Recently, the Philadelphia Flyers have been making a dash toward the basement. The team hasn’t won a single game in regulation or overtime since Feb. 25, and selling at the trade deadline didn’t help. Their 28-33-8 record is the fifth-worst in the league, giving them favorable odds to land a top prospect in the 2025 NHL Draft.
With the team desperately needing talent down the middle, the Flyers are in luck. June’s class has a lot of notable centers who could be available to them. Assuming they maintain their trajectory, included in this piece are five center prospects who could be members of the Orange and Black in a few months.
In this one, we’ll be scouting out the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), Sweden’s HockeyAllsvenskan, the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), the Western Hockey League (WHL), and the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL). I won’t include Michael Misa here, who will likely be outside the Flyers’ range without help in the lottery.
James Hagens, Boston College (NCAA)
It didn’t seem realistic at the start of the season, but here we are. With the emergence of several other prospects in the 2025 class and James Hagens‘ somewhat underwhelming recent stretch (six points in his last 10 games), the Orange and Black could find a way to snag him.
Related: THW’s 2025 NHL Draft Guide
Once considered the No. 1 prospect among his peers, it’s possible that Hagens won’t be a top-three pick. While he plays alongside first-round sophomores Gabe Perreault and Ryan Leonard, Hagens’ 35 points (10 goals, 25 assists) in 35 NCAA games are still quite good for a draft-year freshman.
Though modest in frame (5-foot-10, 176 pounds), Hagens is a high-talent center prospect who’d be a fine fit for the Flyers. His skating ability would be some of the best in the Flyers’ organization, and he’s more or less a match skill-wise with Matvei Michkov (who projects as a future superstar more so for his unbelievable deception, not “skill”). Hagens has top-tier vision and is a serious threat on the rush, too.
Though Michkov also has world-class playmaking skills, putting him alongside someone with Hagens’ on-puck dynamism could be the perfect match. It could transcend the Flyers’ rebuild.
Anton Frondell, Djurgårdens IF (HockeyAllsvenskan)
Next, we have Anton Frondell, who recently signed a one-year extension to remain overseas. He entered the 2024-25 season as a rival to…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at The Hockey Writers…