Assistant Coaching ** Joe Mullen Will Not Return per Organization

[Sawdalite]

Current Assistant Coaches
Joe Mullen 2007–present
Ian Laperriere 2013–present
Gord Murphy 2014–present


When Hkastol was brought in as an NHL Rookie Head Coach for the 2015-16 Season he inherited the Assistant Coaches that were in place during Berube's final Season as Head Coach.

It is often said 'you cannot fire the entire Team'... so the Head Coach often takes the fall for a Roster that under-performs... we have all but been assured that this will not be the case with the Flyers after this Season... and, with the Current CBA and the Cap Era firmly in place, it is difficult to move under-performing Players with established Capped Contracts... The GM has a Plan and has patience, but he also has Contracts to deal with and Core Players that have hefty Contracts but have not proved to be enough to consistently, with the surrounding teammates, get the Team into the PostSeason... let alone have them contend for the Cup.

The Special Teams have not been performing well enough to allow the Team to win enough close Games... The five on five play has not produced enough Goals... The in-Game decisions have not worked out enough... The personnel decisions have at times been head scratchers... and the Goalie Rotation has raised questions... All of which are products of coaching... Yet Hakstol will most likely return... it seems obvious to me that the Head Coach can benefit from better coaching support... and maybe some of the Assistants will have to be sacrificed as they take the fall for the Coaching's shortcomings as a whole.


With the GM, HC, Core and most Role Players returning for 2017-18 and the existing Players needing to play better, while Prospects need to be infused into the Roster... the questions I have are:

* Should all or some of the current Assistant Coaches be released?

* Should a veteran Coach with past HC experience be brought in to mentor and support Hakstol?

* Who should Hextall try and bring in to assist Hakstol in righting the ship?

Click to read more...

 

[Appleyard]

Lappy should be gone for sure.

Since his first full season there is an argument to be made that the Flyers have been worse on the PK than every NHL team bar Arizona... they are the only other team to have 3 seasons in a row at 80.5% or under.

 

[tictactoe]

All of them should be gone, same goes for head coach.
Clean the house.

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

The fact that Lappy has lasted this long is ****ing awful. Mullen is one that I'm unsure of. We can have a super deadly power play and then for streaks at a time it will just stop.

 

[Magua]

Don't see it happening, but I wish all 3 would go. Lappy is the only one I feel comfortable saying he's done. But it's not like Murphy is some hot commodity making a living coaching crap defenses. Don't think these baffling defensive personnel decisions are just on Hakstol. Murphy absolutely has a major role in them. And Mullen has run his course, even if he was great for a long time. It happens. Things get stale.

Hakstol needs a better sounding board and an injection of new ideas. An issue I have is that I'm not entirely sold they'd even hire a good coach(es). Probably will just go with another itinerant "hockey guy." None of our hires in recent years, across both pro teams, give me a ton of confidence. Hakstol probably just wants a yes man anyway.

 

[BobbyClarkeFan16]

I'd like to see what Hakstol can do with his own guys in place as assistants. If the team still lacks under Hakstol's watch, then fire everyone. Right now, I'm perfectly content with sending all three assistants out the door.

Appleyard made a great point about the PK being awful under Lappy's watch. To add to it, Gord Murphy has only had two defenses under his watch finish in the top 10. Out of 14 years as being a defensive coach, 2 top 10 finishes. He's had three finishes between 10 and 15 and the rest have been bottom 10 finishes, including worst overall defense, 2nd worst, two fifth worst and a seventh worst. I had high hopes for Gord, but he's just not a good coach. Every defenseman this year (other than Provorov) took a huge step backwards. I get some will blame that on Hak, but that falls into Murphy's lap.

So, give Hak the assistants he wants and go from there.

 

[Adam Warlock]

All 3 need to go.

Timonen and/or Briere as an assistant would not surprise me.

 

[Magua]

It's not like Timonen or Briere couldn't make great coaches, but they have no coaching experience. Great players don't always make great coaches, and we've been through this **** before, and plenty other teams make mistakes just giving jobs to their teams' former great players. A guy like Hextall put in a ton of mileage before he got this job; he had the experience. Hey, they could be naturals, but it does make me pause. Sounds great in theory but.......

 

[BackToTheBrierePatch]

it is pretty rare for a team to fire the HC and all the assistants.
I would be against bringing in former players with no coaching experience at all to coach this team. I agree with Magua. looks good in theory, but yeah it doesnt always work out.

 

[Sawdalite]

Don't see it happening, but I wish all 3 would go. Lappy is the only one I feel comfortable saying he's done. But it's not like Murphy is some hot commodity making a living coaching crap defenses. Don't think these baffling defensive personnel decisions are just on Hakstol. Murphy absolutely has a major role in them. And Mullen has run his course, even if he was great for a long time. It happens. Things get stale.

Hakstol needs a better sounding board and an injection of new ideas. An issue I have is that I'm not entirely sold they'd even hire a good coach(es). Probably will just go with another itinerant "hockey guy." None of our hires in recent years, across both pro teams, give me a ton of confidence. Hakstol probably just wants a yes man anyway.

While I guess it is safe to assume that most people would like to have people surrounding them that agree with them... but, since Hak inherited the Assistants he has had here, we really have no idea who he wants... until he is allowed to have a say on his staff.

I'd like to see what Hakstol can do with his own guys in place as assistants. If the team still lacks under Hakstol's watch, then fire everyone. Right now, I'm perfectly content with sending all three assistants out the door.

Appleyard made a great point about the PK being awful under Lappy's watch. To add to it, Gord Murphy has only had two defenses under his watch finish in the top 10. Out of 14 years as being a defensive coach, 2 top 10 finishes. He's had three finishes between 10 and 15 and the rest have been bottom 10 finishes, including worst overall defense, 2nd worst, two fifth worst and a seventh worst. I had high hopes for Gord, but he's just not a good coach. Every defenseman this year (other than Provorov) took a huge step backwards. I get some will blame that on Hak, but that falls into Murphy's lap.

So, give Hak the assistants he wants and go from there.

At first I guess Hakstol's lack of NHL experience precluded his bringing in his own Assistants... thus he had to take what was in place -- although they had not proved to have coached successful Teams here, for the most part -- Now though he has been in the NHL two full Seasons, and I assume gotten to meet and associate with many NHL 'people'... That said, will he bring in college experienced coaches, or Professional level ones?... Maybe some of both?

I suppose the best of both worlds would be to have Hak have a lot of input... and maybe final say on new coaches. I personally would would like to see Hextall and Homer supply him with a Veteran mentor... one that he would know is not after his job, for the most part... and let Hak call the shots on the others.

 

[Flyerfan4life]

All of them should be gone, same goes for head coach.
Clean the house.

^^^this...

not one of them has shown they deserve their position

 

[FLYguy3911]

Riley Cote come on down...

 

[tictactoe]

Riley Cote come on down...

Is he really still there?

 

[MacDonald4MVP]

Nick schultz and vdv to announce their retirement and subsequently join flyers coaching staff in two weeks.

 

[Winston Wolf]

Current Assistant Coaches
Joe Mullen 2007–present
Ian Laperriere 2013–present
Gord Murphy 2014–present


When Hkastol was brought in as an NHL Rookie Head Coach for the 2015-16 Season he inherited the Assistant Coaches that were in place during Berube's final Season as Head Coach.

It is often said 'you cannot fire the entire Team'... so the Head Coach often takes the fall for a Roster that under-performs... we have all but been assured that this will not be the case with the Flyers after this Season... and, with the Current CBA and the Cap Era firmly in place, it is difficult to move under-performing Players with established Capped Contracts... The GM has a Plan and has patience, but he also has Contracts to deal with and Core Players that have hefty Contracts but have not proved to be enough to consistently, with the surrounding teammates, get the Team into the PostSeason... let alone have them contend for the Cup.

The Special Teams have not been performing well enough to allow the Team to win enough close Games... The five on five play has not produced enough Goals... The in-Game decisions have not worked out enough... The personnel decisions have at times been head scratchers... and the Goalie Rotation has raised questions... All of which are products of coaching... Yet Hakstol will most likely return... it seems obvious to me that the Head Coach can benefit from better coaching support... and maybe some of the Assistants will have to be sacrificed as they take the fall for the Coaching's shortcomings as a whole.


With the GM, HC, Core and most Role Players returning for 2017-18 and the existing Players needing to play better, while Prospects need to be infused into the Roster... the questions I have are:

* Should all or some of the current Assistant Coaches be released?

* Should a veteran Coach with past HC experience be brought in to mentor and support Hakstol?

* Who should Hextall try and bring in to assist Hakstol in righting the ship?

Hakstol had the choice to keep the assistant coaches or find a new staff. He tried to get his long time assistant at UND, Brad Berry, to join him as his assistant, but he wanted to take the head coaching job at UND instead.

Terry Murray wanted to be Hakstol's assistant and Hakstol interviewed him and the current assistants. Hakstol chose to keep the current staff and Murray got a job with the Sabres two days later.

 

[Rebels57]

Lappy and Mullen 100% should go

PP1 is figured out and is easily shutdown in big games. Two straight seasons it faltered after a good start but adjustments still were not made.

The PK under Lappy has been a disaster.

 

[Flyerfan4life]

Lappy and Mullen 100% should go

PP1 is figured out and is easily shutdown in big games. Two straight seasons it faltered after a good start but adjustments still were not made.

The PK under Lappy has been a disaster.

and the HC allowing it is case in point why he needs to go aswell, among a million other reasons

 

[Rebels57]

and the HC allowing it is case in point why he needs to go aswell, among a million other reasons

Well you know where I stand on that topic

 

[Flyerfan4life]

Well you know where I stand on that topic

 

[kelmitchell]

Well you know where I stand on that topic

Me as well

 

[flyersfan187]

I really thought they would go into the season with the PK playing a different style because when the changed it in the series against Washington to be more aggressive it looked 100% better.

 

[CodyTheHuman]

I've been calling for new assistant coaches basically since I started posting here.

 

[LegionOfDoom91]

If they fire Lappy I'd imagine there's a solid chance Scott Gordon would replace him. Essentially swapping one bad coach with another.

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

Does Gordon know how to run a PK better?

 

[Sawdalite]

Hakstol had the choice to keep the assistant coaches or find a new staff. He tried to get his long time assistant at UND, Brad Berry, to join him as his assistant, but he wanted to take the head coaching job at UND instead.

Terry Murray wanted to be Hakstol's assistant and Hakstol interviewed him and the current assistants. Hakstol chose to keep the current staff and Murray got a job with the Sabres two days later.

IIRC Terry Murray would have been added as a fourth Assistant... but before he was offered the position, he was offered and accepted the same position in Buffalo by his nephew who was the Sabre's GM.

While Hakstol is said to have the call on the Assistants, IMO he followed the leanings of Hextall and stayed with the three there... His UND assistant could have been a fourth had he not taken the UND position. Hak did I'm sure go through all the motions with interviewing the three current ACs as well as Murray and Berry... but I don't recall hearing of him interviewing any others.

While I guess it can be said that he did select his ACs, I believe he and Hexy said that they discussed the candidates and the roles that the Flyers needed and decided to stay with what was in place... I'd say that Hak listened to Hexy's suggestions and selected his ACs after their consulting. That said, I still feel that he basically 'inherited' his ACs... with the right of refusal.

... I would think that after a couple Seasons of NHL under his belt, he could decide to switch things up... if he so chooses.