VOORHEES — Flyers general manager Ron Hextall won’t dismiss any possibility. Why would he?

In fact, although it might be unpopular among fans, he’d like the rest of the league he’s open for business even if he doesn’t necessarily sell an attractive asset.

Hextall fell into good fortune a couple weeks ago with the NHL draft lottery and now holds the No. 2 pick. Nolan Patrick and Nico Hischier, a pair of centers, are the two top-ranked players and both come with possible concerns.

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Has Hischier shown enough over a long enough period to suggest that he’s ready for the rigors of an NHL schedule? Does Patrick’s injury history — he played only 33 games this season — raise a red flag that’s too big to ignore? Will the player that the New Jersey Devils don’t select with the first pick be a slam dunk?

“I expect to pick,” Hextall said. “I don’t expect to move it, but never say never. We’d be doing the organization a disservice by not listening. We’ll listen and if something intriguing comes up we’ll talk about it, but I would anticipate making the pick.

“We better get the first or second-best player in the draft if we do make the pick. That’s obviously what you’re obviously trying to do. It’s not a perfect science, but I’m comfortable that our (scouts) have done their work.”

While online pundits and draft experts will argue for the next month and a half on which one is better, the only people that really matter in that discussion are Hextall’s amateur scouts. Mark Greig typically watches the Western Hockey League the most, so he’s seen Patrick play with the Brandon Wheat Kings more than the rest of the staff in the past couple seasons. Same goes for Todd Hearty and Simon Nolet, who watch the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League in which Hischier was a rookie this season.

They are by no means the only two opinions that matter and Hischier and Patrick have both had so much attention over the last six months that others have seen them, too. Hextall, for example, was at the CHL Top Prospects Game in which both suited up and were captains for their respective teams.

Patrick, 18, is a bit bigger at 6-foot-3, 198 pounds, but also has a bit more skill and a larger resume. He’s spent three full seasons in the WHL, but has been affected by injuries since age 13. He broke the same collarbone twice and this season ended early for him with a reported leg injury.

“An injury history on any player you look at whether you’re making a trade, free agent, the draft,” Hextall said. “And then it comes down to the types of injuries and what precipitated the injuries. Is a player injury prone? Is it bad luck? Was he diagnosed properly? There’s so many things that go into it. We’ll do our due diligence with (Patrick) and other players as well.”

Hischier, 18, is 6-foot and 179 pounds, but might be a little more creative than Patrick. He also hasn’t played against the same competition. Most of last season for him was playing in tournaments instead of in his native Switzerland’s top league. He came on strong this season with seven points in five games for the Swiss in the World Junior Championships.

Then there’s also the question — aside from comparing the two — of whether either will be ready for the NHL in September.

“Good question,” Hextall said. “We all like to think we know that. But until the kid comes in and shows you what he can do, you don’t know. You make an educated judgement and then you go from there, but in the end the players have to prove that they’re ready and there’s not a lot that are at that age (whether) first overall, second overall, third overall. We’ll wait and see which way everything goes there.”

There’s been so much talk about these two players being at the top that if Hextall and Co. are thinking someone else might be the best fit for the franchise, they might move back to make the pick.

“We’ve got our (amateur scouting) meetings coming up, but we’re not going to leave any stone unturned,” Hextall said. “That would be silly. There’s some good players. There’s not just two good players in this draft. There’s some other good players.”

Coaching opening

The Flyers still have a vacancy for Joe Mullen’s role as assistant coach that specializes in the power play. Hextall is in no rush to fill it, although he has a list and has talked about it with head coach Dave Hakstol.

A couple guesses at the list? Buffalo Sabres assistant Bob Woods is still employed by the team even though it doesn’t have a coach or GM. The Sabres had the league’s top power play. If Hakstol has a lot of say, maybe he looks to his alma mater where Matt Shaw oversees the man advantage for North Dakota. NHL experience is not necessarily a prerequisite for the job.

“You always like to have it,” Hextall said. “Experience is a good thing, but you don’t want to take the wrong guy with experience vs. the right guy without experience. It’s certainly part of the formula we’ve been looking at but I guess I wouldn’t say, ‘If you don’t have experience, you’re out,’ but it would be a nice thing to have, for sure.”

Dave Isaac; 856-486-2479;disaac@gannett.com