Report: Flyers to Hire Brent Flahr as Assistant GM

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

One of the early things on Chuck Fletcher's agenda as GM was to find a new assistant GM as he gains familiarity and evaluates the current team. It appears he has found his guy, and it shouldn't come as any surprise that it has Minnesota roots.

According to a report from Michael Russo of The Athletic, the Flyers will hire Minnesota Wild senior vice president of hockey operations Brent Flahr as their new assistant GM. The Flyers have not confirmed the hiring.

Flahr will take on the role previously held by Chris Pryor. Pryor was fired by the team two days after the dismissal of Ron Hextall. 

Flahr has worked with Fletcher many times in the past in Florida, Anaheim and Minnesota, including serving as his assistant GM starting in 2009. Flahr was the team's interim GM when Fletcher was let go after the 2017-18 season. So far this season, Flahr has mainly been handling amateur scouting. It is expected that Flahr will take on a similar role to Pryor, overseeing the scouting department.

As an assistant GM with a focus on scouting, Flahr was responsible for overseeing the process during draft years where Minnesota selected Matt Dumba, Alex Tuch, Joel Eriksson Ek, Jordan Greenway and Luke Kunin, not to mention 2010 draft picks Mikael Granlund and Jason Zucker. 

The timing of this decision shouldn't come as a surprise either. Fletcher wants to turn his attention to making the team the best he can. That also means having someone in place to handle day-to-day operations with the scouting department and a right-hand man to tackle additional tasks. Additionally, all rosters will freeze over the holidays in less than two weeks, so getting this done means the Flyers can put their focus on other areas.

Flahr is expected to join the team during the Flyers western Canada trip, which continues on Wednesday night in Calgary.