Philadelphia Flyers reportedly to fire Dave Hakstol, hire Joel Quenneville
After a very disappointing start, the Metropolitan Division basement dwelling Philadelphia Flyers are reportedly going to fire head coach Dave Hakstol and replace him with Joel Quenneville.
UPDATE (1:27 P.M. Monday, Dec. 17): It’s official. The Flyers have fired Hakstol. According to Sam Carchidi, Scott Gordon is the interim coach.
Going into the 2018-19 season, everyone had the Philadelphia Flyers making the postseason. And why not? They made a roster that made the postseason in 2017-18 even better by signing James van Riemsdyk. However, the Flyers are currently at the bottom of the Metropolitan Division. After firing general manager Ron Hextall earlier, they’re reportedly set to part ways with head coach Dave Hakstol and replace him with three-time Stanley Cup champion Joel Quenneville.
Quenneville was fired by the Chicago Blackhawks earlier this season after leading them for the better part of the past decade. He has been on the Flyers radar ever since he was fired in early November.
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New Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher was brought in to shake up the organization. Their latest 3-5-2 stretch over their last 10 games, which features two embarrassing losses to the Winnipeg Jets and Vancouver Canucks, was reportedly enough to get Hakstol canned.
While Hakstol has been fired, the Flyers haven’t officially added Quenneville yet, but he’s still their top target. If it happens, this would be a huge gamechanger for the Flyers. Quenneville is widely regarded as one of the best coaches of all-time. He’d be a huge upgrade over the relatively inexperienced Hakstol, who appears to have lost his team.
Hakstol has made the postseason twice in his three full seasons as coach. However, with the Flyers off to a very slow start and the coach having very few answers for their problems, that’s enough to get you fired as a head coach. Especially when there’s a mustached gentleman who has won three Stanley Cups looking for a job.
Whether or not this is too little too late remains to be seen. That said, the Metropolitan Division, except for the Washington Capitals, has been a huge mess. The Flyers, as bad as they have been, are only eight points out of a playoff spot as the third-place team in the division.
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Quenneville would be joining a talented team searching for the right captain at the helm. He’ll obviously need to get the team to play better in front of their goaltenders. More importantly, it’ll be up to Quenneville to be the witch doctor and deal with the Flyers annual goaltending issues.