The Flyers' 'aggressive retool' will include the No. 5 overall pick in the NHL Draft come July.
The results were locked in with Tuesday night's draft lottery. The Flyers slipped one spot back, while the New Jersey Devils jumped ahead from No. 5 up to No. 2.
The Montreal Canadiens received the No. 1 overall pick and have the direct path to the consensus top prospect Shane Wright.
Here's the official order 1-16:
- Montreal Canadiens
- New Jersey Devils
- Arizona Coyotes
- Seattle Kraken
- Philadelphia Flyers
- Columbus Blue Jackets (via Chicago)
- Ottawa Senators
- Detroit Red Wings
- Buffalo Sabres
- Anaheim Ducks
- San Jose Sharks
- Columbus Blue Jackets
- New York Islanders
- Winnipeg Jets
- Vancouver Canucks
- Buffalo Sabres (via Vegas)
The 2022 draft class is generally considered one of the weaker ones in recent memory — there's no gamechanger in the way of a Connor McDavid or an Auston Matthews here — but there's still plenty of talent to find and develop.
With the fifth overall pick, the Flyers could have any of the following Top 10 prospects available to them save for Wright:
| Rank | Player, Pos. | Age | Team (League) | 2021-22 Stats |
| 1 | Shane Wright, C | 18 | Kingston (OHL) | 32g, 62a, 94p (63 gp) |
| 2 | Logan Cooley, C | 18 | U18 Nat. Team (USDP) | 27g, 48a, 75p (51 gp) |
| 3 | Simon Nemec, D | 18 | HK Nitra (Slovakia) | 1g, 25a, 26p (39 gp) |
| 4 | Juraj Slafkovsky, LW | 18 | TPS (Liiga) | 5g, 5a, 10p (31 gp) |
| 5 | Matthew Savoie, C | 18 | Winnipeg (WHL) | 35g, 55a, 90p (65 gp) |
| 6 | Danila Yurov, RW | 18 | Metallurg (KHL) | 0g, 0a, 0p (21 gp) |
| 7 | Kevin Korchinski, D | 17 | Seattle (WHL) | 4g, 61a, 65p (67 gp) |
| 8 | Brad Lambert, C/RW | 18 | Pelicans (Liiga) | 2g, 2a, 4p (25 gp) |
| 9 | Joakim Kemell, RW | 18 | JYP (Liiga) | 15g, 8a, 23p (39 gp) |
| 10 | Frank Nazar, C/RW | 18 | U18 Nat. Team (USDP) | 28g, 42a, 70p (56 gp) |
List via FCHockey/EliteProspects
Through injuries and months' worth of lethargic, uninspired play, the Flyers completely bottomed out this season, going 25-46-11 for 61 points. They had the fourth-worst record in the league behind the expansion Seattle Kraken (27-49-6, 60 points), Arizona Coyotes (25-50-7, 57 points), and the basement-dwelling Canadiens (22-49-11, 55 points).
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With two winless streaks of 10-plus games, including a franchise-record 13 straight, the 2021-22 campaign was the team's worst season since 2006-07 when they finished dead last at 22-48-12 (56 points). They had the highest odds to win the No. 1 selection in the lottery that spring but instead slipped back to second overall while the Chicago Blackhawks ran away with the top pick and eventually Patrick Kane.
The Flyers went on to select James van Riemsdyk that summer.
In 2017, after missing the playoffs for the third time in five seasons, the lottery jumped the Flyers 11 spots ahead to the No. 2 overall pick. They used it to take highly-touted center Nolan Patrick, and while he showed flashes of promise, health issues constantly kept him off the ice.
He was dealt to Vegas (through Nashville) last summer and appeared in just 25 games this season.
Here's a look at the Flyers' first-round picks from the past decade — through former GMs Paul Holmgren, Ron Hextall, and current GM Chuck Fletcher — along with their current status (note that 2021's first-rounder was sent to Buffalo in the trade for Rasmus Ristolainen):
| Year | Overall Pick | Player, Pos. | Status |
| 2012 | 20 | Scott Laughton, C | Flyer |
| 2013 | 11 | Samuel Morin, D | Retired |
| 2014 | 17 | Travis Sanheim, D | Flyer |
| 2015 | 7 | Ivan Provorov, D | Flyer |
| 2015 | 24 | Travis Konecny, RW | Flyer |
| 2016 | 22 | German Rubstov, RW | Traded to Florida |
| 2017 | 2 | Nolan Patrick, C | Traded to Vegas (via NSH) |
| 2017 | 27 | Morgan Frost, C | Flyer |
| 2018 | 14 | Joel Farabee, LW | Flyer |
| 2018 | 19 | Jay O'Brien, | Boston University (NCAA) |
| 2019 | 14 | Cam York, D | Flyer |
| 2020 | 23 | Tyson Foerster, RW | Lehigh Valley (AHL) |
The draft will be held July 7-8 in Montreal, then free agency opens on July 13. Along with the search for their next coach, the Flyers will have a ton of work cut out for them over the summer if they hope to climb back into relevance.
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