The Flyers have to fill another head coaching vacancy.
Ian Laperriere won't be behind the bench for AHL affiliate Lehigh Valley next season. Instead, he'll now be serving as an advisor to the Flyers' hockey operations department.
Going back to his playing days, Laperriere has spent over 15 years in the Flyers' organization. He had led the Phantoms for the last four seasons and made the playoffs three times.
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SIGN UP HERE "I want to thank Ian for his tireless work in Lehigh Valley for the last four seasons," general manager Danny Briere said in a statement released by the team Tuesday. "He not only led the Phantoms in a return to the playoffs, but provided crucial development to several of our prospects. I am excited to welcome him back to the Flyers so he can continue to provide his insight in helping our team as we enter the next phase of the rebuild."
This season was the 51-year-old's best as a head coach. Lehigh Valley won four playoff games, its most under Laperriere, and it had the defending back-to-back Calder Cup champions on the brink of elimination in the Atlantic Division semifinals. The Phantoms, though, ended up being knocked out after losing the final two games to Hershey in the best-of-five series.
Laperriere tried to operate in cohesion with the big club, an initiative for the Flyers when they named him Lehigh Valley's head coach. The Flyers are now in the process of putting together Rick Tocchet's staff. Naming a new Phantoms head coach will be important, too, because of the symbiotic relationship the Flyers have with their minor-league team.
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Before taking over in Lehigh Valley, Laperriere was an assistant coach with the Flyers for eight seasons. He joined the club's staff in June 2012 as director of player development and became an assistant coach in October 2013. At times, he became the subject of criticism for the Flyers' penalty kill struggling under his direction. In 2019-20, he moved into a pre-scout role.
Laperriere played alongside Briere on the 2009-10 Flyers team that went to the Stanley Cup Final. It was the final season of Laperriere's 1,083-game NHL career.