Philadelphia Flyers 2026 NHL Draft Recap

The Flyers wrapped up the 2026 NHL Draft over the weekend in Buffalo with six selections across seven rounds after Danny Briere opened the festivities by trading the 21st overall pick to San Jose for picks 27, 62, and 120, turning one first-rounder into three selections and still landing the massive defenseman he wanted at the top of the draft.

The haul included three defensemen, two goaltenders, and one forward, which tells you exactly what Briere thinks this organization needs in the pipeline heading into a season where the expectations have shifted from “make the playoffs” to “compete for a Conference Finals berth” after beating Pittsburgh in the first round and getting swept by Carolina in the second.

The Flyers also moved Garnet Hathaway and a sixth-round pick to Florida in exchange for a fifth-rounder in 2026 and a fourth-rounder in 2027, which is a minor deal that clears a roster spot and adds future draft capital for a veteran forward whose role on the team was diminishing as the younger players in the system continue to push for NHL jobs.

Round 1, Pick 27: Maksim Sokolovskii, D, London Knights (OHL)

The headliner of the draft class is the 6’7″, 238-pound left-shot defenseman from the London Knights who was the centerpiece of the trade-back from 21 and represents exactly the kind of physical presence that Briere has been adding to the pipeline since watching Carolina push the Flyers around in the second round. Sokolovskii had eight points in 44 OHL games with a plus-10 rating and 49 penalty minutes, which tells you the kid plays mean and isn’t afraid to make opponents uncomfortable in front of the net even if the offensive production isn’t going to jump off the page anytime soon.

Flyers trade back, select Maksim Sokolovskii at No. 27 in the first round of the 2026 NHL Draft >>

He’s a project who is being drafted for his frame, his physicality, and his ability to develop into a shutdown defenseman over the next two to three years, and the Flyers getting him at 27 instead of 21 while picking up two extra selections in the process was the smartest move of Briere’s draft weekend.

Round 2, Pick 53: Brek Liske, D, Everett Silvertips (WHL)

The second defenseman of the draft is an 18-year-old right at 6’1″ and 190 pounds who just won a WHL Championship with Everett and exploded in the playoffs with 17 points in 18 postseason games after putting up career highs of seven goals, 17 assists, and 24 points during the regular season.

Liske’s playoff production is the detail that stands out because a defenseman who raises his game when the stakes are highest is exactly the kind of player you want in your system when the organization is building toward deep postseason runs.

A 6’1″ blueliner with WHL Championship experience and the ability to produce offensively from the back end gives the Flyers a different profile than the massive shutdown types they’ve been stockpiling and adds some balance to a defensive pipeline that has been heavily weighted toward size over skill in recent drafts.

Round 2, Pick 62: Martin Psohlavec, G, HC Energie Karlovy Vary (Czechia U20)

The first of two goaltenders taken in this draft is a 6’5″ Czech netminder who put up a .928 save percentage with a 1.92 GAA and eight shutouts in 42 games at the U20 level before going 5-3 with a .925 save percentage in eight playoff games.

Those are dominant numbers at the junior level from a goalie with the kind of size that NHL teams covet in the modern game, and the Flyers adding him to a goaltending pipeline that already includes Vladar and Woll at the NHL level along with Kolosov in the system gives the organization depth at the position that most franchises would envy.

Psohlavec isn’t going to be in Philadelphia anytime soon because goaltenders take longer to develop than any other position in hockey, but the .928 save percentage and eight shutouts in Czechia’s U20 league suggest the Flyers might have found a long-term prospect at a position where having too many good options is never a bad problem to have.

Round 4, Pick 120: Marek Sklenicka, G, Seattle Thunderbirds (WHL)

The second goaltender is another Czech prospect at 6’3″ and 170 pounds who spent his first WHL season with the Seattle Thunderbirds going 20-12-6 with a .902 save percentage and three shutouts across 42 games before representing Czechia at the IIHF World Under-18 Championship where he went 2-1 and won a bronze medal.

Two Czech goaltenders in the same draft class is an interesting strategy from the Flyers’ scouting department that suggests the organization has strong connections to the Czech goaltending development system and sees value in stacking the pipeline with netminders from a country that has historically produced quality NHL goalies.

Round 5, Pick 136: KJ Sauer, F, Andover High School (Minnesota)

The lone forward in the draft class is a 6’3″, 202-pound 18-year-old who put up 25 points in 15 games at Andover High School in Minnesota with an additional five points in five USHL games with the Lincoln Stars. Sauer is committed to play in the WHL next season with the Edmonton Oil Kings, which means the Flyers are betting on his development trajectory in a major junior league rather than his current production at the high school level.

A big forward with size and scoring ability from a Minnesota hockey background is the kind of late-round swing that costs nothing if it doesn’t work out and could produce a legitimate depth forward if the tools translate to higher levels of competition.

Round 7, Pick 213: Max Laatikainen, D, Kiekko-Espoo (Finland)

The final pick of the draft is a 17-year-old Finnish defenseman at 5’11” and 173 pounds who already has six games of experience in Liiga, Finland’s top professional league, on top of 22 games at the U20 level where he scored 11 points.

He also represented Finland at the IIHF World Under-18 Championship with two points in five games. A seventh-round pick who has already played in a top European professional league at 17 years old is the kind of late-round gamble that has significant upside because the experience against professional competition gives him a development advantage over most players drafted in the final rounds who are still playing junior hockey against kids their own age.

Flyers Draft Class…

Three defensemen, two goaltenders, and a forward across six picks with an emphasis on size, physicality, and goaltending depth is exactly what you’d expect from a GM who watched his team get physically overwhelmed in the second round of the playoffs and decided that the pipeline needs to produce bigger, tougher players who can handle the grind of postseason hockey against teams like Carolina.

The defensive pipeline now includes Sokolovskii at 6’7″, Jiricek at 6’4″, Gill at 6’4″, Amico at 6’5″, Bonk at 6’2″, Liske at 6’1″, and Laatikainen at 5’11”, which gives the Flyers a range of profiles from massive shutdown types to mobile puck-movers that should produce multiple NHL-ready defensemen over the next three to five years.

The goaltending depth with Vladar, Woll, Kolosov, Psohlavec, and Sklenicka gives the organization more netminding prospects than most teams have at every level of the system.

Briere turned one first-round pick into three selections, added a future fourth-rounder by moving Hathaway, and came away from the weekend with a draft class that addresses the organization’s biggest long-term needs without sacrificing anything the Flyers need for the present.

The offseason has been methodical from the Woll-Benoit trade through the draft, with every move pointing toward the same goal of building a roster around Michkov and the young core that can compete for a Stanley Cup within the next three to five years.

The Flyers beat Pittsburgh, got swept by Carolina, and spent the offseason making sure the sweep never happens again by getting bigger, deeper, and better at every position in the organization. The draft class is the latest chapter in that process and every pick Briere made over the weekend reinforces the blueprint of a team that is done being pushed around.

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