Shaw is open to being Flyers’ assistant coach

Brad Shaw says he’s open to being an assistant coach for the Flyers if the front office decides he’s not the head coach moving forward.

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 got a taste of being the Flyers’ head coach for the last nine games of the regular season. The team played a bit looser, gripped the sticks a lot less tighter and had some effectiveness on the power play. They didn’t go undefeated but the team looked different. During exit interviews Friday, Shaw said he’s definitely interested in being the Flyers head coach. But isn’t averse to remaining an assistant coach for the Flyers should the front office decide to hire someone from the outside.

“I would be,” Shaw said regarding his interest in being an assistant. “I’ve got three years invested in this defense corps, a lot of the main players I feel like I have good relationships with. I think from that point of view, that continuity has a big value. I’ve enjoyed my time here, I’ve enjoyed how I’ve been treated and how my family has been treated. It’s been fantastic. So I would definitely consider that.”

Shaw should be one of the (if not the) leading candidates to succeed John Tortorella. Although Shaw said the difference between being in charge of the six defenseman and trying to run the forwards was an eye-opener, he said he continues to keep learning and picking up things. Obviously he’d love to be the head coach when training camp rolls around. But it’s clear he’s not about to rock the boat, not after some of the players survived some rocky waters under Tortorella.

“I have interest, sure,” Shaw said. “I’m meeting with Danny at the start of next week at some point, not sure which day exactly. I was told I’d be part of the process in the hiring of the full-time head coach. So I assume at some point we’ll talk about that.”

Some of the players during the exit interviews couldn’t say enough good things about Shaw, whether it was Jamie Drysdale or Travis Sanheim, the latter saying he’d be “disappointed” if Shaw wasn’t behind the bench. Shaw, who met with about a half dozen of the players Friday, said he goes about teaching differently than other coaches. For him, it’s more about the reasons why a player made an error and concentrating on that. Not zeroing in on the mistake itself and the resulting possible punishment.

“I think I have a good ability to put myself in the players’ shoes in certain situations and maybe understand the mistake at times a little clearer,” Shaw says. “Or the why of the mistake. It doesn’t take away the fact the mistake was made. But I think you can focus on the mistake itself, or the process behind the mistake. I think I deal with that more than other coaches.

“You provide the concepts you want them to work under. I love rules. I think rules make you fast, but they also make you predictable and can also limit how much you’re learning on the ice. I think concepts allow guys to fill in the blanks and not play any slower or any less predictable.”

Shaw seems to have a very strong relationship with most of the current roster. He says if he was to be named Flyers head coach that relationship would change slightly.

“I think relationships would change a little bit, but again I have to stay true to who I am. There would be a level of accountability, absolutely. I’d actually ask the guys, ‘How do I hold you accountable?’ I think the answer allows you to hold them accountable with no beef on their part because they’ve provided you with the ammo. I think you have to have that in your weaponery. Your ice time is your best bullet. Sometimes it’s the only one you have in the chamber.

“But that’s a really good room right now. Whoever comes in and is the head coach has the benefit of getting a room that understands what work ethic is, understands how to play together, understands a lot of the team-based things that were instilled. I think The growth from within among some of the players only helps that room because it increases that internal competition which makes everybody better.”

As for some specific players and their season, Shaw was impressed with Sean Couturier, particularly with his play and the “drive he has” to return to his Selke Trophy years after missing almost two seasons. And he’s also been impressed with Emil Andrae for the simple fact Andrae’s not getting hit nearly as much as he did when he started his career with the Flyers. But he feels Andrae still gets into trouble when he tries to make a play that’s not there when the readily available simpler play is the high percentage one.

Regarding the decision to pair Cam York and Jamie Drysdale together, Shaw said he probably wouldn’t make the same decision again and isn’t keen to see the tandem together down the road. “I thought a few games in they had a chance. I think the last few games I kept waiting for them to get some traction. I would say it didn’t maybe materialize as much as I would’ve hoped or maybe we would’ve hoped. Two players who are really close friends I thought would mesh a little bit better. And it didn’t come together as well as I thought it would have. Probably so much that I wouldn’t look to play them very much together in the future.

“They’re both young guys. When you take the older guy Sanheim, he’s got so many more years of experience. A bigger guy, a more aggressive You take Seeler away from Jamie, another veteran guy an ultra-decisive guy, I think they lost the guy who triggered that decisiveness. They just spent too much time in their own zone.”