Flyers losing Brad Shaw would be disastrous step backward

Rick Tocchet will be the new Philadelphia Flyers head coach. Not keeping Brad Shaw would be his first huge mistake.

Mar 27, 2025; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Flyers interim head coach Brad Shaw behind the bench against the Montreal Canadiens during the second period at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images

Brad Shaw should be a head coach in the National Hockey League. He could be in the running for openings in Boston and Seattle should those organizations have the good sense to set up an interview with him. He is a defensive guru who, just with the Flyers alone, has taken pieces of their blue line and steadily made them into competent defenseman. You only have to look at Nick Seeler, Rasmus Ristolainen (when healthy), and Jamie Drysdale to see that Shaw can get surprising results with time and teaching. In Columbus he worked with Zach Werenski, who has nothing but praise for the assistant coach.

However, with the Flyers officially hiring Rick Tocchet to be the 25th head coach in franchise history Wednesday, Shaw’s position with the Flyers is uncertain. It would be disastrous if he was to be on his way out of Philadelphia.

If Tocchet rumbles into town with an preconceived idea of who he wants on his staff and has no need for Shaw’s expertise, then Shaw will be looking for work. And the Flyers will be so much worse off for it. Shaw has proven himself to be an experienced, thoughtful assistant who has the lay of the land when it comes to the Flyers. He knows the ins and outs of the team, and could be called on to help Tocchet adjust to a new team, one with no Quinn Hughes or Elias Pettersson at its disposal. In short, Brad Shaw knows what’s right and what’s wrong with this team heading into 2025-26. Why wouldn’t you want to pick that brain if you’re Tocchet?

But first a little backgrounder. The Philadelphia Flyers showed John Tortorella the door late in the 2024-25 season. The final nail in his coffin was a reported spat he had with defenseman Cam York, the coach allegedly implying he’d make his life a living hell if he signed an extension here and York saying he’d outlast Tortorella. With nine games to go in the season, Shaw was made the interim head coach. The Flyers scored a bit more on the power play, scored a bit more overall and won a few more games. Perhaps most importantly, the locker room seemed a bit lighter, the sticks were gripped a little less tight and mistakes were made without scoldings or benchings (aside from York’s benching in Shaw’s first game as head coach following the fiasco and firing).

When the season ended, Flyers general manager Danny Briere was asked about the search for a head coach and what it would entail. Briere jokingly said he’d love to have a coach that would be with the Flyers for 25 years, so it would make his job a lot easier. However Briere was realistic, trying to walk a fine line between getting a coach that wouldn’t be as stern as Tortorella but, at the same time, not be a door mat the players could walk over.

“First of all I think communication is important, so that’s going to be something we look into,” Briere said during the exit interview press conference in April. “I mentioned the same day we let go of Torts, someone that can come in and teach will be an important one as well. I think communication and teaching are probably two things that will be at the forefront of our next coach. Just when you have a young team in place, I really think those two attributes are extremely important.”

Briere also was pleased with the job Shaw did in the short-term. But at the time, nothing was written in stone as to whether Shaw was the guy or on a possible shortlist to succeed Tortorella. “As far as Shaw goes he did a really good job coming in, kind of a different approach than obviously Torts had,” Briere said. “Some guys really stepped up and seemed like they were a little freer. Shaw will be in the running. We’ll consider him, he’s done a good job. We’ve been impressed with him since he was here, even under Torts. He’ll be in the running. But again, we’re not at that stage yet.”

Shaw also was asked the day before Briere’s presser if he would love to be the next Flyers’ head coach. He was very open to the idea, stating he’d change slightly his approach towards the players but establishing a “level of accountability” with each player. That way if the player screwed up and was disciplined for it (whether reduced ice time or a healthy scratch), the transparency would be apparent from the start. Basically there would be no head games that Tortorella almost thrived on.

Perhaps even more telling was Shaw’s willingness to remain an assistant coach with the Flyers should Briere go in a different direction and hire a head coach not named Brad Shaw. Shaw stated he had “three years invested in the defense corps” while having a good relationship with a “lot of the main players.” He also noted his philosophy for teaching was essentially based on not the mistake the player made and the resulting punishment, but the thought process leading up to the mistake and where they player should’ve done A instead of B.

On April 23, the Flyers announced some additional coaching changes, with assistant coach Rocky Thompson, assistant coach Darryl Williams and skills coach Angelo Ricci let go. Shaw was not one of those named, meaning he was still at the very worst in the running for the head coaching job or possibly sticking around and remaining an assistant. And possibly acting as a locker room ombudsman between the new coach and the players. Should Tocchet opt to not keep Shaw, he’s probably getting off on the wrong foot with the players before they even step on the ice for training camp. The players like Shaw, they respect Shaw, they don’t get away with murder because of it.

As the incoming head coach, Tocchet certainly doesn’t owe Shaw anything. He has every right to bring in his people in attempting to take Philadelphia towards contention. Or the people he thinks are the best for the job. But not taking advantage of an assistant who is willing to swallow his ego or pride to remain the proverbial second-fiddle on the bench to Tocchet would be foolish. Brad Shaw deserves to be a head coach. He probably deserved to be the Flyers head coach moving forward this year. Having him here helps the Philadelphia Flyers, which is all Rick Tocchet should be concerned about. This is a no-brainer. At least it should be. Tocchet hopefully has the smarts to understand this.