It was a foregone conclusion that the Philadelphia Flyers were going to look for additional scoring prospects at the 2020 NHL Draft and they did just that on Tuesday night.
The Flyers selected winger Tyson Foerster from the Ontario Hockey League’s (OHL) Barrie Colts with the 23rd selection of the first round, snagging a player who many experts and pundits alike believed was a top-20 talent.
It doesn’t take an expert to realize that Foerster is a scorer, posting 36 goals and 44 assists (80 points) in 62 regular-season games for the Colts last season.
At 6-foot-2, 194 pounds, Foerster has drawn comparisons to Washington Capitals star forward TJ Oshie — an affluent playmaker that the newest Flyer modeled his game after.
“He does it everywhere,” Foerster said of Oshie. “He plays penalty kill, he does power play, he does last-minute, he does everything really. I try to model my game after him and do the same stuff he does. He’s had a hell of a career and I want to do the same.”
The 18-year-old certainly has the intangibles to do so.
Foerster is an aggressive, shoot-first forward with above-average hands that make almost any puck near his stick in the offensive zone a dangerous one. Plus vision will also allow him to make the right pass when the shooting lanes are closed.
What’s lesser-known about Foerster is that he is also a capable defender, utilizing a high hockey IQ to ensure he is in the right positions to supply reinforcements on the backcheck.
That kind of maturity carries the promise of the youngster finding his way to the NHL sooner rather than later, especially if his deadly shot can translate to the Flyers’ system. It would be a godsend for a power play that is in desperate need of a boost.
“Tyson was a player we thought we had a chance to have him be available to us when we picked,” Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher said. “We were very, very happy with that.”
