Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Flyers add Ratcliffe, Russian goalie
The Flyers continued with their wheeling and dealing mentality on the second day of the 2017 NHL Draft. The Arizona Coyotes, who spent the weekend collecting young assets, traded the 35th overall pick to the Flyers for the 44th, 75th and 108th overall picks.
That enabled the Flyers to select 6-foot-6, 200-pound forward Isaac Ratcliffe, who can bull into the middle or on either wing. Or at least he can do that sometime down the road.
“When you really like a guy you go after him and that’s what happened,” Flyers general manager Ron Hextall said Saturday of the Ratcliffe pick. “He fit part of our organizational needs at left wing. He has size, he plays hard; he can score goals. He’s really raw.
“He has work to do but we like his attitude, upside and the way he plays the game.”
While considered a “raw” prospect, Ratcliffe, coming off a breakout season with the OHL’s Guelph Storm, was ranked as high as No. 15 out of North American skaters by Central Scouting.
He was ranked ahead of the much more diminutive Morgan Frost, whom the Flyers took at No. 27 in the first round Friday night after acquiring that pick as part of the stunning Brayden Schenn trade.
“I had a little bit of contact with the Flyers,” Ratcliffe said. “It’s just an unbelievable feeling right now. I’m shaking a little bit now. I’ve been around a few guys in the organization; Travis Konecny, who I’ve known for a little while and other guys who have gone through the same process. Being in this organization, in this city, it’s going to be awesome for my future.”
Ratcliffe can be a beast in the crease and has the ability to deke around defenders as well. He has a pro wrist shot and gets to loose pucks quickly. He’s played two seasons for the Guelph Storm in the OHL, scoring 28 goals and adding 26 assists last season.
The London, Ont. native has to work on getting faster. It’s something most prospects have to continue to improve on every season to be able to play in the NHL someday.
“That’s the big part of my game that I have to work on, and I have to get stronger to try and make my way to the next level,” Ratcliffe said. “Going into next year that’s going to be a big part of it. Showing them what I can do and proving to them they made the right pick.”
Matthew Strome, the younger brother of Ryan (now with the Edmonton Oilers) and Dylan Strome (Arizona Coyotes), got overlooked and the Flyers took advantage of that, selecting him with the 106th overall pick. It was the first of two consecutive picks the Flyers had in the fourth round.
Strome’s footspeed is the knock, but he has an accurate one-time shot and he can score in traffic. His solid passing and good stick and puck control make him a forward with a lot of promise. He knows he has skills he has to develop but at 6-3½, 207 he is an effective junior left winger. Time will tell how that translates to a bigger stage.
“I just couldn’t be more happy to be drafted by this organization,” Strome said. “I think my skating is the biggest thing; I think my hockey sense and hockey I.Q. are good. I can keep up. I just have to work on my skating and I’ll be fine. I can play anywhere, whether it’s the fourth line being a checking guy or being a top line guy and being a scorer. Wherever the coach puts me I’ll be able to succeed.”
His new boss talked about his need to increase his speed.
“His skating has to improve,” Hextall said. “I think we all know it. (But) he’s a good hockey player. He’s got good size, he’s heavy, he makes plays, he can score goals. He knows how to play the game.
“When you’ve got a kid like that, obviously there are things he has to work on ... but we like where we got him.”
Flyers coach Dave Hakstol said he has seen Strome “on video” only, but is familiar with the kid’s family.
“He’s coming from a great hockey family but most importantly he’s put himself in a good position,” Hakstol said.
Two other notables among the Flyers’ selections were Russian goaltender Kirill Ustimenko, who went at No. 80 overall in the third round (via Boston, from the Zac Rinaldo deal), and Maxim Sushko, a winger from Belarus taken by Hextall with the 107th overall selection in the fourth round. He had a strong second half of the season with the Owen Sound Attack of the OHL.
As for Ustimenko, Hextall said his European scouting staff had tracked him all season, but he really started to get noticed late, sometime in February.
The Flyers saw him as an early-rounds pick.
“We were surprised he fell there,” Hextall said of getting the goalie at the 80th spot. “So once he fell ... but we did not chase him. We actually talked about him much earlier. Our guys really liked him. He’s one of the guys that came on late in the year.
“But we were surprised he fell that far.”
Sushko is 6-0, 181 and scored 17 goals and registered 32 points last season with the Attack. He said through a translator that he likes “a physical style of play,” and models himself after Tampa Bay scorer Nikita Kucherov.
In the fifth round, the Flyers took yet another left wing, this one a Minnesota high school scorer named Noah Cates, who moved on from being a 65-point scorer during his winter school season to a short stay in the USHL with Omaha. He should play there another year there before heading for college (Minn.-Duluth).
In the sixth round, the Flyers took a small Swede center in 5-10, 163-pound Olle Lycksell.
Hextall then traded one of his two picks in the seventh and last round to Montreal — which would not so coincidentally use it on a goalie from little Voorhees Twp., N.J. named Cayden Primeau.
He was on hand with his nervous pop Keith and uncle Wayne Primeau, stealing a lot of TV face time.
A few picks earlier, with their other seventh-round pick, the Flyers took defenseman Wyatt Kalynuk from Lincoln of the USHL, at No. 196 overall. Staff writer Rob Parent contributed to this article.