Diehard Exclusive
Unlock Your Full Philadelphia Flyers Experience
This premium content is a Philadelphia Flyers Diehard exclusive.
DIEHARD MEMBERSHIP
$79.99
/year
As a Diehard, you'll get:
Plus
Join Now
Cancel anytime. No questions asked.
Manage Membership
You're already a Diehard! Manage your subscription from your dashboard.
Already a Diehard?
Sign In
18 Comments (11 conversations)
Jack Berlin
Lot of “I don’t know” responses here. I don’t know why we should expect anything different at this point.
Justin Schilling
I continue to be disappointed in the Flyers’ ability to evaluate talent and draft well. Flahr has been a huge part of that. Luchanko and using two first round picks to move up for Nesbitt are glaring missteps and the way they apparently misread the developmental timelines for McDonald and Bump does nothing to boost confidence in their decision making.
Jonathan Riendeau
McDonald response to not making the roster at the beginning of the year was interesting.
From an external and internal perspective, he didn’t have a great camp and didn’t deserve to make the roster.
I have to wonder if all the post-draft hype from the organization gave himself too high expectation.
There seemed to be a disconnect between player and org, but I’m excited to see what he turns himself into.
Brent Flahr is going to make enemies in the basket weaving community 🤣
Daniel Gault
In past iterations of this article, I felt like Flahr had specific reasons to hold out hope for an underachieving player. You can tell even he is struggling to explain the stagnation of some key prospects this year. My biggest concern with Luchanko is how such a simple stylistic critique (shoot the puck more) has failed to be implemented across two years of this staff working with him. It comes up every time they talk about him and we haven’t seen any progress on that front.
Charlie O'Connor
AuthorI feel like it’s less “some prospects” and more just Luchanko.
Bonk: missed summer training & first two months of season
Nesbitt: was always going to be a 2-3 year project to improve his skating, everything flows from that
Knuble: his team stinks & they’re not prioritizing guys who won’t be on their team next year
Amico: probably shouldn’t have started in NCAA after missing the full season last year
McDonald: didn’t have the right mentality in camp & to start season, is back in gear now
The explanations for the other guys were pretty straightforward and logical. Luchanko there was absolutely an element of, “dude just has to play better, idk,” though.
Daniel Gault
Appreciate the response. You’re mostly right, there is valid reasoning sprinkled in, I just don’t buy the Nesbitt line because post draft they were bullish he was going to breakout in juniors this year with a bigger role on a good team. Yes, he will take time, but that’s a fall back excuse based on the expectations they had post draft.
acpoponi
You could feel Flahr’s frustration with Jett.
Thanks always Charlie, for these interviews and writeups.
Matthew Segal
It is pretty clear from the remarks Flahr made that the high end prospect pipeline for the team is Porter Martone, and maybe Zavragin. Then it drops to “guys who will play in the NHL” and “nice AHL career guys.”
Bob MCH
Wow, even Flahr sees the garbage this prospect pool is. That is surprising, they are his picks, aren’t they? Or did DB override him and do the picks. Somebody in charge is clueless in drafting, trading, and development. Wow.
reyo
You’ve got it all figured out. Good for you.
trebor
How Flahr still has a job at this point is beyond understanding. Our draft pics continue to be underwhelming. Jett was a ridiculous pick and the draft cap spent on Nesbitt is another huge miss. Martone and MM were the easiest decisions that could have been made. 5 years away from being 5 years away.
reyo
Flahr is one of several members of the Flyers organization that help make draft selections.
isaiah520
Flahr has been here since ‘19 and I think I’ve seen enough, especially considering the rebuild approach the Flyers have chosen. They need to draft in the upper echelon of the NHL and it’s been average at best.
Matt Stegall
All of our prospects outside of Martone appear to be fine complimentary players. The kind of players you need to win in the Playoffs. But none to me should be viewed as key prospects. The talent just isn’t there.
Mike Curry
Great stuff as always, Charlie. Really look forward to these. Seeing a couple of themes within the organization – 1) you DON’T want to get behind the eight-ball 2) if you do, you have to fight through it.
reyo
Informative interview, good questions.
Christopher Kratz
Lot of 3Cs and bottom pairing dmen. The future is bright!
David LaVeck
Great interview with Flahr, Charlie! You ask some very interesting questions to draw out important details on each of these players. Flyers management seems to be very realistic with their interpretations of each player, no fluff here.