Philadelphia Flyers: Analyzing the Alain Vigneault Hire

What exactly is the 57-year-old bringing to the Philadelphia Flyers bench?

If you haven’t heard by now, the Philadelphia Flyers announced on Monday afternoon that they inked former New York Rangers, Vancouver Canucks, and Montreal Canadiens Head Coach Alain Vigneault to a multi-year contract.  He brings a resume with two Stanley Cup Final appearances and seven different division titles alongside him to the city of Philadelphia, but minus a solid track record of success, what else does the 16-year NHL coach bring to the table?

First, let’s talk about his system. Vigneault likes his players to have speed, which is an excellent thing to bring to this current Flyers squad.  Philadelphia hasn’t had the fastest of teams during the past couple of years, and Vigneault’s hiring shows a potential change in the franchise’s philosophy, who have valued physicality over skill for some time. Yes, he did favor Tanner Glass over Kevin Hayes and Pavel Buchnevich during his time with the Rangers, but that was more due to his value of a veteran presence over a youthful player with more skill, which I’ll get to later.

Another aspect his system relies on is passing. He appreciates his teams to create chances in the most dangerous areas of the ice and making sharp passes is crucial for that to happen. The Flyers have a lot of playmakers on their roster, but for some reason struggled with tape-to-tape passes through the entire 2018-19 campaign. Vigneault will definitely work on that weakness during training camp and practices for his system to be most effective.

Looking at the Rangers shot chart in his second to last year with the team, the highest amount of shots were taken from the low-slot or right in front of the net, according to Hockeyviz.com. Former Flyer coach Dave Hakstol relied on a more perimeter-oriented style of hockey during his Flyers tenure, so this change in offensive focus will be a breath of fresh air for Flyer fans.

I can’t lie and say his reliance on veterans doesn’t concern me, though. It’s long been known that the Flyers have a deep prospect pipeline and his overreliance on guys like Viktor Stalberg, Paul Carey, and Glass over young talent through the years is not very promising. While a lot of NHL Head Coaches rely on vets, the specific veterans he’s used in the past is questionable, to say the least.

Every coach comes with their strengths and weaknesses, and it’ll take a few years to find out if Vigneault is a good hire or not. The system he coaches is intriguing, but again, we’ll have to see if he’s learned from his mistakes of valuing experience over skill.