Flyers draft: Jake O’Brien’s playmaking, athletic bloodlines, and high upside could make him a steal at No. 6

Like any good Canadian, Jake O’Brien spends his summer at a cottage. The Ontario native’s cottage is in Bobcaygeon, made famous by The Tragically Hip song of the same name.

As the late Gord Downie would sing, “It was in Bobcaygeon, I saw the constellations reveal themselves one star at a time.”

Amid the constellation of NHL draft prospects, could O’Brien — a highly coveted center— be revealed as that star for the Flyers at No. 6 on Friday night?

“I think six is a very reasonable range for him,” FloHockey’s NHL draft analyst Chris Peters told The Inquirer. “It just kind of depends on how the winds are blowing because I think a lot of people do believe that he can be a center — and a play-driving center. If he can be that, that makes him a potential No. 1 center, right?

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“So it’s all an upside play with him. I feel like the other players have higher floors, maybe, at this time, but I think there’s tremendous potential in what he is and what he can be.”

But what separates O’Brien from the rest of this class is his passing. He is a “really gifted playmaker, a good passer,” and “makes guys better,” according to Peters. O’Brien also possesses high hockey IQ and is a 200-foot player who thrives on finding seams and passing under pressure.

“I think it’s [seeing passes click] and also making, maybe not a little seam, but maybe making a really deceptive pass that many fans or people that are watching don’t see,” he replied, when asked about what he loves about being a set-up man. “If there’s someone coming around the net and I hit them before they come around the net, or just something that other people don’t see, I feel like that’s kind of more satisfying for me, in a way.”

O’Brien rocketed up draft boards this season despite what he called a “pretty slow” start. But he began to build up his confidence, and by the midterm, he was ranked as the No. 8 skater in North America by NHL Central Scouting. He finished at No. 4.

The end-of-season ranking came on the heels of a 32-goal and 98-point campaign for Brantford of the Ontario Hockey League; he tied with another possible Philly draftee, winger Porter Martone, for the seventh-most points in the OHL. Only projected No. 2 overall pick Michael Misa had more points among draft-eligible players.

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And one more eye-opening stat that could lead to someone banging the table for O’Brien in the Flyers’ war room: He finished No. 1 in the CHL with 41 power-play assists.

“I think I’m good at slowing the game down,” O’Brien told The Inquirer about his style of play. “Kind of pulling back under pressure in the offensive zone, but I definitely want to get better at generating more scoring chances for myself off the rush.”

And, of course, the big question: How would he fit with Matvei Michkov?

“Well, Jake, for some of the same reasons as Caleb [Desnoyers, another draft prospect linked with the Flyers], I think could really work potentially with a player like Michkov, because of his smarts. It’s the defining quality,” The Athletic’s draft analyst Scott Wheeler told The Inquirer.

“Ask Jake O’Brien what his best attribute is, and I’m pretty sure he’ll tell you it’s the way that he thinks the game and reads the game on both sides of the puck. ... One of the strengths of O’Brien’s game is his smarts on offense and the way that he reads the offensive zone and the ability to keep up with a player like Michkov. But on the flip side of it, he also understands work ethic, and tracking, and supporting his linemates and being above the puck and all of the things that you need to be a center in the NHL.”

A young 18-year-old (his birthday was June 16), O’Brien is tall but lanky. He is listed at 6-foot-2 and just 170 pounds, so like last year’s first-rounder, Jett Luchanko, who was 5-11 and 187 pounds when selected and is also known as a pass-first player, he will need to put on muscle and grow into his body.

But the thing with O’Brien, who Wheeler says also has some speed to his game, is that his breakout season was brewing long before he was named the OHL Rookie of the Year last season. It’s been developing bit by bit since he was a kid. O’Brien started skating at around 3 years old, and would play hockey on the backyard rink his dad, Dan, built and lit up with Christmas lights.

“I think that helps a lot,” O’Brien said of skating on that small rink and having to work in a small area. “Especially in the NHL, you’re always under pressure and there are big, strong guys around you and coming at you fast.

“... But the biggest thing for me was in COVID, I was like practicing on a barn ice surface [in Pickering, Ontario]. It was really small, all my friends would go there, and play three-on-three. So we would go there a lot. And I feel like that probably is where it helped me the most, to be honest.”

It also probably helps to come from a pretty good stock. Dan O’Brien played a year in the ECHL after four years of college hockey at Clarkson University; two seasons came alongside Buffalo Sabres senior adviser Jarmo Kekäläinen.

However, his mother, Amy Turek, makes eyes sparkle with the prospects of how good Jake O’Brien could be. In 1999-2000, Turek co-led the Beatrice Aeros of the original National Women’s Hockey League in points (51 in 38 games), alongside Hockey Hall of Famer Geraldine Heaney.

Turek, who runs a hockey camp that O’Brien attended from ages 5-14 every summer, also played for Canada’s national team, and later won two medals for Canada at the Inline Worlds in 2003 and 2004. She is in the Wilfrid Laurier University Athletics Hall of Fame, alongside her father, Ed Turek, who was the No. 1 pick in the 1966 CFL draft and won a Grey Cup in 1967.

“[She] never really ripped me in any way or was strict. ... But she always told me when I did good,” Jake O’Brien said. ”And always still really wants me to shoot the puck more."

O’Brien was one of three players, along with Brady Martin and Martone, who The Inquirer knows went to dinner with the Flyers in Buffalo. He said they took him to a “pork spot,” and he had half of a Swiss Chalet-style rotisserie chicken.

He possesses several of the tools the Flyers look for, and, according to Wheeler, is a better skater than Desnoyers. But O’Brien wants to work on his skating, especially his first three steps, and will spend the summer working with his power skating coach in Whitby, Ontario.

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And he’ll spend it fishing near his cottage in Bobcaygeon.

“The last few years, we’ve been better,” O’Brien said. “When we first started off fishing for muskie, we probably would catch one every two weekends. But now we’re starting to get a little bit better, and we catch two or three in a weekend.”

The largest member of the pike family, muskies can grow pretty large. O’Brien spends his time on a boat with a rod and a reel, constantly casting with his buddies. It’s a lot of work to bring in the fish, which, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, commonly reach 37 inches long.

And a lot of patience is needed. It’s that and the work needed to pull these river monsters in that feels so similar to hockey.

“Working all day, the same thing, like in a tournament or in the playoffs, you’re constantly working all season to finally get to the end goal,” said O’Brien, who helped Canada win the Hlinka Gretzky Cup in 2024. “You’re working with buddies, on the boat; we’re always changing baits, we’re always talking about what spots to go. You’re always working as a team in hockey and fishing.”

During his conversation with the Flyers, Jay McKee — his coach in Brantford and a former teammate of general manager Danny Brière in Buffalo — came up, as did fishing. He said some of the scouts mentioned some good fishing spots around Philly. But O’Brien would love to cast a reel and snag a tarpon or swordfish deep in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of New Jersey.

For now, he’ll settle for muskie fishing, trying to attract them with big bucktails that have some fluff and almost look like two spoons — two silver spoons — spinning in the water. The fish are attracted to the shine.

Just like he is to the ultimate goal in hockey.

“Yeah, I think for the fans, I just want to let them know that I’m coming there to win and I want to make an impact right from the start,” he said. “And I’m trying to bring a Stanley Cup to wherever I go, and if it is Philadelphia, I really want to bring one there. Hopefully, we can do it in the future.”