Flyers must bring back Rod Brind’Amour as head coach

The Philadelphia Flyers still have John Tortorella as their head coach, but the team needs a new leader with long-term success in mind. Tortorella will be at the ripe age of 67 when his Flyers contract expires. 

At this point, it’s no secret that the Philadelphia Flyers need to improve, and they need to improve in several areas. This past offseason, they’ve made major strides in doing so, but the job is not done. Sure, the team offloaded costly holdover veterans like Kevin Hayes and Tony DeAngelo, but at the same time, pretty much nothing came back to the Flyers for those two. They couldn’t even give DeAngelo away for free.

Part of the reason the Flyers got so little for Hayes and nothing for DeAngelo is that John Tortorella set ablaze any leverage the team might have carried into offseason trade negotiations. The former was publicly criticized and benched on several occasions, whilst the latter served as a healthy scratch to finish the 2022-23 season. In fact, Tortorella was so vehemently opposed to having DeAngelo in the lineup that he made the Flyers play a competitive, professional game shorthanded for the sake of making a point.

The 65-year-old was a good coach in the past, but his glory days are long over. Tortorella makes an astounding $4 million annually, but has made it past the second round just twice in his career, and once in the past two decades. At that age and with that track record, there’s genuinely zero long-term upside to be found here. Combine that with the temper tantrums about players that have cost the team assets, and you find yourself staring at a disaster waiting to happen. Outside of continuity and there not being much better out there in the current coaching market, there’s no real reason to keep Tortorella beyond 2024.

Brind’Amour emerges as an option for the Flyers

Flyers Hall of Fame inductee and ex-Flyers captain Rod Brind’Amour recently made an appearance on the David Glenn Show, and discussed his pending contract situation. It’s unclear precisely how much Brind’Amour makes, but it’s not amongst the top-10 highest paid coaches in the NHL.

"I know it’s not going to be an easy [contract] negotiation, I can tell you that. Everyone wants to be treated fairly. I think, at the end of the day, your salary is one area, but there’s a ton of other areas. There’s my relationship with my team and my owner and how we get to decide on who stays. I don’t know that any coach, in any sport, has what I have [with the Hurricanes]. So that’s maybe priceless in some regard. I don’t want to sell myself short, because that’s kinda what you’re doing, but everyone knows. . . this is my team, this is my home. How many guys get to coach where they live and coach the team that they played on? What’s that worth to you? That’s a lot."

Note: The full episode featuring Rod Brind’Amour can be found here.

Based on those tidbits, it doesn’t sound like the Carolina Hurricanes’ bench boss is too worried about returning in 2024 and staying in Raleigh for the foreseeable future. The mention of playing for a team he played on should hold some weight for Flyers fans, a la “never say never”. If the Flyers have no problem giving Tortorella $4 million, they should feel comfortable handing Brind’Amour a blank check.

As far as coaching goes, the soon-to-be 53-year-old has made the playoffs in each of his five seasons in charge, and has made it past the second round in two of them. 2019-20 was the only year Brind’Amour was sent home in the first round, but that was after winning the qualifying round of the ever-bizarre COVID-19 bubble playoffs. That year also happens to be the last time the Flyers were in the playoffs.

If the Flyers are really feeling crazy, they could potentially offer a trade to bring Brind’Amour back to Philadelphia. Trading coaches is far from commonplace in sports, and it is a one-of-a-kind concept in the NHL. To date, only one trade involving a coach has ever been completed in the NHL’s history, and it was back in 1987.

It’s unclear whether this is even possible anymore these days, but a perennial playoff coach like ‘Rod the Bod’ would surely cost a pretty penny. In all seriousness, Brind’Amour represents a huge upgrade over Tortorella at this stage in their careers, and this contract situation is certainly worth monitoring to the Flyers.