For a long time, it seemed as though the Philadelphia Flyers were going to see through their four-year commitment to John Tortorella come hell or high water… and then both hell and high water actually manifested and as the end of year three approaches, it feels like the Flyers are reaching a crossroads with their head coach.
The John Tortorella era has largely come as promised. They worked hard, they had more success than anticipated, but they topped out as a bubble team on the outside looking in and got the full experience with Tortorella’s media antics and feuds with the players that don’t conform to his system. The Flyers desperately need something new, and if it isn’t going to come in the form of a large scale roster overhaul, it needs to be in the form of a new head coach. Running back a near identical product for a third season in a row is just asking for everyone to turn on the rest of front office.
And quite frankly, even if there was a large scale roster overhaul, it immediately loses some steam with Tortorella behind the bench. “Hey the Flyers acquired *insert fun name here!* Great can’t wait for Torts to bench him for not back checking!” There’s just not much more for the veteran coach to prove, and this tiger won’t change his stripes. Everyone knows exactly what the Flyers will get with Tortorella lingering around for one more season, and that’s not really a good thing.
The team is on pace to miss the playoffs for the third straight season under Tortorella (and fifth consecutive season overall) and, largely, haven’t made a ton of progress from the early days of this regime. The PK is better, the defense is more composed, they picked up a few more wins than they did in the post-pandemic hellscape that was the Flyers. But on the whole, they’ve just been treading water with a low-ceiling, talent-starved roster that is no longer going over as well with the masses as it once did.
Tortorella has one more season left on his contract, and he himself said this is his last head coaching gig in the NHL one way or another, so he probably isn’t too worried about potentially having a lame-duck season in 2025-26 if the Flyers were to retain him, but for the organization, they need to consider their next step in a post-Torts world regardless of whether it starts on 2025 or 2026.
So if they were to dismiss Tortorella in 2025, who are the most likely candidates to replace him?
Brad Shaw
Shaw has been an assistant under John Tortorella through the entirety of his tenure in Philly, and a regular member of Tortorella’s staff since 2016 across three different teams. He’s largely responsible for the improved penalty kill and organized defense with the Flyers. Moving him over to head coach and letting him name a new assistant (and hopefully two, replacing the dreadful Rocky Thompson as well) seems like the most logical course of action.
Though historically, Shaw has always been an assistant. He coached 40 games as an HC in 2005-06 with the Islanders, but has spent nearly two decades between the Blues, Blue Jackets, Canucks and Flyers as an assistant focused on defense.
There are rumors that he was considered for head coaching roles in 2023, notably the Ducks sniffed around, but nothing came to fruition and he stayed in Philly. Maybe a focus strictly on the defense and PK is just his preferred role, and based on his success, he’s earned the right to stay where he’s comfortable.
If the Flyers do go through a coaching change and Shaw, for whatever the reason, refuses the head coaching job, he’d be the only worthwhile member of the current staff to keep onboard.
Ian Laperriere
“Lappy” has been around the Flyers organization in a coaching role for over a decade now, and has been serving as head coach of the Lehigh Valley Phantoms since 2021-22. He got the team back to the postseason in 2023 and got them past the prelims for the first time since 2018 in 2024.
His claim to fame is his ability to be a “player’s coach,” meaning he’s likable and “one of the boys” i.e. the exact opposite of hard-nosed disciplinarian Tortorella. For a team that loves culture as much as the Flyers, bringing somebody in that is not only already familiar with a chunk of the roster but is a guy who can nurture that environment may be what they’re looking for.
Can Lappy be a viable head coach at the NHL level? He’s certainly not the sexiest option out there, but he’s celarly being groomed by the organization for an eventual return to an NHL bench, and now seems like as good a time as any for the transition. Even if it’s in an interim role while they search for a more decorated option for the long term.
David Carle
Carle has some of the fasting rising coaching stock in all of hockey at the moment. He has coached the University of Denver to two NCAA championships in the last three years and recently led Team USA to gold at the 2024 World Juniors. It’d be a huge shift for the Flyers to go from the man who built the old school to the face of the modern day hockey coach.
There’s also some Flyers connections there, as he coached Bobby Brink and Massimo Rizzo at Denver and he’s the brother of former Flyer Matt Carle.
Carle has been rather coy about leaving the collegiate level for the NHL. He’s only 35 years old and has openly gave interviews about looking for the “opportunity of a lifetime” but he’s “in no rush” to jump to the NHL level. Being the man to lead a once-proud franchise like the Flyers back to their former glory would be a huge feather in his cap, but at the same time, given how long the stagnation has rotted away at the Flyers, taking the gig only to have a couple years of similar lackluster results because of an incompetent front office certainly doesn’t look good on a résumé.
Someone Else?
The reality is the list of options is nearly endless. Countless re-treads, handfuls of college or AHL level coaches looking for their big break, even other in-house options like Phantoms assistant and former Flyer Jason Smith could be in consideration.
Atop the re-tread list as to be former Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft, who was a participant at Flyers’ training camp this season. He did take the Oilers to a Western Conference Final in 2022, but finished with a lesser result in 2022-23 before being canned just 13 games into 2023-24. He had some success in the AHL and won a Stanley Cup with Detroit as their video coach, but his lone test at the NHL didn’t exactly breed enticing results.
Ultimately, the direction of the organization is going to be the big question in terms of who gets the job next. Do younger coaches want to come behind the bench in Philly if they inherit a listless ship? Taking a dead end job with a forever .500 team and continuing to miss the playoffs can’t be an enticing gig. Hell, even most veteran coaches may not find the Flyers’ product all that worthwhile anymore.
The rest of the front office has been unclear at best when it comes to their intended direction. They use the word “rebuild” but talk about their desires to make the postseason. But all the talk of the playoffs has been followed up with virtually no main roster changes leaving them stuck in the no-man’s land we’ve come to know and loathe.
Though, Matvei Michkov is here now and the team does have a semi-decent foundation that could be even better with a more proactive Danny Briere. It doesn’t have to be the worst situation to step into if the front office had a clue. Maybe parting ways with Torts and bringing in a new coach, regardless of his experience, is truly the beginning of a “new era of orange.”
One of the biggest questions when it comes to parting ways with Torts early and their desired name isn’t on the market- Do they call Lappy in an interim role and reassess in 2026?
The St. Louis Blues did something similar recently. They fired Craig Berube and promoted AHL coach Drew Bannister as the interim head coach (though named him the full-time coach in May of 2024) then quickly fired him in favor of talented veteran coach Jim Montgomery in November.
Get rid of Torts, replace him with a well liked guy like Lappy on an interim level, and reassess their options over the following year. If they’re lucky maybe the Penguins fire Mike Sullivan and the Flyers can scoop him up, adding a proven winner behind the bench. The option to not rush to a decision could work out favorably for the Flyers to sit back and wait for their guy to hit the market. As for Lappy, he’s been with the Flyers forever. He’s probably be fine getting shipped back to Lehigh Valley or taking another “eye in the sky” gig in Philly. And if not, it’s not exactly a devastating loss.
As the 2024-25 season starts to wrap up, expect some clarity on the coaching situation in Philadelphia. But if the Flyers don’t have a miraculous end-of-season run in them where they end up back in playoff contention, Briere and friends in the front office are going to seriously need to consider their options when it comes to moving on from John Tortorella. Their own standing in the organization and job security could rely heavily on how they play their cards here.
By: Dan Esche (@DanTheFlyeraFan)
brotherlypuck.com 