Stewart retires as player, begins coaching career
It’s been a busy few months for Chris Stewart, even if he didn’t spend it playing any NHL games.
Stewart, a checking line grinder brought in for grit as the Flyers were kicking off their 2019-20 season, officially retired from the game Monday after an 11-year NHL career. It was then quickly announced that Stewart, 32, had accepted a position as a player development coach with the Flyers.
“I’m looking forward to starting a new chapter,” Stewart said. “I think it was a pretty easy decision. When I was offered the position, I’d always had aspirations of staying involved in hockey once I did decide to retire. With a prestigious organization like the Flyers and having (a) relationship with the management there over my career, I think it’s going to be a great fit.”
Considering the coronavirus that put a five-month pause on the season and ended it early for Stewart, who by then was playing in the AHL with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, Stewart will be attacking this new challenge in a different way. Normally he’d be part of prospect camp and early stages of training camp, but not when the start of a 2020-21 season is completely up in the air.
As a result, Stewart will be up in the air.
“I’m going to be traveling,” he said. “I’m going to be seeing some prospects. (Eventually), I’m going to be going down to Lehigh and working with some guys. Kind of just help the guys coming through and get acclimated to the pro
game, get their games to where they’ll be seeing some NHL time.”
Along with longtime friend and ex-Flyer Wayne Simmonds, Stewart is one of the founding members of the Hockey Diversity Alliance, which formed on June 8, 2020 with the mission of eradicating systemic racism and intolerance in hockey at all levels.
Stewart played 16 games early last season for the Flyers, another six with the Phantoms before the virus shut the season down.
The Toronto native scored
160 goals and 322 points in
668 NHL games in stints with Colorado (2008-11), St. Louis (2011-14), Buffalo (2014
15), Minnesota (two separate stints from 2015-17, Anaheim
(2015-16), Calgary (2017-18) and the Flyers.
He has been close with Flyers general manager Chuck
Fletcher, who traded for him in 2015 and brought him back as a free agent in 2016, but also waived him twice. Fletcher then gave Stewart a chance with the Flyers under a tryout contract last summer after Stewart had been away from the league for more than a year.
“I’ve known Chris for a long time and have admired the way he plays the game, but also how he conducts himself off the ice as a true professional and leader in the locker room,” Fletcher said. “He will be a valuable asset to help mentor our young players and shape their future as Flyers.”
Stewart is hoping this new position is a means to a coaching or management end in the game.
“I think this is just getting my foot in the door,” he said. “There’s tons of experience with the guys in man
agement there that I’m eager to learn under. As far as the future, I don’t want to go too far down the road. I’m still a young guy. I have three kids. I want to enjoy my family. (But) I do want to get my foot in door here and start building some post-career.”
As for his work with the Hockey Diversity Alliance, Stewart said of this new challenge, “I think it’s a step in the right direction.”
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Fletcher awarded physical defender and restricted free agent Robert Hagg a two-year contract extension worth $3.2 million Monday.
Hagg, 25, became a top-6 regular on the blue line during his third season in 2019
20. He had three goals and 13 points and was a plus-14 during that campaign. He’s been one of the club’s leaders in hits for much of his career.