Rising Assistant With Championship Pedigree Would Be Intriguing For Flyers

Rising assistant with championship pedigree would be intriguing for Flyers originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

As the Flyers search for a new head coach, we’re looking at potential candidates to fill the vacancy.

“Communication and teaching are probably two things that will be at the forefront of our next coach,” general manager Danny Briere said April 19 at his end-of-the-season press conference. “When you have a young team in place, I really think those two attributes are extremely important.”

We’ve profiled Mike Sullivan (hired by the Rangers), Rick Tocchet, Pat Ferschweiler, Brad Shaw, Jay Woodcroft and Ian Laperriere. Next up in our series is Jeff Halpern, an assistant coach for the Lightning.

Why Halpern would be a fit

The 49-year-old has two Stanley Cup rings over seven seasons as an assistant with Tampa Bay. The Lightning have made the playoffs every year with Halpern on their staff, a run that has featured three straight Stanley Cup Final appearances. Tampa Bay won back-to-back titles before falling to the Avalanche in 2022.

Under Halpern, the Lightning have sported the NHL’s second-best power play since 2018-19 at 25.5 percent. Only the Oilers have been better at 26.8 percent. The Flyers are in desperate need of answers on their power play, so Halpern’s insight would be valuable.

Halpern is considered a bright hockey mind. He played at Princeton with Flyers assistant general manager Brent Flahr and went on to have a 14-year NHL career. The former center recorded 373 points in 976 games.

The Flyers are aiming for a teacher and Halpern would fit that bill. He started in player development with Tampa Bay’s AHL affiliate Syracuse and helped lead the Crunch to a 2017 Calder Cup berth as an assistant.

It also doesn’t hurt that Halpern has watched one of the game’s best coaches up close in Jon Cooper.

Why Halpern would not be a fit

No experience as a head coach at any level is the obvious hole on Halpern’s résumé. How would that play in a pressure-packed spot like Philadelphia?

Alain Vigneault and John Tortorella, coaches with three Stanley Cup Final appearances and 134 playoff wins between the two of them, both didn’t last three full seasons here. So the Flyers would definitely be taking a risk if they went the unproven route for the next step in their rebuild.

It would be interesting to see how Halpern would handle a different roster with the Flyers. The Lightning have been loaded with names like Nikita Kucherov, Victor Hedman, Steven Stamkos, Brayden Point and Andrei Vasilevskiy. The Flyers simply don’t have that talent level right now.

Halpern has also been settled with Tampa Bay for a while now. You have to wonder if maybe he’s not looking to leave.