What's the origin of this?
Oh, it’s nothing matter of fact, just intuition. Do you think the 5th overall pick last year, which the Flyers asked for from Montreal, was considered less valuable than Hutson (drafted 62nd the year before)? We don’t have to pretend the Flyers didn’t choose Drysdale based on draft pedigree, Bob Murray, and handedness. If it wasn’t Hutson, it was someone else (Zellweger, etc.) And we know they’ve avoided drafting skilled LHD in multiple classes because of York and Andrae.
So, I’d wager to say they internally rated Drysdale as more valuable than Hutson. They drafted Kaplan 7 spots lower too. If they traded up for Spencer Gill this year in the 2nd, they had their chance if they rated Hutson that highly a year earlier.