May 11: The Flyers have made it official, hiring Jones and removing Briere’s interim tag.
May 10: Sportsnet is reporting that the Philadelphia Flyers are set to name Keith Jones as President of Hockey Operations. Elliotte Friedman first broke the news this evening that will see the long-time broadcaster Jones move from the studio to the boardroom. Earlier today Frank Seravalli had reported that the Flyers were down to two options: Ed Olczyk and Keith Jones, with the Flyers electing to go with the latter over the former.
The Flyers are expected to make a formal announcement on Thursday at which time they will also drop the interim tag from Daniel Briere’s general manager position. Jones and Briere will take over from Chuck Fletcher who was fired March 10 as the Flyers were on the cusp of missing the playoffs for a third consecutive season.
Jones has been in broadcasting booth or between the benches since 2005 and is currently employed by the NHL on TNT as well as local Philadelphia broadcasts on NBC Sports Philadelphia. He is also a former Flyers player having been with the team for parts of three seasons from 1998-2001.
Jones, Briere, and company have a tall task in front of them. As mentioned earlier the Flyers haven’t made the playoffs in three seasons and have won just a single playoff round in the last 11 years. It’ll be interesting to see the path the Flyers go down and whether Jones and his management group elect to embrace the rebuild that the Flyers have desperately needed for the past half decade. The Flyers don’t have a particularly good prospect pool and haven’t been able to cash in on any of their pending free agents at the last two NHL trade deadlines. Their NHL roster is saddled with several bad contracts, and they are lacking in top end talent. If they do go for a rebuild, it will be long and painful and something that the Flyers organization haven’t had the stomach to do for quite some time.
Injuries quit mentioned in this article. A lot of bad luck (or bad training/coaching)
So Philadelphia needed changes at the top and they answer with two alumi with ZERO front office experience. SWEET!!!!!! The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
The last hire which was a disaster was a guy with a ton of front office experience who was never part of the organization. The definition of insanity is hiring idiots.
FLYERS FOR LIFE, the repeatedly loss in the brotherly love.
50 years without the cup, its what happen when you are choosing relatives instead of the best people to do the job.
Flyers are a joke and the will stay a joke probably as long as Bobby Clarke will stay around. A cultural change is needed in Phily and it seems it wont happen before an other 10 years.
Hextall was the biggest idiot, He’s also an alumi and he never won anything.
I think the best comparison for what the Flyers are doing is when the Phillies replaced Amaro Jr with Klentak as a young assistant GM and Andy McPhail as a president of baseball ops who was only there for business and marketing and PR. I don’t think Jones will factor into team management.
Great he is off tv what a relief. Poor at that job hopefully better for the flyers
Jones and Olczyk are the two best NHL analysts.
That made me throw up then laugh..Hahaha. LOL
I like Fred Flintstone as much as the next guy, but this just makes me think less of the title “President of Hockey Operations.”
As a Pens fan, I should be cackling about this, but…it’s honestly just too sad and pathetic to be funny.
You don’t have to worry in Pittsburgh. Just threaten bankruptcy and Mario will get what he needs from the league.
More of a PR move, I would think………….
The Sabres hired GMKA with very little to known established NHL front office experience. If both Jones & Briere show patience, can draft well & be smart with future long term signings they should do ok. They should not do the multiple buyouts that Guerin did with the Wild.
Guerin got those mega contracts off the books and still made the playoffs. I wouldn’t pass judgement on him just yet. He will soon have both a decent core and a wealth of cap space, if he flubs that, then we can blast him.
When you are buying out, its not a direct trade, but you are receiving better draft pick in the future, there is a value to buy out.
And when you have Judd Brackett as head scout, there you go and the Wild have a bright future, their strategy is going well actually.
$15 million dead cap hits for a few more seasons especially in a tight cap Era (next offseason things change) is gonna hurt the Wild this off-season (about $8.25 million in cap space). 1 big buyout is not a big deal but 2? Not very smart. Losing in the 1st round again shows it wasn’t Kevin F fault.
Question? Why would Jones want the job?
I’ll miss Jonesy on the Flyers telecasts. It’s just hard to imagine him sitting behind a desk with a full inbox.