Flyers fire coach Hakstol, Gordon is interim replacement
The Philadelphia Flyers have fired coach Dave Hakstol after losing four in a row and 11 of their last 14 games and named Scott Gordon as the interim replacement.
General manager Chuck Fletcher announced the move Monday, less than two weeks since taking over for the fired Ron Hextall.
“Af ter meeting this morning with Dave Hakstol and thoughtful consideration, I have decided to relieve him of his duties as head coach,” Fletcher said. “As I continue to assess the team, I feel that this is the best course of action for our group moving forward.”
The last- place Flyers have lost five of six and are 12-15- 4. Philadelphia went 1-3-1 on the road trip Fletcher said he’d use to evaluate Hakstol, the rest of the coaching staff and the team at-large.
Hired by Hextall from the University of North Dakota in 2015, Hakstol took the Flyers to the playoffs twice in his three full seasons, but they lost in six games in the first round each time. His teams were plagued by inconsistency in the form of long winning and losing streaks, and that ultimately cost him his job in his fourth season.
It was not immediately clear when the Flyers would hire a full-time coach. Three-time Stanley Cup-winning coach Joel Quenneville, who was fired by the Chicago Blackhawks last month, has been linked to Philadelphia because of a connection with Fletcher.
Gordon is an NHL head coach for the second time after parts of three seasons with the New York Islanders. He has spent the past three-plus seasons as coach of the American Hockey League’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms, Philadelphia’s top affiliate.
“He’s got some creative ways of thinking the game,” said defenseman Andrew MacDonald, who played for Gordon with the Islanders. “We had a really young team in New York when I was there — transitioning from an older team to a younger team. It was kind of a tough situation for him. He was trying to bring in new ideas with speed and some of his philosophies. I really liked Scott as a coach. He’s a good man, he’s got good systems and I think he’ll do a good job for us.”