The Philadelphia Flyers are roaring through the 2020 NHL postseason, winning all three of their round-robin games convincingly and downing the Montreal Canadiens in game one of their first-round series. The team, led by head coach Alain Vigneault and GM Chuck Fletcher looks poised for a long Stanley Cup run this summer, but neither man was part of the organization when the seeds of this group were sown.
A lot of that credit goes to former GM Ron Hextall, who spoke to The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun about his time in Philadelphia and how his vision is now playing out. Interestingly, LeBrun notes at the end of the piece how Hextall is “ready for another crack at it” and points out that there is a vacancy in the Florida Panthers front office right now.
- The Toronto Maple Leafs have announced that Paul McFarland has now left the organization to take the head coaching job with the Kingston Frontenacs of the OHL, something that had already been reported. New though was that they have also not renewed the contract of assistant coach Andrew Brewer, who had been with the club since 2015. Brewer, a video coach, has a long history with former Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock, who was let go earlier this season.
- Though the OHL and WHL have both indicated that they hope to start the 2020-21 season in December, the QMJHL is taking a different route. The other CHL league will begin to play on October 1 if all goes according to plan from here on out. Training camps are expected to start at the end of August with a 60-game regular season schedule planned.
How about Nigel Kirwan as video coach? You also have young defensemen. A defensive coach with a proven sound system as an assistant would help. Ramsey,Martin,Dineen all have a record and a variable amount of success.
Thanks Siri for making me sound illiterate.
She’s a gem.
Uh, @Dave, you may have to tweak Siri a bit. You probably said “literate”, and Siri toe-picked with “illiterate”…
Bring Hextall to Pit, let him take over for JR next after next season
@TJECK109 – “Bring Hextall to Pit” ? You know Pens fans are seeing red (somewhat justifiably so, no pun intended) and it would only get worse with Hexy there. He’s the type that would sabotage the team on a bet or a dare…
Nah I don’t think so, if anything i think he’s gonna be out to prove Philly wrong
@TJECK109 – That is a legit theory, but I’d rather see somebody else be the guinea pig. After all, it is Hextall we’re talking about here… :)
Hextall was doing a great job in Philly. I was glad they fired him before he could make them even better. Some team could do a lot worse.
They should build a statue of him (next to the Rocky statue) for drafting Carter Hart alone.