Flyers Nab Potential Cornerstone with Martone, Take Big Swing on

Having a Top-10 selection in the NHL Draft presents the opportunity for teams to establish the future of a franchise. It’s certainly the way the Flyers fell about one such recent Top-10 pick, Matvei Michkov, taken seventh overall in 2023.

The Flyers always said they would take the best player available with the sixth overall pick. Porter Martone was that player.

“The priority with pick No. 1 was to get the best player available,” Flyers GM Danny Briere said. “He’s the only winger in the first 12 picks. We said it all along. Yeah, we would have preferred a center, but we felt we couldn’t pass up on the chance to bring a difference-maker like Porter Martone to the team.”

Simply put, this is a potential top-line player. Yes, it is another winger to bring into a crowded active roster and pipeline. But Martone has the offensive playmaking ability and hockey smarts to easily be right at the top of that list in due time.

Martone turned heads in his draft year, so much so that when his junior season ended with Brampton, he was off to Team Canada in World Championships. He played in two games, and at least showed he could be around much older NHL talent and fit in. And that’s before a team works on his tools and raw talent.

“I think his body, the way he’s built, he’s a little bigger, thicker guy. He’s a little older than most players out there. He’s a really good player already. He’s pretty close to being ready,” Briere said. “I don’t know that it’s going to be the right thing to play him in the upcoming season, but we’ll see. He’s pretty close to being the most ready out of that group. To be able to select him at six, for us was, I wouldn’t say a steal, but we had him high on our board.”

Martone has a high-quality shot, a power forward’s build and a high-end skill that is hard to find. You can see how the Flyers are building toward a more skilled and talented forward group. Michkov sees the ice with such vision and creativity. So does newly-acquired forward Trevor Zegras. Now add in Martone, and you have the makings of a potential future top-six line and highly-skilled power play if everything clicks with Zegras in the middle.

For as talented as Martone is, there is going to be some selling to do on the part of both Martone and the Flyers. Highly-touted center James Hagens was on the board at sixth overall as well, and once the Flyers passed on him, Hagens went to Boston with the seventh overall pick. The Flyers may have very well selected a top-line winger with the sixth overall pick, a player who was almost unanimously in the Top-5 on draft boards and prospect rankings. But passing on another player in similar territory, who was also at a position of need is going to be a tough sell.

Martone has the ability to make that easy. Improve the skating ability. Grow more into the frame. Be the player who put up 37 goals and 98 points in his draft year. Flyers fans will quickly forget who was passed over.

Having three picks in the first round always made a trade a possibility. The Flyers made their move early, sending the 22nd and 31st overall picks to Pittsburgh in exchange for the 12th overall pick. After taking a winger in the Top-10, they moved up for a center.

Jack Nesbitt offers more size, just like Martone. He’s a 6’5” centerman, offering great size, something much needed in the Flyers prospect pipeline.

Nesbitt has had moments where he flashes a high-skilled game. He can be physical, offers good detail and hockey IQ in his game, and is positionally sound. That said, there’s a lot of room for growth, and this is far from a slam-dunk pick.

“The combination of size, the grit, the playmaking abilities, the goal-scoring already. The second half of the season, he took a big step on a good Windsor team,” Briere said. “Saw him play a few times live as well, he was very impressive. I think he’s a little further away on his development than Porter. We’ll have to be a little more patient in his case. I think he’s going to be a pretty special player and has the chance to be maybe as high as a top-six or second-line center. If he hits as a second-line center, it’s going to be a huge asset for us.”

Selecting Nesbitt feels similar to the Flyers selecting Oliver Bonk with the 22nd overall pick in 2023. After getting a true high-end talent in Michkov, and knowing full-well that it was a matter of when, and not if, his game translates, Bonk was more of an upside play.

That hasn’t changed as Bonk prepares to turn pro next season. The same goes for Nesbitt, who could top out as a second-line center as Briere indicated, but needs a lot of work to get there.

What enticed teams like the Flyers to Nesbitt, aside from his size, is how well he played in the second half of the season. That made him a late riser to many, and as centers came off the board one by one in short order, the Flyers had to move up to take the chance.

“With the second selection, because we didn’t get to jump in on a center [at sixth overall,] we wanted to jump in and make sure we got a center, a center that can be a difference-maker,” Briere said. “You saw the rate that the centers were going. Jack was going pretty soon after our pick. We know that. We made the trade to try to get up and get quality over quantity in that case.”

This draft can be a successful one for the Flyers if Martone reaches his ceiling, just like 2023 did with Michkov. But first-round picks are viewed in a different stratosphere than everyone else in a draft class. If you have multiple picks on Day 1, you better be right about your selections.

Bonk is still a work in progress two seasons later, and is going to need more work to reach the NHL. The same will go for Nesbitt, and when you add in that he was a Top-15 pick and the Flyers moved two first-rounders just to get him, it needs to be a worthwhile swing for a top-six player in the end, not amounting to just another bottom-six forward.

Day 2 will provide more opportunities for the Flyers to improve the pipeline. They selected two forwards, leaving defense and goaltending for another day. There are plenty of forwards that are also on the board as things shift to Day 2. And the Flyers have plenty of early capital with picks 36, 40, and 48.

Kevin Durso is Flyers insider for 97.3 ESPN. Follow him on social media @Kevin_Durso.