Flyers Shuffle Staffs: Mullen, McIllhargy In, Berube To AHL

Posted 12:47 PM ET | Comments 5

From the team's website:

http://flyers.nhl.com/tea...NewsPage&service=page

John Stevens, who took over for Ken Hitchcock last season, will have some veteran NHL players serving as his assistants next season. Joe Mullen, who until this past season was the all time leading US born goal scorer, and Jack McIllhargy, former Flyer, will be his assistants.

Top assistant Terry Murray will remain.

The other assistant from last season, Craig Berube, will return to the AHL's Philadelphia Phantoms. He was the Phantoms' head coach when Hitchcock was dismissed following a 1-6-1 start, and Stevens was promoted to replace him. Berube will be the Phantoms head coach, with Kjell Samuelsson, who was head coach after Berube's ascension to the NHL, resuming his duties as associate coach.

Joining Samuelsson as Berube's assistant is former Phantom goalie Neil Little, who will serve as goaltending consultant. Reggie Lemelin will stay on as the Flyers goalie consultant and coach.

Berube took some heat from Flyers fans last year for running a poor PP unit, however, I think that given the tendacies of the players on the team, Berube deserves little more than partial blame. He went into a bad situation, and had season long juggling acts to handle.

Samuelsson seems more suited to an assistant's job than a head coaching job, anyhow, as he got into a physical confrontation last year with former Phantom forward tony Voce. The Killer Flamingo still is a font of hockey knowledge and will be an excellent asset for Berube.

My only complaint is the retention of Lemelin. I don't think his body of work justifies him keeping his job. Under his watch, the Flyers have failed to develop several top round draft picks into competent NHL goalies, and have had 7 playoff starters during his 10 years on the job.

Filed Under: Flyers coaches Mullen Berube Jsaq

bradleyc4

June 6, 2007 1:48 PM ET | Delete
Couldn't agree more about Lemelin...unless he and Marty Biron have really hit it off since Biron's arrival earlier this year. I haven't heard anything about their relationship.

77rams

June 6, 2007 4:28 PM ET | Delete
Very nice job. Agree with everything stated. Now my only hope is that Mullin, with a little more talent to work with (crossing my fingers as I write this) next year, can add a little more offensive imagination to the PP. Not that Berube was given a proper chance under the circumstances, but it does seems logical that Joe will be able to add a dimension that Craig could not. Bucky seems to be an interesting addition. With Murray working the defense, I'm wondering what role will Jack take on?

Jsaquella

June 6, 2007 5:53 PM ET | Delete
Yeah, I kept hearing all the "Well Berube never played PP in his life" stuff, but I really can say that his systems were at fault because they were not his systems-they were Hitchcock's. Now, Joey gets a full camp, as does Rambo, Bucky and the rest to instill their systems and get everyone on board with what they want to do. Oh well, we shall see how the re-tool goes, because God forbid we call it a rebuild.

FLAMESTR