Flyers open to trading 11th overall pick

Philadelphia Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher has made teams aware that he is willing to trade his club's first-round draft pick.

"It's early. I've mentioned to teams that we're in play but there hasn't been a big push for the pick yet," Fletcher said at a press conference Monday. "If we keep it and stay at 11, we're going to get a good player ... It's certainly a good chip that if moved, it could help."

Fletcher, who replaced Ron Hextall as the Flyers GM on Dec. 3, has said he will be "very aggressive" this offseason in an attempt to improve the team.

However, management is still confident Philadelphia will get a quality player if it keeps its first-rounder.

"At number 11, somebody will fall to us. After the top two ... I think from three to 15 there will be a lot of the same names but teams will have them ordered differently and I think that bodes well for us," assistant GM Brent Flahr said Monday.

"The way we look at it, we will take the best player at 11. I think as we go in the draft, we have some young defensemen that are in the NHL right now, and a couple coming, but we probably like to add defensemen depth to our organization going forward, whether it's at 11 or the second or third round, we will see."

The Flyers have nine picks in total in June's draft.