Flyers Hire John Snowden as Phantoms Head Coach

The Flyers new coaching staff has been assembled for several weeks. Another part of the offseason was also constructing a new coaching staff for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

The Flyers announced that John Snowden has been named head coach of the Phantoms. It was also announced that Terrence Wallin and Nick Schultz will be assistant coaches on Snowden’s staff.

Snowden, 43, was primarily an ECHL player during his career. His career ended in the Central Hockey League from 2010-2014, serving as a player-assistant coach with the Bloomington PrairieThunder in the 2010-11 season. 

After his playing career, Snowden worked his way through the coaching ranks. He was an assistant/associate coach for the Orlando Solar Bears in the ECHL for three seasons from 2015 to 2017. In the 2018-19 season, he started as an assistant coach for the Newfoundland Growlers, eventually taking over as head coach midway through the season. He remained with Newfoundland for three seasons, serving as the Director of Hockey Operations in 2020-21. 

In the 2021-22 season, Snowden made the move to the AHL. He was an assistant coach with the Toronto Marlies for two seasons before joining the Phantoms as an assistant coach for the previous two seasons.

Wallin, 33, was similarly an ECHL player for most of his career. After four seasons at UMass-Lowell from 2011 to 2015, the Yardley, PA native played in the SPHL, ECHL, and AHL until the 2019-20 season. His final two ECHL seasons were with the Maine Mariners, a team that happened to be run by Danny Briere, who was President and Director of Operations at the time.

Wallin expressed an interest in coaching and was an assistant coach with the Maine Mariners in the 2021-22 season under Riley Armstrong, who is now the Director of Player Development for the Flyers. In 2022-23, he was elevated to head coach in Maine. For the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons, Wallin also served as the general manager of the team while also remaining head coach.

Schultz, 42, played for 15 seasons in the NHL with the Minnesota Wild, Edmonton Oilers, Columbus Blue Jackets, and Flyers. In 1,069 NHL games, he had 30 goals and 175 points.

Schultz returned to the Flyers after retiring as a player as a development coach starting in 2019. He held that role until 2023, when he was named assistant director of player development. He also was an interim assistant coach with the Flyers in the 2021-22 season under Mike Yeo.