Q&A with Brent Flahr, the Flyers assistant GM who runs the show leading up to the NHL draft

BUFFALO — The NHL Scouting Combine is a critical juncture on the calendar as the Flyers get one last chance to chat with prospects ahead of the draft at the end of the month.

Although general manager Danny Brière is the top guy, the draft, which runs June 28-29 at Sphere in Las Vegas, is Brent Flahr’s show. The assistant general manager oversees amateur scouting and is responsible for filling holes in the system while building for the future at every draft table. In the first of two parts, in between speaking to more than 60 prospects in Western New York at the combine, Flahr takes us inside the interview process.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

A: Good. You know, it’s an important week for us. One, we’ve seen these players play all year. Our scouts and regional scouts have all interviewed them and get the background on them, but we get to spend good face time with them. Danny gets to take a look at them, myself. We get the chance to get to know them a little better, see if they know what they are, and get into their background. And 90% of the kids, you know, there’s no issues, we’re not really questioning them. And there are some kids that have some red flags maybe on or off the ice and we can address that here and get to the bottom of it. Between now and the draft we still do a lot of digging and if there are situations that we need to know about — or get the truth on — we have some time to do that still. But most of it is just getting to know these guys a little bit better, getting a comfort level, and a lot of these players are well-schooled by their agents and whatnot, but we throw some questions at them so we get to see their personalities a little bit, too.

A: It’s a little nerve-racking for these kids, as you can imagine. So we have we have eight guys here; some teams have much bigger groups than that. They come in and right away you just try to take the edge off and introduce yourself, get them to start talking about their families or something they’re comfortable with. You can sense kids who are nervous or some guys that are comfortable. But we’re very aware that there’s a difference — like a college kid feels more comfortable talking in front of us versus a high school kid, or a top junior kid that’s been interviewed in front of the media all his life. Some kids haven’t. So, it’s a little bit challenging, but we try to make them feel comfortable and ask them general questions and we dig in a little bit. We ask some of the tougher questions and then throw a couple of curveballs at them and see how they react. But it’s mostly a fun process. But unless there’s something serious that we need to know about, most of them are pretty easygoing. But we do have some tougher ones.

» READ MORE: Flyers GM Danny Brière discusses his NHL scouting combine approach, drafting for need vs. best available

A: I can’t give you a specific question, but we do have some open-ended questions that allow them to speak freely and force them to talk and give answers. We give them some layups early on and then some of the tougher ones, usually describing their play or maybe certain situations in games and you get them on their toes. You try to get away from the scripted answers, get them thinking for themselves a little bit.

(Editor’s note: The Inquirer has learned the Flyers asked players questions like: What is your favorite candy? What is your favorite movie?)

A: Well, you like to see how they answer questions. A lot of times we already know the answer, whether they’re willing to admit it or not. So, a lot of kids will own up to it. A lot of these kids are, they’re just young kids. They are kids who have made mistakes in certain situations, certainly on the ice, but even some off-ice infractions. They are just being young kids and it doesn’t mean they haven’t grown up already or are going to take it seriously. But, you want to see some kids own up to it and what they’re doing about certain things maybe to better themselves or what they did to better themselves. But, yeah, we’re pretty thorough and our guys may challenge some of these kids just to see where they’re at. It’s good information to have.

A: We had a couple of ones, kids that are here, that we had tough questions for, and yeah, we’re really impressed with actually. They looked you in the eye and told us exactly what happened. So, yeah, I’d much rather that, than trying to duck it or make excuses and blame somebody else all the time. There are those people, too. But no, some of those are to just confirm that there’s a chance he’s going to be a good teammate, as long as he’s willing to learn and buy-in and become a pro, then we’re comfortable with that. There are also kids that answer questions the wrong way — and you have to be a little bit careful, it’s just an interview process and these guys are young. You don’t forget about the on-ice factor. Some kids interview well, some kids don’t. Historically, there have been players over the years who have given terrible interviews and have become unbelievable players, and vice versa. So you have to take it with a bit of a grain of salt. But, at the same time, it’s a good process for us.

A: There is a difference between being a bad interviewer and not being polished — and I don’t mind a player that’s not polished. That just means they are inexperienced with this type of process that you see some of these kids have. There are a lot of guys that are great players that aren’t comfortable. But, there are kids that just have no clue who they are; they’re comparing themselves to a player on the very opposite spectrum of what they are. And some of those things are just like, all right, whatever. But most of these kids, 99% of them, are really good kids and we’re lucky to be in this game where a lot of them are brought up well and they’ve had coaching, played at tough levels, and stuff like that. Some of these kids are still young and some need to grow up. Some of them are more dedicated to the sport early on than others and some kids didn’t even know they were ever going to be drafted and then all of a sudden, they have a big year and then they are here, so they’re overwhelmed. That’s not a bad thing. I just think they’re just a little bit behind in the process.

» READ MORE: From sixth-round pick to the NHL? Danny Brière likes Hunter McDonald’s chances.

A: There are guys who are polished, who can say the right things, but on the ice it’s different. So I think it’s just a small piece that we just add as part of the process of building our list. I have all our guys’ lists that are completed before they come here, and I don’t want anybody’s list drastically changing between now and our meetings, unless there’s a major red flag or you see some major problem off the ice or strength, body type or whatever. But that’s a whole different perspective.

(Editor’s note: The Flyers will be holding meetings with their amateur scouting department this week in Philadelphia.)

A: You know, these kids are young. Some kids are physically mature, at 220 pounds, and some kids are 150 pounds, and those kids are going to take a longer process. I stay out of that a little bit, as far as evaluating the strength; we bring our strength guys up here and I ask specific questions. I give them a list of players, give my opinion of where they’re at as players and where I think they’re at physically, and can this player improve or is he maxed out? Is this the end? So there are some kids that are not very good skaters or some kids that are unbelievable skaters now. Like Tyson Foerster, for example, we knew skating wasn’t a strength, but a lot of it was conditioning and a lot of it could be fixed over time — which he’s worked hard at — and he has. But there are some kids who, unfortunately, skating is a fatal flaw and just fundamentally, they’re not athletes sometimes and it doesn’t get better. Sometimes you can look too far into that and be wrong. So yeah, it’s a puzzle, that’s for sure.

A: For sure. We’re dealing with 17-year-old kids. You know, if we had a 23-, 24-year-old draft, we’d be a lot more accurate. But we feel like we do our homework and spend a lot of time on the road watching these kids play, getting to know them, doing the background work, whether it’s analytics or using their strength coach opinions, and we put it all together and do the best you can. Once you draft them, you’ve got to put in the work again, and it takes time.

A: We do. We always ask them where we picked and some kids have no clue, other kids are dialed in at 12. There are some kids that have family from the area that we were not aware of. Some kids have spent time there at summer camps or whatever. So, they’ve been there, so that’s good. Someone’s dad’s a Flyers fan and sometimes, even from obscure parts of the world, they’re Flyers fans. It’s kind of fun. But sometimes their favorite player is on the team. [Amateur scout] Mark Greig’s son, Ridly, in his draft year, had a Claude Giroux jersey over his bed. He’s taking Zoom calls and he’s got the Flyers in the back. Yeah, it’s a fun process, but a lot of these kids are from small parts of the world and that doesn’t really play a major factor in as far as where they’re going to be drafted. But it’s good to know most of them know about the Philadelphia Flyers, that’s for sure.