Flyers closing in on new president of hockey operations

The Philadelphia Flyers made the decision earlier this season to terminate president and general manager Chuck Fletcher, while promoting former Flyers forward Danny Briere as general manager on an interim basis.

Take a look at what NHL Insider Frank Seravalli had to say on Wednesday’s edition of Ice Breakers on Daily Faceoff Live regarding the Flyers search for a new president of hockey operations: 

"I believe that an announcement is expected to come in the next couple of days here, by Friday, if not on Friday itself. And I believe that this search has been now whittled down to two finalists. Coincidentally enough, they’re both on Turner Sports, and that would be Eddie Olczyk and Keith Jones. Jones, of course, has long ties to the Philadelphia Flyers organization. He has been a player for the team and has been a team broadcaster for a number of years. Olczyk, after hanging up his skates, had a stint as coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins before spending much of the last 17 years or so broadcasting across the NHL.

Both of these guys are known personalities with well-known cases in the industry. It’ll be interesting to see how these shake out here in the next couple of days because they are two qualified candidates to be the front-facing presence for a Flyers executive team that is expected to include Danny Briere as GM, as well as John Tortorella as head coach having a big say in the decision-making process."

According to Seravalli, several notable NHL figures are being considered for the position: 

"They’re well on their way in Philadelphia and now are nearing the final stages. They cast a pretty wide net, and conducted a lot of different interviews with candidates over the last number of weeks, including John Chayka, Scott Mellanby… Chris Pronger and Doug Wilson received inquiries as well."

Flyers fans will understandably cringe at the thought of John Chayka taking over, given his absolutely disastrous tenure with the Arizona Coyotes. Meanwhile, Doug Wilson served as general manager of the San Jose Sharks from 2003 to 2021.