The Flyers have been busy bees over the last few drafts, as future-focused trades netted the team a slew of draft picks, and the team added 26 players to its prospect pool over three years via the draft.

The result has been a much-improved and much deeper group of prospects headlined by Matvei Michkov, the team’s top pick in 2023, and Porter Martone, who was selected sixth overall in June.

Others have taken notice, with The Athletic’s Corey Pronman ranking the Flyers No. 7 in its annual NHL pipeline rankings. On Tuesday, Pronman released his player rankings, listing his top 173 NHL players and prospects and tiering them into six groups.

» READ MORE: Flyers come in at to No. 7 in The Athletic’s NHL pipeline rankings

Eight Flyers made the cut, with Michkov (No. 6) and Martone (No. 16) finishing in the top 20. Michkov, who led all NHL rookies with 26 goals last season and tied with San Jose’s Macklin Celebrini for second among first-year players with 63 points, was one of eight players listed in Pronman’s second grouping, which he labeled the “NHL All-Star” tier. Celebrini and Chicago’s Connor Bedard were the only players in Pronman’s “Elite NHL Player” tier.

“He’s probably the one guy that I’ve played with in my career that wants to be the best player in the NHL,” Flyers winger Travis Konecny said of Michkov after his rookie season. “He believes that he can be, and you can’t teach that. That’s just something that he wants and he believes in, and that’s a powerful thing.”

Martone, who will play at Michigan State this season after lighting up the Ontario Hockey League last season with Brampton, slotted into Pronman’s third tier: “Bubble NHL All-Star and top of the lineup player.” The power forward is one of just three 2025 draft picks in that tier, alongside Michael Misa and Caleb Desnoyers, with top pick Matthew Schaefer the only player in the second tier.

“I think the pace of his game is going to have to pick up, but you see the hands, the vision, the ability to make plays [that] very few guys, even on our big team, can make,” Flyers assistant GM Brent Flahr said of Martone’s ability.

The next Flyer on the list is 2025 first-rounder Jack Nesbitt (No. 61), whom the team took at pick No. 12 after trading up in a deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins. The towering 6-foot-5 center will return to the OHL with Windsor this season after averaging a point per game for the Spitfires last year as an 18-year-old. He lands in Tier 5, which Pronman projects as “bubble top and middle of the lineup players.”

Defenseman Oliver Bonk comes in just two picks later at No. 63. Bonk, whose ceiling as a prospect has been subject to much debate, is expected to compete for an NHL job this fall but will likely start in the minors with Lehigh Valley. Twenty-year-old Russian goaltender Egor Zavragin (No. 74) also landed in this tier with Nesbitt and Bonk after a standout season in the Kontinental Hockey League with SKA St. Petersburg.

Rounding out the list are centers Jett Luchanko (No. 152) and Jack Berglund (No. 153), the team’s top picks in the 2024 draft, and right winger Shane Vansaghi (No. 167), a second-round pick in this June’s draft.

Luchanko, who just turned 19, got a taste of the NHL with four games last season after being selected 13th overall and will again compete for a job with the Flyers in training camp. Another polarizing prospect when it comes to upside, Luchanko’s ranking is surprisingly low when you consider the total picture of his age, skating ability, and the fact that he made the Flyers in his draft year. The Flyers remain much higher on the young centerman’s prospects.

“He’s very smart. His hockey IQ, his playmaking ability, I think, is through the roof,” Riley Armstrong, the Flyers’ director of player development, told The Inquirer last month regarding Luchanko.

“You see him skating, he like floats on the ice — two or three strides and he’s at max speed. I think the one thing that’s going to separate him is once he finds that scoring touch and getting a few different habits of where to shoot the puck or how to beat an NHL goalie, I think that’s going to take his game to the next level.”

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Berglund, who impressed at this summer’s World Junior Summer Showcase in Minnesota, will play again with Färjestad BK of the Swedish Hockey League, while the bruising Vansaghi, a sophomore, will team up with Martone at Michigan State.

So how did the Flyers’ crop of prospects on Pronman’s list match up leaguewide?

Only six teams had more than the Flyers’ eight prospects on the list, with Chicago and San Jose tying with a joint-best 11 players. Breaking it down further, the Flyers are one of only four teams — Anaheim, Montreal, and San Jose are the others — to have a top-10 prospect and two prospects ranked in the top 20.

At No. 6 overall, Michkov ranked behind only Celebrini, Bedard, Anaheim center Leo Carlsson, center Adam Fantilli of the Columbus Blue Jackets, and New Jersey Devils defenseman Luke Hughes. Juraj Slafkovský (Montreal), Zeev Buium (Minnesota), Matthew Schaefer (New York Islanders), and Ivan Demidov (Montreal) rounded out Pronman’s top 10. Former Flyer Cutter Gauthier landed at No. 56 on this list.

Breakaways

Flyers hockey operations adviser Ian Laperrière will leave his post with the organization to take a pro scouting job with the New York Islanders, a source confirmed to The Inquirer. Laperrière, 51, served as head coach of Lehigh Valley the past four seasons, compiling a 134-120-38 overall record and guiding the American Hockey League club to the postseason three times. The former Flyer was not retained as head coach and shifted by the organization into an adviser role in May. He previous told The Inquirer he was open to coaching again if the opportunity arose.

Staff writer Jackie Spiegel contributed to this article.