Flyers To Hire John Tortorella, Announcement Expected Tomorrow
Well the cat is officially out of the bag and has been for a few days now. As first reported by ESPN/NHL Network Kevin Weekes, the Philadelphia Flyers have hired John Tortorella as their new head coach.
An official announcement is expected to come tomorrow at some point but barring any last second changes it is all but official. It has been six months since the Flyers fired Alain Vigneault and named Mike Yeo the interim coach to finish what was a miserable season for the orange and black.
First and foremost I want to put it out there that I love the hire of Torts for the Flyers. He is a guy that might ruffle some feathers but he can be the kick in the ass type guy that this team/organization desperately needs. He is a guy that doesn’t mince words and won’t be afraid to call out players when they are underperforming. Contrary to the popular belief of players not liking to play for him it is the complete opposite. There are a lot of his former players that have spoken out about how much they enjoy playing for him. One of those guys is current Flyers forward Cam Atkinson who openly lobbied for Torts coming to Philadelphia. From a pure coaching standpoint I believe the Flyers got the second best man for the job which brings me to the next point in this post.
It’s safe to say that 99.9% of Flyers fans wanted Barry Trotz to be the guy the Flyers hired. As soon as he was fired by the Islanders I was tweeting out how Chuck Fletcher and Dave Scott should be on the phone immediately with him giving him whatever he wants.
From reports out there, the Flyers did just that. That blank check that Dave Scott was handing out had $7 million dollars a year and Barry Trotz name on it. Trotz turned down the offer from the Flyers which would have made him the highest paid coach in NHL history. Why would he turn that offer down? Maybe because he knows how much help this organization needs and isn’t at a time in his career where he wants to help put in all that work. I doubt that is the case as the more likely scenario is that Trotz wanted a management position after his tenure as coach was up and the Flyers may have been unable to make him that promise. Whatever the case may have been, once Trotz declined the Flyers made sure they didn’t miss out on Tortorella.
This was an extensive search to find the right fit for the Flyers and there are some conflicting reports out there on who actually had the final say in the hiring. The Flyers did hire an outside organization to consult on finding the right coach which may seem a little strange but hey, at least they are really trying to make sure they get this right. There is also the report out there that Chuck Fletcher is not fully on board with the hiring of Torts.
As reported by Anthony SanFilippo from Crossing Broad in his article, Tortorella may not have been the guy Chuck Fletcher wanted. Reasons being he has heard how Torts can be hard on GM’s and isn’t afraid to speak his mind about the type of guys he wants on his team.
However, Anthony Di Marco from The Fourth Period has reported that Chuck Fletcher was one of the guys who led the search and that Torts is for sure the guy he wanted. You can read his article here .
Now in my eyes whatever the case may be with Fletcher if Torts was his number one guy or not, he is on very thin ice and needs to have a big offseason and the team needs to get off to a great start if he wants to keep his job. During last season the Flyers brought in Danny Briere to be a special assistant to the GM. Briere was part of helping in the search for a new coach and oh by the way, he was in consideration for the Montreal Canadiens General Manager job before taking the position with the Flyers. What I am getting at here is that Fletcher’s replacement is already waiting in the wings and if the team doesn’t get results this season, Danny Briere could be the GM of the Flyers sooner rather than later.
We are getting into one of the most important off-seasons in Flyers history and hiring Tortorella was just the first step in the process. The next step is the draft on July 7th where the Flyers hold the 5th overall pick. Will the Flyers make the pick? Will they try and package it in to land someone who can help them immediately? Who knows at this point, but whatever they do it will be crucial to the success of this team going forward.
-Walsh