Farewell to a Franchise Icon

Longest Serving Flyer (Phantom) Chosen in Expansion Draft

In 2014 Nicolas Aube-Kubel was chosen late in this historic league's inception draft. Seven years would go by and with the trade of franchise goaltender Braden Holtby last winter, Aube-Kubel became the longest serving player in the organization. The ignominious pick known as NAK started with such promise, "Well we were getting late in the inception draft and we wanted to add some young talent, the NHL entry draft was only a few months earlier and we saw NAK was still available, he had gone 48th overall in the NHL so we decided to pick him up. We were really happy the first couple years post draft, his production jumped in the QMJHL with back-to-back 38 goal seasons but the scoring never seemed to translate to the pro game," GM Josh Guertler told reporters after the expansion draft, "Don't get me wrong, NAK is a great role player, he is a helluva forechecker but he's got work to do discipline-wise and defensively if he is going to stick."

Since the inception draft the Flyers have played 574 regular season games and 70 odd playoff games, NAK has played in a grand total of Zero of them. The Flyers are the only team in league history to never miss the playoffs, with such a distinction the roster battles have always been tough. "It's great to see him get an opportunity honestly," GM Guertler said, "You know we were patient, probably too patient, his name came up a little here and there over the years but we always wanted to see what he could do in the orange and black, unfortunately that day never came for the team or player." As of last night the hodge podge Seattle Kraken had NAK listed as a top line winger on their depth chart, gone are the days of limited opportunity so it is now on him to show everyone what he can do.

With the last player from the 2014 inception draft now gone, maybe now the team can turn the page as well.