The Philadelphia Flyers have announced that they have parted ways with assistant coaches Rocky Thompson and Darryl Williams as well as assistant coach and skills coach Angelo Ricci.
After John Tortorella was fired last month, the only survivor from the bench seems to be Brad Shaw, who the Flyers are still deliberating on whether they want to promote him as a full-time head coach or not.
In his short stint as the interim, Shaw looked to have invigorated new life into the Flyers so it will be interesting to see if he remains behind the bench next season and beyond.
As for Thompson and Williams, they became casualties of the old guard but it shouldn’t come as a surprise since coaching staffs get remodelled after a new hire.
Thompson was a mitigated disaster as the team’s power play coach as the Flyers were ranked dead last in his first 2 seasons and barely escaped the basement this past year with a 30th-ranked unit.
The personnel was certainly not as stacked as it could have been but even with players like Matvei Michkov, Travis Konecny, Owen Tippett, and Jamie Drysdale, you can make it work to at least near mid-table. Rebuilding teams like Chicago had a 7th-ranked unit while even San Jose was ahead at 26th.
Williams was brought in during the 2021-22 season, which was a year before Tortorella took over. He remained with the team since but it seems like the Flyers wanted to bring in new faces as they embark on the third year of their rebuild.
General Manager Daniel Brière kept his message short and sweet so we will certainly find out more information as it trickles through but the Flyers will continue to do their due diligence on the open market for their next head coach and subsequently assistant coaches as well.
“I would like to thank Darryl, Rocky and Angelo for their dedication and all of their efforts over the last several years to the Flyers organization,” said Brière. “After careful evaluation, I felt that this was best for the future direction of the team.”
There have been rumours about the Flyers looking to take a big step next year and with several key roster players no longer employed by the team, this was definitely the next step into building for the future.
The Tortorella era had it’s highs and lows but at the very end it seemed like there was a strong disconnect between the coaching staff and the front office. The on-ice play deteriorated quickly after what was a strong season in 2023-24 and the Flyers wanted to step in and make sure things didn’t continue in that manner.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login