Ryan Lin has “a little bit of the Brandon Montour profile.” Will the 18-year-old defenseman be available to the Flyers at No. 21 in the 2026 NHL draft?
Porter Martone and Danny Briere reflected on the rookie winger’s first taste of the NHL and the playoffs with the Flyers. That, of course, makes life a little different for the club's amateur scouting staff leading up to the 2026 NHL draft.
Barring a trade, the Flyers will pick at 21st overall. It's their lowest first-round spot since 2020. So the Flyers know the draft is still critical to what they want to do, even when they're lower in the order. , we wanted to build a team that was going to be here for a long time; not just to go for it for a year or two," general manager Danny Briere said last month.
"That's still the same approach on my end. " The Flyers have only five picks in this draft, which will be held June 26-27. The first round is Friday at 7 p.m. ET, while Rounds 2-7 are Saturday starting at 11 a.m. ET.
"I'll tell you how I feel about drafts and I'll be totally blunt with you," TSN director of scouting Craig Button said last Tuesday in a phone interview with NBC Sports Philadelphia. "I think it's f---ing bulls--t when I hear about, 'Oh, this draft isn't as good. ' Here are the numbers. Approximately 45 players from any draft will play 350 games or more in the NHL.
It might be 47 one year, 42 another year. That's the number — you get 45 players that'll play 350 games or more with varying degrees of success.
"And I know this about the draft. The teams that get good players from the draft say it was a good draft. The teams that don't get good players from the draft say it wasn't a good draft. So when people start telling me about a draft ahead of time, I call bulls--t.
""What you're trying to do is find a player that you feel has the potential to be an NHL player," Button said. "That might be a third-line center, that might be a second-line scoring winger. Hey, listen, maybe you get David Pastrnak, who's a superstar .
"But the focus has to be on, 'OK, what type of player do we like, what type of player do we think the guy can be? ' And then get after it and understand what the development path is, and then try to help that player be the best he can be. Put a stake in the ground and celebrate who you're drafting.
" While his frame doesn't come across as imposing, Lin is a plus defender with strong offensive skills. The Denver-bound prospect consistently has the puck, often making the right play up the ice or in the offensive zone. And when he doesn't have the puck, he can hold his own in coverage.
"He has got the brain, he understands the way that defensemen play the game, transition and everything," Button, a former NHL GM and scout, said. "I was a little bit harder on Ryan. When I say harder, in terms of watching him. What I realized, I think he's a much better defender than he gets credit for.
... That's why you watch players over a period of time in different scenarios.
" Lin put up over a point per game this season in the WHL, recording 14 goals and 43 assists through 53 games. He had a minus-19 rating, but that came on a Vancouver team that sported a minus-86 goal differential. At the 2026 IIHF U-18 World Junior Championship that ended last month, Lin had six points and a plus-7 rating in five games for Team Canada.
"In Vancouver in the Western Hockey League, he was asked to drive offense," Button said. "When you're asked to do that, you better do that. And he did it well, he did it really well. So the team isn't as good and certainly he has got to do his part offensively; well, now you're not asked to play defense as much.
But I've seen him in other scenarios where he has been a really good, solid two-way defenseman.
" Button believes Lin has"a little bit of the Brandon Montour profile. " Montour owns a 73-point season and a Stanley Cup ring. The 32-year-old has played in 665 career NHL games. If Lin is still there at No. 21, he would be a fine pick for the Flyers.
The club will draft the best player available, but it couldn't hurt to replenish on the back end. The Flyers have taken just four defensemen over the last two drafts. They haven't taken one in the first round since 2023, when they Lin has the ingredients to be a top-four defenseman. His upside as a power play quarterback should also appeal to the Flyers.
They've had an NHL-worst power play over the last five seasons combined at 14.1 percent. Lin would give them a good option to run the point in the future.
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