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Flyers need to be offensive in draft

The Flyers won't pick until 18th in the first round of the NHL draft on Friday, but based on their history and the fact that this is a deep draft, expect them to come home with a player who will be a major contributor down the road.

The Flyers won't pick until 18th in the first round of the NHL draft on Friday, but based on their history and the fact that this is a deep draft, expect them to come home with a player who will be a major contributor down the road.

You don't need Scotty Bowman bloodlines to realize the Flyers must get bigger and faster if they want to compete with Pittsburgh, Washington, and the league's other elite teams.

"We're going to have some emphasis on skill and size," general manager Ron Hextall said. "Hopefully, combined, but that's a tough thing to grab."

Their first pick will likely be a forward - Julien Gauthier, Max Jones, Kieffer Bellows, Luke Kunin, Riley Tufte, and German Rubtsov are among the gifted candidates who could be available at 18 - and the Flyers hope that pick will one day be as productive as some of the others they have chosen with relatively late first-round selections.

Claude Giroux was once selected 22nd overall. Ditto Simon Gagne. Mike Richards went 24th and Justin Williams was chosen 28th.

Mikael Renberg didn't go until the second round at No. 40. And Patrick Sharp, who, like Williams, is a player the Flyers traded much too soon, lasted until the third round, at No. 95.

Fast-forward to this weekend in Buffalo. Hextall says this is a deep draft, especially for forwards.

When you consider that the Flyers are loaded with gifted defensive prospects, years from now this draft could be looked upon as the one that made the franchise a legitimate Stanley Cup contender, the one that gave them speedy, high-scoring forwards who can complement their starting-to-age veterans.

That's the hope, anyway.

Center Auston Matthews and right winger Patrik Laine are expected to go first and second, respectively. And wingers Jesse Puljujarvi and Matthew Tkachuk should also be selected quickly, perhaps at Nos. 3 and 4.

After that, most of those forwards likely to taken in the first-round have similar upsides.

"The top end is obviously very good," said Chris Pryor, the Flyers' scouting director, "and usually when the top end is as good as it is, it has a trickle-down effect. If I had to give it a grade, I'd say A-minus. B-plus [for the group of forwards]. It's exciting."

Especially for a team like the Flyers, who lack scorers and don't have many high-end forwards in their system.

Pryor said that after you get past the draft's top three or four picks, there are "interchangeable pieces, depending on your need."

It's premature, Pryor said, to put those draft picks' potential in the same category as some of the quality players the Flyers have uncovered late in the first round and beyond. "Obviously, we'd all like to think maybe three or four years from now we're saying that," he said, "but right now we'd just like to hope we get a player that adds to the group of young players we have going forward."

Hitting a home run in the draft, which the Flyers did last year, is the best way to beat the salary cap. The Flyers own 10 picks in this weekend's seven rounds, including five in the first three rounds. Trades that sent Kimmo Timonen to Chicago and Vinny Lecavalier to Los Angeles have given the Flyers extra picks in the second and third rounds, respectively.

It's a good year to have additional picks, Hextall said.

"There's still hidden gems," he said.

The Flyers found one in the 2012 draft, selecting Shayne Gostisbehere in the third round with the 78th overall pick. Hextall, who has been meeting with scouts the last three days, also believes left winger Oskar Lindblom, chosen in the fifth round of the 2014 draft (138th overall), "looks like he has a pretty good chance of playing" in the NHL.

"There are guys out there," Hextall said. "Our (scouts) have to try to be better than everybody else."

The scouts have done their jobs by putting together a promising group of defensive prospects that includes Ivan Provorov, Travis Sanheim, Sam Morin, undrafted Phil Myers, and Robert Hagg.

Now they need to bolster the offense. Only then will this franchise have a chance to end its long Stanley Cup drought.

scarchidi@phillynews.com

@BroadStBull