The Philadelphia Flyers could consider hiring someone who was behind the bench on the other side of the state with the Penguins.
The Philadelphia Flyers are just one of several NHL teams who are starting this offseason looking for someone to run their bench. Playoff-hopeful teams have either fired their coach to find the right guy to bring their veteran-heavy lineup to the next level, or younger teams are looking for someone to grow with their team and hope for some success down the road.
Of course, the Flyers fall in that second group. General manager Danny Briere and president of hockey operations Keith Jones are looking for that specific coach to bring them to the next level — to move into being a competitive hockey team run by a young core, instead of someone who loses more games than they win. Naturally, the group of rumored candidates are some college coaches like Western Michigan’s Pat Ferschweiler or the young hotshot, University of Denver’s David Carle; or some minor-league bench bosses that just need that second opportunity like Hershey Bears head coach Todd Nelson. Those dots are easily connected.
But, what if the Flyers hire someone who could be considered a familiar face on NHL benches, but also get some of the positives of that previously mentioned group of candidates?
The Seattle Kraken just fired head coach Dan Bylsma after one single year in charge. While we obviously aren’t watching all 82 Kraken games to truly get a sense of why this happened, on the surface level, it sure seems like another coaching change caused by bad goaltending and a subpar power play. Why he got fired isn’t really important, but the fact that he is available, is.
Bylsma was obviously behind the bench for the 2009 Stanley Cup win for the Pittsburgh Pneguins, and then went on to coach that team until they suffered their fifth consecutive playoff exit without making another Final, in 2014. He moved on to coach the Buffalo Sabres in 2015, with a rookie Jack Eichel as that team was still trying to recover from tearing everything down to the studs in hopes to draft Connor McDavid — and lasted just two seasons there. Fast forward to the 2018-19 season where he joined the Detroit Red Wings bench for three seasons as an assistant; went down to the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers as an assistant in 2021-22, became AHL Coachella Valley’s head coach for two years and reached the Calder Cup Finals in both years before moving on up to the Kraken just this past season.
While Bylsma is largely considered a retread and certainly isn’t an unknown in the NHL, that entire journey leaves him with some of the positive attributes the Flyers want in their new head coach. It’s like mashing all the good parts about both typical coaching options and putting it in one guy.
Because, what are the positives of these retreads? Largely, it is having experience and knowing how to handle the NHL. It’s a different animal all together and Bylsma having been the head coach for parts of nine total seasons is not something to just throw away. Having a guy who’s Been There, isn’t always a negative. But also, after Bylsma was fired by Buffalo, for him to back to the AHL and really restart some of his career from that level as a minor-league assistant, and then to quickly work back to being an NHL head coach, shows that he clearly learned something.
Coachella Valley were an absolute wagon under his ruling. He was able to have a direct hand on molding someone like Shane Wright to being the impact NHL center he was this season. That experience and him being general open to new challenges is what every team sort of wants when it comes to hiring someone who doesn’t have that big-league experience under their belt.
Even when it came to the Kraken, it’s no coincidence that young wingers who were tossed aside by their former clubs like Kaapo Kakko, were able to quickly revitalize their career under Bylsma. He doesn’t appear to be so holdfast to keep his veterans at the top of the lineup — as soon as Kakko was acquired, he was put among the top of the depth chart and was averaging almost four more minutes a game than he was with the Rangers, and he rewarded that trust with 30 points in the 49 games he played with Seattle.
This Flyers roster is stuffed with similar players like Kakko, trying to find their footing in an NHL lineup and possibly just needs the right environment to make it work. Maybe, Bylsma can do the same thing for Owen Tippett to get scoring again, or Tyson Foerster to be more consistent, or even Bobby Brink to take that next step.
This isn’t necessarily a call for Bylsma to be handed the Philadelphia job immediately, just that his name should be added to the list and should get at the very least an interview. Among all the available coaches with several years of experience, it certainly feels like Bylsma would be one of the best options and the Flyers most likely won’t be reaching out to just college and minor-league coaches.
