- After not reporting to Philadelphia’s AHL affiliate after the regular season ended, many wondered if goaltender Aleksei Kolosov could be looking to return to the KHL. Sport-Express’ Artur Khairullin recently reported that the 23-year-old is expected to return to Dynamo Minsk next season, even though he’s under contract with the Flyers through next June. Kolosov played in a dozen games with Lehigh Valley early in the year and got into 17 more games with Philadelphia the rest of the way but struggled, posting a 3.59 GAA and a .867 SV% in those outings. With Kolosov on an NHL deal next season, the logistics of Kolosov returning to the KHL will need to be worked out, either by a mutual termination if Philadelphia is willing or his deal could ultimately be tolled at the NHL level.
Flyers Rumors
Flyers Retain Ian Laperriere As Hockey Operations Advisor
The Flyers announced today that Ian Laperriere will rejoin the organization as an advisor to the club’s hockey operations department.
For the last four seasons, Laperriere, 51, had served as the head coach of Philadelphia’s AHL affiliate, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. NHL.com’s Bill Meltzer reported last week that he wouldn’t be back in the role next season, although at the time it seemed he would look elsewhere for coaching roles with an easier pathway to an NHL job.
That changed over the weekend when Anthony Di Marco of The Fourth Period said Laperriere would remain with the Flyers in an off-ice capacity. The Montreal native previously served in Philly’s front office as their director of player development in the 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons before transitioning to coaching roles for the next decade.
Regardless, Laperriere extends his stay in the organization he’s called home since signing his last contract as a player with the Flyers in 2009. He retired in 2012 after spending his final two seasons under contract on long-term injured reserve due to lingering concussion symptoms and immediately transitioned into a front office role.
The Flyers have yet to name a replacement for Laperriere as Lehigh Valley’s head coach, but they said in today’s release that one will begin immediately.
“I want to thank Ian for his tireless work in Lehigh Valley for the last four seasons,” said general manager Daniel Brière. “He not only led the Phantoms in a return to the playoffs, but provided crucial development to several of our prospects. I am excited to welcome him back to the Flyers so he can continue to provide his insight in helping our team as we enter the next phase of the rebuild.”
Maple Leafs Showed Strong Interest In Acquiring Rasmus Ristolainen Earlier This Season
Back at the trade deadline, the Maple Leafs and Flyers made one of the bigger trades of the day with Toronto picking up center Scott Laughton. However, it appears that Laughton wasn’t the only veteran Flyer they were going after as Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch relays that Toronto also made a serious run for defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen at the deadline with a league source suggesting that the Maple Leafs made a very strong offer but were rebuffed.
The 30-year-old has been in trade speculation for the last couple of years now but he wasn’t moved at the 2024 deadline with the team still in the mix for a playoff spot. Well out of contention by then this season, Ristolainen was believed to have more of a chance of moving although it appears GM Daniel Briere set a very high asking price.
Ristolainen enjoyed a bounce-back year in 2024-25, picking up 19 points in 63 games, his second-best output over the last five seasons. More important, he upped his playing time by nearly four minutes per game compared to the year before, going from being a depth piece to one of former head coach John Tortorella’s more trusted options.
As it turns out, the deadline might have been the best time for the Flyers to move Ristolainen. Soon after the deadline, he was shut down with an upper-body injury. Then last month, he underwent triceps surgery, a procedure that carries a recovery timeline of six months, meaning that Ristolainen will miss training camp and the first couple of weeks of the regular season. Speculatively, teams will want to ensure that he has fully recovered from that before putting forth their best efforts to acquire him and the final two years left on his deal that carries a $5.1MM cap charge.
On the surface, it seems unlikely that Toronto would rekindle their interest. After failing to acquire Ristolainen, GM Brad Treliving turned his focus to acquiring defenseman Brandon Carlo to seemingly fill the same top-four role that they were likely viewing Ristolainen to fill. With their top six on the back end intact and some prominent free agents up front, reshaping the forward group will likely be Toronto’s top priority in the coming weeks. But with a relatively thin free agent market for right-shot blueliners, Briere should expect to be receiving some phone calls about Ristolainen once again this offseason.
Laperriere To Remain With Flyers In Unknown Capacity
- While Ian Laperriere will no longer be coaching the Flyers’ AHL affiliate in Lehigh Valley, his days with the organization aren’t numbered. Anthony Di Marco of The Fourth Period relays (Twitter link) that the former NHLer will remain in the organization in a different capacity. Laperriere has been with Philadelphia since 2012, spending time in player development while also coaching at the NHL and AHL levels.
Flyers May Opt To Avoid Big Name Free Agents
- Speaking of Marner, Kevin Kurz of The Athletic wrote that the Philadelphia Flyers should be in the market for forwards this offseason but added that he doesn’t see the potential Toronto free agent or any other big-name player as viable options. While GM Daniel Briere recently expressed that the organization is in a position to add key players as opposed to trade them away, making a move for a player that could receive upwards of $12 million per season may not fit into the Flyers plans. With a roster full of young, promising forwards, adding someone like Marner might accelerate the organization’s timeline prematurely.
Flyers Part Ways With AHL Head Coach Ian Laperriere
The Flyers will not have AHL head coach Ian Laperriere back with the organization next season, according to NHL.com’s Bill Meltzer.
Laperriere has been a part of the Philadelphia organization in some capacity since 2009. The Montreal native played 1,083 NHL games as a checking winger, including the final season of his career with the Flyers in their run to the 2010 Stanley Cup Final. Multiple concussions sustained during that season ended his career, though. After his contract expired following the 2011-12 season, he officially retired and joined their front office as their director of player development. He was shifted to a bench role as an assistant coach the following year and remained in that position until 2021, when Philly reassigned him to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms to serve as their head coach.
After four AHL campaigns with the Phantoms and well over a decade with the Flyers, Laperriere now moves on. He posted a 134-120-38 record in the regular season and made the Calder Cup Playoffs every year but his first. This season, he coached the Phantoms to an upset two-game sweep of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in the first round before taking the defending champion Hershey Bears to a winner-take-all Game 5 in the Atlantic Division Semifinals.
Laperriere’s departure from the organization is mutual, Meltzer said, adding he “covets an NHL head coaching chance.” It’s unlikely he’ll get that in this cycle, but with Rick Tocchet signing a five-year deal to serve as the Flyers’ bench boss this month, it certainly wasn’t going to come in Philadelphia anytime soon. He’ll now look for a role in another organization with a clearer path toward being an internal promotion candidate and serving as an NHL head coach for the first time.
Snapshots: Tocchet, Stolarz, Stars
Rick Tocchet landed with the Flyers for his next head coaching gig as many expected, but they weren’t the only team with interest in hiring him after he departed the Canucks organization. One club linked to him was the Bruins, who have yet to fill their vacancy.
After his brief stint on the free agent market came to a close, it appears that having some long-term front office stability was a priority for Tocchet as he decided which clubs to have mutual interest with, according to RG’s James Murphy. With Boston general manager Don Sweeney entering the final season of his contract and the team in a precarious, retooling position, that was enough for Tocchet to essentially withdraw himself from consideration for the role.
“He was concerned for two reasons – Sweeney’s status and Sweeney’s track record with his head coaches,” a source told Murphy. Boston has fired Bruce Cassidy and Jim Montgomery in the last three years, both of whom have gone on to either win a Stanley Cup or vastly improve their team’s outlook in their new roles in Vegas and St. Louis.
As Murphy points out, if true, Sweeney may have spoken too soon when discussing his confidence in landing his preferred candidate during his end-of-season media availability. “I’ll call you up and let you know if somebody turns it down, the invitation to interview for one of the most historic jobs in the National Hockey League,” Sweeney said at the time.
More from around the NHL:
- After a Game 6 shutout to keep his team alive, Maple Leafs goaltender Joseph Woll is getting the start again in tonight’s Game 7. Even if Anthony Stolarz, who was Toronto’s starter to begin the postseason but hasn’t played since leaving Game 1 with apparent concussion symptoms, was available to play, he’d likely go, but that’s not the case. Stolarz did not practice this morning and will not dress, according to Jonas Siegel of The Athletic. Veteran Matt Murray, who entered Game 5 in relief of Woll for his first playoff action in five years, will again dress as Woll’s backup.
- The Stars’ in-season moves are arguably the biggest reason they’ve advanced to the Western Conference Final in three straight years, Nicholas J. Cotsonika writes for NHL.com. Aside from Mikko Rantanen re-emerging as a superstar after his roller-coaster regular season that saw him arrive in Dallas from Colorado by way of Carolina, their depth has stepped up in considerable fashion with top defenseman Miro Heiskanen and top left-winger Jason Robertson – the latter of whom only has one point in five games – missing the majority of their postseason slate thus far.
More On Brad Shaw's Split With Flyers
Yesterday, Flyers general manager Daniel Brière confirmed an earlier report that associate coach and briefly interim head coach Brad Shaw won’t be back with the team next season. According to Jonathan Bailey of The Hockey News, Shaw wasn’t enthused about going through the interview process a second time to remain a part of new head coach Rick Tocchet’s staff after finishing as the runner-up to Tocchet in head coaching interviews over the past few weeks.
Flyers Expecting Free Agency Interest After Hiring Tocchet
A new voice on the bench may not be the only reason the Philadelphia Flyers aggressively pursued Rick Tocchet as their next head coach. According to General Manager Daniel Brière (via Jordan Hall of NBC Sports Philadelphia), Tocchet’s presence in Philadelphia makes the team more attractive to free agent targets, and agents have already started calling.
Brière’s statement is some gamesmanship on his part. Teams can’t begin talking about contracts until a few days before the free agency period starts on July 1st, with that being the first day contracts can be officially registered. Brière never said the Flyers were talking terms with any players in particular, and it’s unlikely a General Manager would openly admit to tampering.
Still, there may be a hint of truth in Brière’s claim. At the end of the regular season, he expressed his desire to add to Philadelphia’s roster this summer, rather than continuing to reduce it. They’ll have the financial flexibility to do so, as the Flyers are expected to enter the free agency period with approximately $25MM, with only a few key pending restricted free agents to re-sign.
Brad Shaw Won’t Return To Flyers
After ending the season as the Flyers’ interim head coach, associate coach Brad Shaw has informed the team he won’t be back next season on new boss Rick Tocchet’s staff, sources tell Charlie O’Connor of the ALLCITY Network.
The news means Tocchet will have the chance to fill his entire bench himself, aside from goaltending coach Kim Dillabaugh, who’s slated to return for his 11th season on Philadelphia’s coaching staff. The Flyers announced last month they weren’t retaining their full complement of assistants under former head coach John Tortorella – Angelo Ricci, Rocky Thompson, and Darryl Williams.
Shaw was a finalist for the permanent job in Philly this summer and very well could have had his interim tag removed had Tocchet not become available by way of the Canucks. With the Blackhawks, Bruins, Kraken, and Penguins still searching for new head coaches this offseason, he likely believes he’s got a legitimate shot at landing one of those roles.
While the 61-year-old Shaw’s stops as an NHL head coach are few and far between, and he’s only ever been an interim boss, he’s got promising results. He coached a mediocre Islanders club to a .500 record over 40 games in the latter half of the 2005-06 season before finishing this year with a 5-3-1 record in Philly.
In between, the former Senators captain has stayed busy as an assistant/associate coach. He was on the Blues’ bench from 2006 to 2016 before joining the Blue Jackets from 2016 to 2021. He spent one season with the Canucks (and as an assistant for Italy at the 2022 Olympic qualifiers) before signing on with Philadelphia in 2022.