June 23, 2017
The Philadelphia Flyers weren't finish after selecting Nolan Patrick with the second-overall pick in Friday night's NHL Draft.
In a surprising move, general manager Ron Hextall decided to trade back into the first round and did so in a big way – the Flyers sent forward Brayden Schenn to the St. Louis Blues in exchange for the 27th-overall pick, Jori Lehtera and a conditional 2018 first-round pick.
Hextall then used that 27th pick to draft another center:
With the #27 pick, the #Flyers have selected Morgan Frost! Welcome to Philadelphia! #NHLDraft pic.twitter.com/DERKqIi5dN
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) June 24, 2017
Just last summer, the Flyers and Schenn agreed to a new four-year, $20.5 million contract. Last season, Schenn recorded 55 points (25 goals, 30 assists) in 79 games for the Flyers and was third on the team in scoring behind only Jake Voracek and Claude Giroux.
This trade comes exactly six years to the day since the Flyers acquired Schenn (along with Wayne Simmonds) from the L.A. Kings in the Mike Richards trade. During his six seasons in orange and black, Schenn appeared in 424 games and recorded 246 points (109 goals, 30 assists), including 27 game-winning goals.
In exchange, the Flyers got Jori Lehtera, who has spent three seasons with the Blues, but has seen his point total decrease each season. The 29-year-old center posted 22 points (7 goals, 15 assists) last during an injury-hampered 2016-17 season and has 100 points total in his three-year NHL career.
More importantly, the Flyers also got a pair of first-round picks, the first of which they used to draft Frost – the other will have to wait until next year.
Here's more about the Sault Ste. Marie center and Ontario native:
POSITION: Center | SHOOTS: Left
HEIGHT: 5' 11" | WEIGHT: 173
BORN: May 14, 1999 | HOMETOWN: Aurora, Ont.
• Ranked #61 by Hockeyprospect.com
• Ranked #72 by ISS Hockey
• Ranked #55 by Future Considerations
• Ranked #41 by McKeen's Hockey
• Ranked #31 by NHL Central Scouting (NA Skaters)
• Ranked #38 by TSN/McKenzie
NHL Central Scouting
Smart and skilled center with very good offensive hockey sense – excellent vision and anticipation to quickly take advantage of opportunities _ creative with the puck to set up plays and generate scoring chances – very good puck skills to execute passes in traffic and while being checked – heads up game to evade checking pressure and shows consistent two-way effort. [nhl.com]
Mark Scheig, The Hockey Writers
The thing that stands out about Frost on tape and in person is how smart he is. He’s got a knack of seeing a play one to two steps ahead of everyone else. He can put the puck in places for his teammates to make plays. Even if a play doesn’t work, Frost is relentless and can force second and third chances by creating turnovers.
The thing that pleasantly surprised me about Frost this season was improvement in his skating. His acceleration is vastly improved. This has helped take his game to another level, especially on the power play. Eight of his 20 goals this season came on the man advantage. He can use his speed to create chances and isn’t afraid to make his own plays if the opportunity presents itself. [thehockeywriters.com]
More to come...
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