has way more pressing issues starting with the awful head coach
What if we never traded away Bob?
What if they didn’t blow up the core of the 2010 cup team? Richards and Carter?
What if we never traded away half our team including Forsberg for Lindros?
We could what if all day none of it matters…
Pain
I’m so tired of reaching for « size guy » Center prospects.
And yet you can damn well bet this draft AGAIN well do such, forever hoping to find that 1C.
Most scouts, etc. thought Nesbitt and Jett were massive reach picks. And we did it anyway.
You can’t keep taking massive chances, especially when you already fucked up part of your rebuild chasing Gauthier away.
Take BPA. Hey, maybe you wind up with 4 good RW prospects and you can flip them when you’re ready to complete for a 1C?
Why do people in this sub insist on playing the what if game? Remember Justin Williams Mr game 7? Yeah what if! Serious we can do this about so many guys in the league, at some point it’s just masturbatory.