Broad Street Buzz will be running Coaching Benchmarks, a multi-part series that looks back at the former coaches of the Philadelphia Flyers and what happened after they left the bench.
The series consists of eight parts, including seven different sets of coaches and one retrospective piece. The pairings are as follows:
The Walk Together Forever Group
This entry looks over the most successful head coaches in the history of the Flyers. The focus on these featured bench bosses leans heavily on their time in Philadelphia. There is surprisingly little of note beyond their tenure here.
The Kudos Group
These coaches could have suffered better fates in Philadelphia, but enjoyed some form of success after leaving the orange and the black. Although it would have been nice to see that success here, it was hard not to root for these guys.
The Oh So Close Group
These coaches had long and successful careers. They came close to winning it all behind Philly’s bench, but fell just short. After leaving, they experienced some success but were unable to win a championship as a head coach elsewhere.
The Backfire Group
Hindsight is 20/20, and if the Flyers could go back in time, they would probably change whatever lamentable decision turned out to be the wrong one. In some of these cases, the coach won the Stanley Cup elsewhere. One “we should have listened to you” case happened when that coach was the team’s scout.
The Oh No Group
There were some cringeworthy moments for these coaches, either during or after their time in Philadelphia. One case happened with how the front office managed a coach in a tough spot, another involved Seattle’s players, and the third occurred when a former coach broke one of the few notable records that remained for the Flyers.
The We Hardly Knew Ye Group
This is a pretty deep list of coaches who failed to make an impact with the Flyers during their short stint as a head coach. In some cases, they never made an impact again. Things were put in perspective for one coach when autocorrect kept changing his name to The Simpsons.
The Discard Pile Group
Most of this crew has not had a chance to define their post-Flyers life, like John Tortorella and Brad Shaw. One coach never should have been behind the bench of any team, and the last (in my opinion) ruined everything he touched.
There is a review of each coach during his time here, followed by a look at their tenure after leaving the position of Philadelphia’s head coach.