NHL Draft: Philadelphia Flyers Select Cam York at 14

Already a few weeks into the NHL offseason and things are off to a roaring start. The first trade of the NHL Draft was between the Philadelphia Flyers and Arizona Coyotes. The deal was the Flyers would trade the 11th overall to the Coyotes, while the latter’s 14th and 45th picks would go to the Flyers.

While the highly ranked American forward Cole Caufield remained on the board for Philadelphia, they went in a defensive direction with Cam York. The pick makes sense organizationally— they needed a high-end defensive prospect with the likeness of Ivan Provorov, Travis Sanheim and Shayne Gostisbehere.

https://twitter.com/NHL/status/1142292570606845952

More York pic.twitter.com/jr9bcheMKe

— Corey Pronman (@coreypronman) June 22, 2019

The American defenseman is a University of Michigan commit, plays a two-way game and is known for his plus skating and hockey sense.

During the 2018-2019 season, York shot scored over a point per game with 65, a United States National Team Development Program single-season record for a defenseman. He also was able to hold onto a plus-56 rating.