According to Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli, the Philadelphia Flyers have reportedly narrowed their search for a President of Hockey Operations to two candidates: former NHLers Keith Jones and Eddie Olczyk.
Both men currently work as analysts on regional broadcasts, with the former helping call Flyers games for NBC Sports Philadelphia and the latter paired with John Forslund for many Seattle Kraken broadcasts. They are also both analysts for Turner Sports’ national broadcasts of NHL games. Seravalli also reports that an announcement of the team’s choice is expected to come in the next few days.
The Flyers have been searching for someone to run their hockey operations department in a similar structure to what the Montreal Canadiens employ with Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes, and the Vancouver Canucks employ with Jim Rutherford and Patrik Allvin, to name a few. The arrangement involves pairing an experienced hockey mind as the President of Hockey Operations, typically managing general strategy and the whole of the hockey operations department, with a less experienced name to handle the day-to-day duties of general manager.
The Flyers already have former NHL star Daniel Briere installed in the general manager role, and have been widely reported to be looking for an experienced hand to help guide him, as Briere does not have extensive experience in the role of GM. Jones, 54, does not have any prior executive experience but has deep ties to the Flyers’ organization and is a highly recognizable face for the team’s vast fanbase.
As evidenced by his long career as a broadcaster, Jones’ abilities as a communicator could be something the Flyers value. Given that they plucked their current head coach out of the television ranks (John Tortorella was working for ESPN before he was hired as the Flyers’ bench boss) it is not wholly surprising that they could now fill another major front-facing organizational role with someone with television experience.
Olcyzk has similar experience, having served as a color commentator for U.S. national broadcasts for both NBC and now Turner Sports. Olczyk does also have some non-broadcasting experience on his resume since retiring from the NHL, having served as the Pittsburgh Penguins’ head coach from 2003-04 until being let go midway through 2005-06.
Like Jones, Olczyk is a familiar face for many Flyers fans whose skills as a communicator would be leaned on as the Flyers continue what has been a difficult re-tooling process.
It’s a good thing for Flyers fans that whoever is making this decision doesn’t seem to watch Sportsnet broadcasts…
Or trade 1st Round picks for D-man that doesn’t help improve their record. Ottawa trades for Jakob Chychrun 12th overall lmao
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Approaching 50 years since the last Stanley Cup won in Philadelphia. Sad! This franchise has been a step behind NHL trends since the 1980s. Even when they had playoff runs in the late 90’s, 2000’s and 2010’s they did not have enough to compete and advance. Hope Jonsey gets the job he would provide some care and fire to that role. Hopefully, they get some finance gurus to support whoever the next team president is and spend wisely and aggressively to get stars in the orange and black and revitalize fan interest.
They Hextall’ed us, I guess it’s only fair if we Edzo them.