The leadup to a most unusual NHL Draft was expected to be busy for the league’s general managers, only if they’re trying to get accustomed to the idea of limiting all communication to cell phone.

For the first time in … well, since the days the league’s “amateur draft” was held annually in Montreal (non-COVID drafts, that is) … the NHL’s usual set up for the affair will change. No longer will the scene be an arena filled with every team’s executives at tables on the arena floor, surrounded by teenaged hockey hopefuls, their legal reps and their families in the lower bowl stands. No, this time the made-for-NHL-Network pimple crew will smile for the cameras from the Peacock Theater at L.A. Live in Los Angeles.

The first pick, property of those lucky New York Islanders, is expected to go off Friday night at about 7 in these parts, and expected to be defenseman Matthew Schaefer. As for the Flyers, they’ll be holed up in their own war room like every other team. Except they’re doing so with a party at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City for that one-round Friday night and the other six rounds Saturday.

Party on!

“I guess it can be different for everybody,” Flyers GM Danny Briere said recently. “For me, there wasn’t a lot of change at the (draft) combine. It’s pretty much the same. What I remember the last couple years is it starts to pick up the week of the draft.”

Briere was referring to what used to make this draft an “it” event – trades. The event just precedes the start of the free agency period, and having everyone under one roof provided ample opportunity to whisper through face-to-face trade talks.

But in recent years, technology and patience had severely cut down on the number of real trades at the draft itself. Cell calls across a table or two really were made to swap picks one way or another. And trades, such as the move Briere made Monday – swapping checking line center Ryan Poehling and two draft picks to Anaheim for skilled and recently underachieving forward Trevor Zegras – tend to come ahead of the draft as teams try to create salary cap space with trading partners needing help everywhere.

Yes, the Flyers still qualify for that latter designation.

“It’s not a secret, we’re thin in the middle,” Briere said after the trade was made. “Hopefully he can help us out.”

Briere indicated he’d had several discussions with the Ducks in the past regarding a potential Zegras move. This time he took advantage of the Flyers’ stockpile of draft picks. They had seven of the first 48 picks in the first two rounds alone, giving up only No. 45 and a fourth-rounder next year to complete the trade for Zegras.

So that leaves them still in a position of much strength, even though the (bad) luck in the NHL ping-pong draft dropped them two spots to No. 6 overall.

“With having so many picks, I would expect that I’m also going to make a lot of calls to try and gauge interest,” Briere said. “It feels like everybody’s trying to move up at the moment. We have said from the beginning that we would like to try to move up if it was possible, but there’s just not a lot of options there.”