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Philadelphia Flyers Fire Head Coach Dave Hakstol

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Reports have been varied over the last few days over the fate of Philadelphia Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol, but now multiple outlets including Sam Carchidi of the Philadelphia Inquirer are reporting that he has indeed been fired. In the official team release, GM Chuck Fletcher explains his decision:

After meeting this morning with Dave Hakstol and thoughtful consideration, I have decided to relieve him of his duties as head coach. As I continue to assess the team, I feel that this is the best course of action for our group moving forward. I’d like to thank Dave for his service to the team and the organization. Scott Gordon will serve as head coach on an interim basis.

Gordon, who had been coaching with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms of the AHL, has previous head coach experience with the New York Islanders. As for who will eventually take over the head job, nothing has been decided yet. The rumors surrounding Joel Quenneville appear to not be true at this moment, as the legendary coach is expected to wait until the offseason before making a decision on his next coaching job. Fletcher confirmed as much, saying he has not asked Chicago for permission to talk with Quenneville, and in fact hasn’t even spoken to him in two years.

In Philadelphia, the writing had been on the wall for some time. Though Fletcher decided to not fire Hakstol immediately after taking the job, instead replacing one of his assistant coaches with long-time colleague Rick Wilson, it was only a matter of time if the team did not rebound from a rough start. After performing well enough to make the playoffs last season, Philadelphia came into 2018-19 with plenty of optimism surrounding their young group. Instead of a quick start though, the team struggled out of the gate and couldn’t fix the goaltending problem that has plagued this organization for years. Elliott and Neuvirth have both dealt with injury, while not performing well enough even when they were healthy.

Carter Hart is on his way up from the minor leagues to give the team some hope in net, but solving the goaltending issue by forcing a 20-year old prospect into the spotlight is a risky move. Fortunately Hart will be working with a familiar face in Gordon, but still will have immense pressure to turn things around. The team has some outstanding offensive talents, but allowed 22 goals over their last four games (all losses) and couldn’t wait to make a switch behind the bench.

Now that the coaching move that many expected has happened, the question will turn to the roster itself. Fletcher has been rumored to be looking to try and make at least one move before Wednesday’s trade freeze comes into effect, but it’s unclear what exactly he’s trying to do to improve the roster. There are plenty of young talents on the group, but if the team is trying to compete this season they may have to move one for some more experience or reliability. That doesn’t make a ton of sense given their place in the standings—the Flyers sit last in the Eastern Conference with just 28 points—but there were reports that former GM Ron Hextall was let go because of his unwillingness to make moves to help the present club.

The season is clearly not over, and the Flyers currently sit just eight points out of a Metropolitan Division playoff spot. Even a short hot streak could put them right back into the race, and that will be what Gordon hopes to accomplish in the short-term. The team starts that journey on Tuesday night when they welcome the Detroit Red Wings into town.

Central Notes: Saros, Subban, Fabbri, Anisimov

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The Nashville Predators have succeeded this year based on the play of Vezina Trophy winner Pekka Rinne’s play. While Rinne has posted a 14-5-1 record, a 1.96 GAA and a .929 save percentage, his backup Juuse Saros, who many felt might share net responsibilities with the 36-year-old Rinne this year, hasn’t fared nearly as well with an 8-5 record, a 3.14 GAA and a .893 save percentage.

However, while Saros’ numbers suggest that he’s struggling this season, head coach Peter Laviolette said Saturday that he believes that the team isn’t playing well when the 23-year-old is in net, according to The Athletic’s Adam Vingan (subscription required).

“I’m going to be perfectly honest. I think that we’ve played lousy in front of (Saros),” Laviolette said. “There’s got to be accountability to the 18 guys that go out in front of him. Just too many odd-man rushes, too many point-blank chances, and that’s got to stop. And when that stops, he’s going to feel better and look better in there. There’s just too much coming at him.”

While Vingan writes that there is some truth to the comment as the team has had some of their worst defensive showings with Saros in net, including losses to San Jose on Nov. 13, to St. Louis on Nov. 23 and Calgary on Dec. 8. However, when looking even deeper, Vingan notes that both goalies have faced the same number of quality shots per game and it’s just Rinne’s amazing play that has separated the two goaltenders.

  • Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos suggested (via The Athletic’s Adam Vingan)that the unknown injury that Nashville Predators defenseman P.K. Subban is dealing with has nothing to do with the suspected back injury that he dealt with two years ago. Subban has missed 15 games this year with the undisclosed injury, but Kypreos said that Subban could be out for a bit longer. “It’s a real conservative approach by Nashville to keep him out. They think a 50-plus (game) regular season for P.K. could benefit him,” Kypreos said Saturday night on Hockey Night in Canada.
  • Lou Korac of NHL.com writes that oft-injured forward Robby Fabbri said he still should have a better idea around Christmas of his timetable of returning from his separated shoulder injury. “We’re just taking it day by day. I’m listening to the shoulder. What I do that day depends on how I wake up feeling and how I felt from the day before.”
  • Jon Lieser of the Chicago Sun-Times writes that while he’s not playing today, Chicago Blackhawks forward Artem Anisimov is close to returning to action. The 30-year-old should be eligible to be activated off IR before Tuesday’s game as he continues his recovery from a concussion suffered by a hit from Montreal’s Shea Weber on Dec. 9. “He looks like he’s closer to coming back, so hopefully he can,” coach Jeremy Colliton said at the morning skate. “I haven’t heard that he’s ready-ready, but we think he’s not far away.”

Latest on Flyers’ Coaching Situation

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4:36: Carchidi also writes that he believes Hakstol will be dismissed. As for who will replace him, he adds that Quenneville is just one of many coaches the team is considering. One significant option would be for the team to promote Lehigh Valley Phantoms’ coach Scott Gordon and see if he can motivate many of his former players to be successful.

3:59: Philly.com’s Sam Carchidi writes that while he believes Isaac’s report about the hiring of Quenneville, he asked Dave Scott, the CEO of the Flyers’ parent company, more than three hours ago about the report that Quenneville was coming to Philadelphia. The answer was “Not true.” Carchidi writes that something easily could have changed since then, however. Regardless, nothing has been confirmed.

3:42: Multiple sources are indicating that there is no deal. Fox Sports’ Andy Strickland writes that Quenneville said reports that he is taking the Flyers’ job are not true. TSN’s Darren Dreger also reports that it remains status quo in Philadelphia and no decision has been made on Hakstol.

3:24: It looks like Philadelphia Flyers’ new general manager Chuck Fletcher has made his big move. The new GM intends to fire head coach Dave Hakstol and will hire three-time Stanley Cup winner Joel Quenneville as their next head coach, according to Cherry Hill Courier-Post’s Dave Isaac. There has been no official word from the Flyers although the report says that Philadelphia intends to officially let Hakstol go either tonight or Monday morning. The scribe also adds that Fletcher has already offered the position to Quenneville and he’s accepted it.

 

 

Tampa Bay Lightning Juggles Roster To Keep Erik Cernak With Team

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It looks like the Tampa Bay Lightning are about to get back defenseman Anton Stralman, as the team activated him off of injured reserve for tonight’s game with Winnipeg, but rather than assign impressive rookie Erik Cernak to the AHL, the team instead opted to place forward Mathieu Joseph on IR instead, according to CapFriendly. That should give the team a little more time to decide what to do with Cernak.

The Lightning have liked what they’ve seen from Cernak since he was recalled on Nov. 13. The right-shot defenseman has already appeared in 16 games and has five assists as well as a plus-eight rating and already has outshined the team’s seventh defenseman Slater Koekkoek. However, considering the 21-year-old doesn’t need to pass through waivers is counting against him. Regardless, the team seems to be doing everything it can to keep him on their roster. He is getting solid minutes with the club, as he has exceeded the 20-minutes mark four of his last seven games. While playing time might be harder to get with Stralman back in the fold, the team isn’t ready for Cernak to depart.

“He’s developing at a faster pace than any of us thought,” head coach Jon Cooper said. “When he left camp I’m not sure he sat there and thought he’d play any games in the NHL. Now he’s just under 20. He’s left a great impression on us. And he’s still with us.”

Joseph was considered to be day-to-day with a lower-body injury, but Cooper referred to him as extremely doubtful earlier today. He was injured on Dec. 8 against Colorado, but tried to play through it Monday. By placing him on IR retroactive to that date, Joseph would have to sit at least two more games, giving the team time to decide what to do. The Athletic’s Joe Smith (subscription required) writes that the team has several options, which includes opting to keep him on the roster permanently and putting either Danick Martel or Koekkoek on waivers to free up a roster spot. It could also send Koekkoek on a conditioning assignment, considering he hasn’t played in a month. However, if the team can’t guarantee Cernak consistent minutes, they might be better off sending him back to the Syracuse Crunch.

“He’s on our team,” Cooper said of Cernak on Friday. “In the organization, there’s on the team and in the lineup. There’s a whole bunch of steps in there. But he’s really opened our eyes. And he’s completely added depth to our organization, to our team. How things play out when Stralman comes back? You want everyone healthy. You want to be able to have different players in the arsenal. So we’ll see where it goes from there.”

While the team is focused on this year, the team also has to consider their future on defense as the Lightning must deal with serious cap issues this offseason and have three unrestricted free agents on defense coming up, including Stralman, Braydon Coburn and Dan Girardi. Koekkoek also will be a restricted free agent himself. Getting Cernak into a regular role now could ease some of the concern next year if the team has to let several of those players go.

Philadelphia Flyers Could Be Ready To Make Coaching Change

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Sunday: Despite the Flyers falling 5-1 to Vancouver Saturday and the road trip being completed, there has been no coaching changes made of yet, according to Philly.com’s Sam Carchidi. The scribe writes that while a coaching change MAY happen at some point, rumors that the team has hired Joel Quenneville are not accurate. Hakstol remains the coach in Philadelphia.

Saturday: While it likely wouldn’t come as any surprise, they Philadelphia Flyers may be ready to make a coaching change. The Athletic’s Charlie O’Connor tweeted that he’s heard rumblings from key people that the Flyers may be ready to fire head coach Dave Hakstol after their road trip ends, which will be tonight after their game against Vancouver.

While Hakstol had an impressive coaching resume when he was hired back in 2015, that success hasn’t necessarily translated to the NHL. While he’s reached the playoffs twice on a rebuilding roster, the team has failed to get past the first round of the playoffs and the team has been abysmal in a season where many people felt the team was ready to compete for the top of their division. Instead, the Flyers have struggled this season, currently holding a record of 12-14-4, tied for last place in the Metropolitan Division.

The team’s struggles already cost the job of general manager Ron Hextall back on Nov. 26 and replaced soon after with new GM Chuck Fletcher, whose intention was to sit back and observe the team before making any changes. Hakstol’s chances are likely near an end, however, after the team’s recent losing streak as they have gone 3-7-3 in the last 13 games. That has included a recent string of tough losses, which started with a 7-1 loss to Winnipeg last Sunday, followed by a 6-5 overtime loss to Calgary in which the Flyers held a two-goal lead with 68 seconds left in the game and still lost. The team followed that up with a 4-1 loss Friday to Edmonton.

While the team seems to be waiting until after the road trip, that’s not too unusual. The Los Angeles Kings fired head coach John Stevens on Nov. 4 after the team pulled off a 4-1 victory over Columbus the day before, suggesting the team had already made up their mind about firing Stevens. The same could happen here. The Flyers are a team loaded with a core of top forwards, including Claude Giroux, Jakub Voracek, Sean Couturier, Travis Konecny, Nolan Patrick, James van Riemsdyk, Wayne Simmonds as well as top defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere and Ivan Provorov, but haven’t been able to put anything together. The team’s goaltending situation is a mess and likely to be one of Fletcher’s first acts as GM, to find a reliable netminder. Regardless, the team doesn’t seem to be responding to Hakstol at the moment.

Ottawa Places Max McCormick On Waivers

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With a number of players coming back from injury, the Ottawa Senators have decided to make some room on their roster as they placed winger Max McCormick on waivers, according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.

McCormick didn’t get much playing time with the Senators as he has only appeared in 14 games this season. Even when he did, Senators head coach Guy Boucher wasn’t big on handing him much playing time as he averaged just 7:30 of ATOI this season. He did play in the three recent games (albeit not the previous two) and got even less time as he averaged under six minutes a game. He has one goal this season.

The forward could be a cheap option for another team, although it would seem unlikely any team would want to take a chance on him. McCormick does make just the minimum $650K and will be an unrestricted free agent after this year. He played 30 games with Ottawa last season, producing three goals and five points.

Snapshots: Sestito, Thomas, Letang, Koivu

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It looks like enforcer Tom Sestito will be getting another chance to work his way back to the NHL as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports that the Toronto Marlies have signed the 6-foot-5, 228-pound forward to a professional tryout. A veteran of 154 NHL games, the 31-year-old had been playing in the AHL with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins for the previous two years, but he wasn’t able to get a contract this year.

Friedman says that his source said he was thrilled that Sestito was getting one last shot to work his way back and referred to him as a great teammate. Sestito’s best season came in the 2013-14 season with the Vancouver Canucks when he played 77 games and scored five goals and nine points and accumulated 213 penalty minutes. He was probably best known for hits that netted him a pair of four-game suspensions, including one against New York Rangers’ Andre Deveaux from behind in 2011 and another one in 2017 when he boarded Winnipeg’s Toby Enstrom. His last NHL team was the Pittsburgh Penguins where he played 17 games in the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons combined.

  • St. Louis Blues general manager Doug Armstrong said that forward Robert Thomas will not be loaned to Team Canada for the World Junior Championships, according to Fox Sports’ Andy Strickland. The 19-year-old has just two goals and seven points so far in his rookie campaign in St. Louis while averaging just over 12 minutes of ice time per game, so many have speculated the Blues could loan him out temporarily to get him extra playing time at the World Juniors. However, Thomas has seen a small spike in his playing time since head coach Mike Yeo was fired and replaced by Craig Berube as the team hopes that the 2017 first-rounder continues his development while learning on the bottom lines.
  • The Pittsburgh Penguins got some good news on the injury that defenseman Kris Letang suffered Friday in the third period against the Boston Bruins when the blueliner collided with Boston’s Joakim Nordstrom and had his knee buckle. Fans began to get concerned when he wasn’t able to stand on his own. However, while he did miss tonight’s game, the Penguins announced that he’s day-to-day, according to Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “It could’ve been a lot worse,” coach Mike Sullivan said. The 31-year-old has been having a solid season this year with seven goals and 25 points in 30 games this season.
  • NHL.com’s Kevin Falness reports that Minnesota Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau said that he expects center Mikko Koivu to return to the Wild’s lineup on Tuesday when they face San Jose. The 35-year-old has missed four games with a left leg injury, but a return could be a big addition as Koivu has put up solid numbers this year as he has four goals and 21 points in 27 games.

Oscar Klefbom Out Six To Eight Weeks After Finger Surgery

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Saturday: John Shannon of Sportsnet reports that Klefbom had surgery on his injured finger and is expected to be out between 6-8 weeks.

Wednesday: The Edmonton Oilers are rolling right now after installing a more defensive structure under new head coach Ken Hitchcock, but will now be without one of their best defensemen. Oscar Klefbom has been placed on injured reserve after suffering a hand injury in last night’s game that should keep him out “weeks.” The team has also activated Drake Caggiula while assigning Cooper Marody to the AHL. To make up for Klefbom’s absence, the team has recalled defenseman Caleb Jones, who could make his long-awaited NHL debut soon.

In the first ten games of the Hitchcock era in Edmonton, he made it very clear that he would lean heavily on the players who he thought gave him the best chance to win. Klefbom was one of them, averaging over 26 minutes a night before going down to injury against Colorado. The 25-year old had also recorded seven points in those ten games, including two game-winning goals. That’s nearly half his production for the entire season, and was a stretch that had him closer to the 2016-17 version that helped the Oilers reach the playoffs.

Losing him means someone else—almost surely Darnell Nurse—will have to carry the load defensively and play nearly half the game. Nurse got a taste of that when he recorded 30:44 of ice time last night, the highest total of his career by three full minutes. Along with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, Nurse will have to really excel in this period without Klefbom on the blue line and help the Oilers maintain their quick ascension of the Western Conference standings. Edmonton has gone 8-2-1 with Hitchcock in charge, and now sit just one point out of second place in the Pacific Division with a game in hand on both the San Jose Sharks and Anaheim Ducks.

Mike Green Out Three To Five Weeks

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The Detroit Red Wings are falling out of the playoff race in the Atlantic Division, and will now be without one of their best defensemen for quite some time. Mike Green will be out three to five weeks with a lower-body injury according to head coach Jeff Blashill, who spoke with reporters including Bruce Garrioch of Postmedia today. Filip Hronek has been recalled to fill Green’s spot on the roster.

Green’s inclusion on the 2018-19 Red Wings may have come as a surprise to some altogether, given that he was set to become an unrestricted free agent in the summer. Detroit was unable to trade him at last year’s deadline given his health concerns, but re-signed him to a two-year, $10.75MM contract just before free agency began in July. That deal also includes a full no-trade clause until February of 2020, meaning the Red Wings will be connected to Green for at least another year. Obviously that’s not a bad thing when the team is playing well and competing for a playoff spot, but with him on the sidelines there is reason to think that may not happen.

The 33-year old Green is still a very effective puck-mover, and leads the Detroit defense corps in both scoring and time on ice. With 16 points he actually stands fifth on the entire team despite having played only 23 games, and his almost 22-minutes a night puts him just ahead of Dylan Larkin for the team lead. Modern possession statistics and more traditional measures like +/- both love Green’s work this season, and it’s obvious to see why when watching him compete on a nightly basis. Losing that kind of impact from the blue line could cripple the Detroit attack, putting them in a tough spot to stand up in a hyper-competitive Atlantic division.

What the loss does do for the Red Wings is give even more opportunity for them to experiment with younger options like Hronek and Dennis Cholowski. The pair of young defensemen will be relied upon heavily moving forward, and can show exactly what they’re capable of now that Green is out of the lineup.

Matt Murray Activated From Injured Reserve

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The Pittsburgh Penguins finally have their expected starter back. Matt Murray has been activated from injured reserve, while Tristan Jarry was sent back to the minor leagues. Now the question becomes how the Penguins will use Murray, given Casey DeSmith’s stellar play as the starter in his absence. DeSmith has posted a .925 save percentage through 20 appearances this season, a number Murray has reached since 2016-17.

Back in October, head coach Mike Sullivan claimed that Murray was still obviously the team’s number one, despite DeSmith’s success early on. That assertion will be tested as the season progresses, and the Penguins attempt to continue their climb up the ladder of the Metropolitan Division standings.

After starting his career about as well as possible with back-to-back Stanley Cup championships, Murray has struggled recently to find an elite level capable of putting the Penguins over the edge. Some of that has to do with injury—Murray has suffered from multiple ailments including several concussions over his short career—and some with simple inconsistency. Both things will be tested now that he has ample competition for the starter role, in both DeSmith and top prospect Jarry. The team certainly can’t wait around for his play to rebound if they want to keep pace in the Metropolitan, where the Washington Capitals are starting to extend their lead and look like the dominant team that took home the Cup last season.

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