Flyers

The Rocky Thompson Era in Philadelphia has Come to an End

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Apr 24th, 2025 · 10:56 AM EDT

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Flyers moves:

Flyers General Manager Daniel Briere announced today that the club will not be retaining the services of Assistant Coaches, Rocky Thompson and Darryl Williams, and the club’s Assistant Coach/Skills, Angelo Ricci. https://t.co/xjvQdSmwd4

— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) April 23, 2025

Thompson was in charge of the Flyers’ power play, which was horrendous. One of the worst units in all of sport, both domestic and international. The Flyers power play made Buddy Ryan’s offense look like the Greatest Show on Turf. It made Sean Desai’s defense look like the 2000 Baltimore Ravens. Not hyperbole. It was that bad.

In fairness, did Thompson have a robust talent pool to work with? No. Were the Flyers in a rebuild? Yes. But the numbers were ghastly:

• 2024-2025: 15% (3rd worst)
• 2023-2024: 12.2% (worst)
• 2022-2023: 15.6% (worst)

The Flyers’ press release was two paragraphs:

Philadelphia Flyers General Manager, Daniel Briere, announced today that the club will not be retaining the services of Assistant Coaches, Rocky Thompson and Darryl Williams, and the club’s Assistant Coach/Skills, Angelo Ricci.

“I would like to thank Darryl, Rocky and Angelo for their dedication and all of their efforts over the last several years to the Flyers organization,” said Briere. “After careful evaluation, I felt that this was best for the future direction of the team.”