One of the bigger surprises of the Flyers’ offseason took place on the first night of the NHL Draft, when Ron Hextall used the team’s second pick to go a bit off the board and take center Jay O’Brien. The pick may have caught the casual viewer a bit off-guard, for one particular reason: while many of the players taken in the first round spent their draft years playing in one of the well-known Canadian junior hockey leagues, or perhaps against professionals in Europe, O’Brien spent almost all of his draft season squaring off against American high school players with Massachusetts’ Thayer Academy.
Philadelphia Flyers 25 Under 25: Noah Cates hoping for strong first year in NCAA
