In this Coaching Benchmarks series, we will take a look back at what happened to the former coaches of the Flyers after they stepped out from behind the bench in Philadelphia. The So Close Group looks at coaches that came close to winning it all in Philly and elsewhere but just couldn't seal the deal as a head coach after leaving here.
Peter Laviolette (2009-13)
Laviolette, the “Winningest American-born Head Coach in NHL History,” was fired by then General Manager Paul Holmgren three games into the 2013-14 season.
The team’s owner, Ed Snider, always did whatever it took to set the team up for success. He was getting up there in years and, perhaps sensing his mortality, grew anxious and ordered Holmgren to let him go. This happened two years after the GM was given the green light to trade for the rights to goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov and then sign him to a nine-year, $51 million deal.
Lavy had the most successful tenure in Philly from this point forward. He took the Flyers to the Cup Finals in his first year here, 2009-10, and then to the conference semifinals the following two. His last full season with the Flyers, 2012-13, was shortened to 48 games due to the lockout. The team missed the postseason, finishing with a 23-22-3 record. From Philly, he made his way on to coach the Nashville Predators, Washington Capitals, and New York Rangers. The affectionately nicknamed Lavvy took each of those teams to the playoffs in all but two seasons (WSH 2022-23, NYR 2024-25). He became the first head coach in NHL history to take six different teams to the playoffs.
Laviolette deserved a better fate in Philly and Philly deserved a better fate by keeping him here. He has been a successful coach throughout his career and holds the record for the most wins of any American-born NHL head coach.
Pat Quinn (1979-82)
Quinn began his coaching career in Philadelphia in 1977 as an assistant under Fred Shero. After spending the next season behind the bench of the Maine Mariners, Philly’s AHL affiliate, he rejoined the big club, coaching the team to four playoff appearances – including the season when he took over and when he was let go.
The gentle giant had a long, impressive coaching career, but the apex of his career may have come early on. Through 1979-80, the Flyers dominated the league, highlighted by a 35-game unbeaten streak that still stands to this day. That season, the Flyers took the Islanders to game six of the Stanley Cup Final, before losing in overtime. He won his first of two Jack Adams Awards after that season.
After leaving hockey to earn his law degree from Widener University, he returned as the bench boss of the Los Angeles Kings in 1984. The team underperformed during his two-plus-season tenure, and he found himself in trouble after secretly negotiating his exit from LA.
While still under contract with the Kings, he negotiated a deal to become the President and General Manager of the Vancouver Canucks. He was suspended by league president John Ziegler, citing a conflict of interest. He was banned from coaching anywhere until the 1990 season.
After the ban, he took over the coaching spot in Vancouver, winning the Jack Adams Award a second time after the 1991-92 season. He coached the Canucks to four straight postseason berths, including a trip to the Stanley Cup Final in the 1993-94 season, ultimately losing the series to the Rangers.
He spent seven full seasons behind the bench in Toronto from 1998-2006, taking the Maple Leafs to the playoffs six straight seasons, losing to the Flyers in the final two.
In 2004, Maple Leaf Darcy Tucker laid a huge, cheap shot on Sami Kapanen. Play continued, and Kapanen did everything he could to make it back to the bench. Within that same minute, fellow Flyers Jeremy Roenick scored to end the game and the series. That began a long playoff drought for the Leafs. They did not make it back to the playoffs until 2012-13 and did not make it past the first round until 2022-23. Tucker hits Kapanen, karma hits Toronto.
Quinn spent his final season behind the bench of the Edmonton Oilers in 2009-10. He was removed from the coaching position at the end of the season but remained with the organization for another year. He was named the Hockey Hall of Fame’s Chairman of the Board in 2013, where he stayed until his death in 2014.
Although Quinn never won a Stanley Cup, he had a terrific career and was posthumously elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2016.
Pat Quinn began a long Hall of Fame coaching career as an assistant under Fred Shero. Success followed him around everywhere, but a Stanley Cup championship eluded him. He won the Jack Adams Award twice and was suspended by the NHL for negotiating a contract to leave Los Angeles and move up the food chain in Vancouver.
Terry Murray (1994-97)
Murray was a good leader in Philadelphia, earning a .627 points percentage in the regular season and a .609 points percentage in the postseason. It was in the postseason where things unraveled, though. In a poorly thought-out statement before game four of the 1997 Stanley Cup Final, Murray suggested his team was “choking.” The deep Flyers team, packed with superstars and led by the “Legion of Doom” line, did not feel great about the sentiment, and neither did the organization’s front office.
The Flyers did indeed choke, getting swept by the Detroit Red Wings in the finals. Murray was fired the following week.
Before coaching in Philly, the former Flyer took the Washington Capitals to four playoff appearances in five seasons. The Flyers made the playoffs in each of his seasons here as well. The 1998-99 season brought him to Florida, where he experienced mixed results before the team’s brass caved to the fans' “Fire Murray! Fire Murray!” chants and cut him loose in December of 2020.
The balance of Murray’s head coaching career was spent with the Los Angeles Kings, from 2009 through December of 2011. After a rough first season on the West Coast, Murray’s Kings made it to the postseason the following two years. After being fired in 2011, the team went on to win the Stanley Cup.
In 2012, Murray became head coach of the Adirondack Phantoms, then followed the team to Lehigh Valley, where he remained until the end of the 2014-15 season. Before returning to Lehigh Valley as an assistant coach for the 2018-19 season, he served as an assistant in Buffalo from 2015-17.
The Kings' governor, Tim Leiweke, still gave Murray a championship ring and lobbied to have his name engraved on Lord Stanley’s Cup, but the league refused.
Murray could have had a decent chance of winning it all with the Flyers if he just thought before he spoke. In 2012, he was robbed of getting his name on the Stanley Cup after being fired by the Los Angeles Kings earlier that season.