Again, the idea that "...this team plus Gauthier, Michkov, Bonk, some secondary pieces, and a couple 10-15 overall picks is enough to compete" is why people think this team is on the road to mediocre again. That would be perfectly cromulent 1st round doormat team and little more.
Curious why you think that isn't possible?
Carolina has two players taken top 3 (Svechnikov and 35 year old Staal).
They have seven taken in the 12-28 range. And some later round picks that turned out better than expected.
Boston has three top 6 players (JVR, Lindholm, Zacha).
Eight players taken between 14-30. And a bunch of later picks.
Vegas has two players taken top 5 (Pietrangelo, Eichel).
Two players taken between 26-27, and the rest are later round picks.
Colorado has six top 5 players.
Two players picked 10th. And the rest are later round picks.
Flyers will have two top 5 players.
Ten players taken between 8-27, and a bunch of later round picks.
Colorado is the outlier in terms of stacking top 5 picks and winning. Vegas is an expansion team, and I don't know how that affects outcomes. I included Carolina because it seems to be a model a lot of people look at as being a good one. And Boston is consistently competitive.
Obviously the type of player a teams drafts, the development, the performance, the positional distribution, depth, chemistry, and a bunch of other factors come into play.
I'm torn because of course I'd love to see as much high end talent as possible on the Flyers, and top 5 draft picks are the best place to acquire that. At the same time, it doesn't seem like you need as many as I thought.