Flyers

The Thing About the Flyers Retread/Good Old Boy Narrative is that the Outside Hires Haven’t Been Slam Dunks Either

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: May 20th, 2025 · 11:35 AM EDT

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On the heels of the Rick Tocchet hiring, I asked a neutral party if the former Flyer/retread/good old boy stereotype was fair or unfair. Here’s what ChatGPT had to say:

The idea that the Philadelphia Flyers have a ‘good old boys network’ — meaning they favor hiring former players or people with past organizational ties — is not just a lazy narrative, but it’s also not entirely unfair, especially when you look at the franchise’s history from the 1990s through the 2010s.

Where the Narrative Comes From

The Flyers have repeatedly hired former players and executives with past connections to the team:

• Bob Clarke served as GM from 1984–1990 and again from 1994–2006. He was a Flyers legend as a player.
• Paul Holmgren, a former Flyers player and coach, was GM after Clarke and later became team president.
• Ron Hextall, another Flyers legend as a goalie, followed Holmgren as GM.
• Other alumni like Craig Berube, Terry Murray, Rick Tocchet, and Bill Barber have held coaching or front office roles.

This approach gave the impression that the Flyers valued loyalty and familiarity over innovation or outside perspectives — especially during eras where the team didn’t adapt well to the evolving, speed-based NHL.

When the Narrative Started to Shift

Since the 2022–2023 season, the Flyers began to pivot away from this pattern — though not completely:

• The hiring of Danny Brière (a former Flyer) as GM and Keith Jones (another alum) as President of Hockey Ops in 2023 might seem to reinforce the narrative, but the two have taken a notably different approach.
• Brière and Jones have emphasized rebuild, transparency, and modern team-building strategies — something the previous alumni-led regimes resisted.
• The front office has also brought in non-Flyers voices, such as analytics staff and outside consultants, suggesting a more balanced structure.

Conclusion

So yes, the Flyers did earn the “good old boys network” reputation, particularly during the Clarke–Holmgren–Hextall eras. But in recent years, there’s been a legitimate effort to modernize the organization, even if familiar faces are still involved. The narrative isn’t entirely lazy — but it is increasingly outdated.

Hmm, that’s not bad. Agree or disagree, there are some good points in there. It is certainly true that while Briere and Jonesy are former Flyers, they’re taking an un-Flyer approach with this current tear down and rebuild. It’s un-Flyer because Ed Snider would have never signed off on a rebuild. He wouldn’t have accepted the premise to begin with. So even though you now have an organization where the GM, President, and head coach are former Flyers, with one outsider in Dan Hilferty, they aren’t doing things the way they’ve typically been done. That’s enough to at least mute the “Flyers retread” narrative for a little bit.

The thing I keep coming back to, which gets lost in the discussion, is that whenever the Flyers do go outside the box, those hires aren’t exactly slam dunks either. Go through the list, 35 years back, and ask yourself how many of these external guys would be given the “success” label over their respective tenures:

• Russ Farwell (GM from 1990 to 1994)
• Chuck Fletcher (GM from 2018 to 2023)
• Roger Neilson (head coach from 1998 to 2000)
• Ken Hitchcock (head coach from 2002 to 2006)
• Peter Laviolette (head coach from 2009 to 2013)
• Dave Hakstol (head coach from 2015 to 2018)
• Alain Vigneault (head coach from 2019 to 2021)
• Torts (head coach from 2022 to 2025)
• Brent Flahr (VP/assistant GM)
• Alyn McCauley (assistant GM)
• Riley Armstrong (director of player development)
• (add whomever else further down on the current Hockey Ops staff list)

The Flyers didn’t go to the playoffs under Farwell. Fletcher was an abject disaster, unfortunate with injuries but basically nothing doing outside of that one good season with Vigneault. Neilson had to step aside during the season in which the team went to the Eastern Conference Finals, then Hitchcock presided over the squad that lost to Tampa in the ECF. Lavy took the Flyers on the miracle run to the 2010 Finals and then Hakstol oversaw a few seasons of average hockey. AV had the one good year, then Torts caught the tail end of Fletcher’s tenure before the rebuild began. Flahr, McCauley, Armstrong, and some current non-Flyer staff are a TBD.

This is a mixed bag. Some good, some bad. And even then, Hitchcock and Laviolette got the Flyers deep into the playoffs with teams constructed by former Flyers Bob Clarke and Paul Holmgren. So it’s almost impossible to make it a black and white thing, as much as it would help the exercise.

Point being, you could make a stronger argument against the “Flyers retread” narrative if the evidence supporting the opposite approach was overwhelming. But it’s not overwhelming. It consists mostly of a murky gray area, like most things in sports. They’ve had some success with outsiders and some miserable failures as well.