Flyers Hire Alain Vigneault
On April 15th, the Philadelphia Flyers announced that Alain Vigneault will become the 21st Head Coach in team history, effective immediately.
Vigneault, 57, was formerly the Head Coach of the New York Rangers, Vancouver Canucks, and the Montreal Canadiens, his latest appointment was in 2017-18 with the Rangers, where he missed the playoffs and was fired promptly after. However, he has had a very solid record of performance with both the Canucks and the Rangers, making the Stanley Cup Final with both teams, coming within a game in 2013-14 of the Stanley Cup with Vancouver. From 2006 up until 2017, Vigneault’s teams only missed the playoffs twice in 12 seasons and had some very good performances in the regular season.
Vigneault won the Jack Adams in 2006 and is a veteran behind the bench who has seen success in many different eras and with multiple different teams. He is a veteran who knows how to guide teams out of precarious positions and will bring the Flyers a concrete style of play, that they have been sorely lacking for the past few years after Peter Laviolette was dismissed.
The hope for Vigneault is that his experience and success will bring some stability to a Flyers team who has been through multiple tumultuous seasons. Some other names that were being thrown around included former Coyotes coach Dave Tippett and current Minnesota-Duluth Head Coach Scott Sandelin, but in the end, the Flyers decided on what would be most likely the most stable option.
Vigneault will now most likely confer with General Manager Chuck Fletcher before the off-season begins and attempt to acquire some players who fit the specific style he wants to play. The futures of assistant coaches Kris Knoblauch and Ian Laperierre, as well as the rest of the bench coaches, have not yet been decided, but it is expected that they will not be brought back at this moment in time. Interim Head Coach Scott Gordon is the other question mark, but GM Chuck Fletcher has stated that the Lehigh Valley Phantoms’ job that he vacated earlier this year is his for the taking if he is willing.
So the vacancy has been filled, Vigneault will bring a new, outside voice to the locker room, something that the Flyers fan base has been clamoring for, and now it is up to the players to respond to the new era.
The last remnants of the Hextall regime should be swept clear very soon, and it is a new day for the franchise, and hopefully, more successful dawn will arrive soon.
Featured Image: Philadelphia Flyers/Twitter
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