Rumor: Flyers have two finalists for President of Hockey Ops
Frank Servalli of the Daily Faceoff has reported the two remaining candidates for President of Hockey Ops are two familiar faces to Flyers fans. It’s the next domino to fall in the process of revamping the front office ahead of a very important 7th overall pick.
An announcement of who will get the job is expected to be announced by the end of the week.
Eddie Olczyk, who coached the Penguins in 2003-2004 and was replaced mid-season the very next year, is one of the candidates. He’s spent the last decade-plus in the broadcasting booth with TNT, NBC, and Versus (god, I miss Versus).
For me, anytime I hear Eddie Olczyk, I automatically think about him and Doc Emrick, and how fun they were to listen broadcast a hockey game. A dynamic duo in the booth.
The next candidate is an even more familiar name. Keith Jones.
We all know Jones very well. Played for the Flyers from 1998-2001, and has been Jim Jackson’s broadcast partner on NBC Philadelphia for many years.
My first reaction when I heard Jones was one of the finalists was laughter. Not because I think he’s a bad candidate necessarily, but because my brain oddly went all the way back to 2019 when JJ and he ripped the Flyers to shreds behind the scenes, saying Dale Weise “gotta go”.
If we’re going to look at who has more “experience” per se, it’s Olczyk. Jones has never coached in the NHL or held any type of front-office role. According to Anthony SanFilippo, the Flyers were very impressed with Olczyk and was the favorite for the job as of last Friday.
Seems like the Flyers want the hockey operations to be run by Briere (heavily) and Torts, considering other candidates dropped out of the race due to not having as much say in hockey decisions. They want someone who is a hockey man, but also wouldn’t pull a Hextall and lock the doors and tell everyone to “Take a hike” if they didn’t have full control of hockey decisions.
These two fit that bill perfectly.
The Flyers front office will be judged as a collective, not with scapegoats, and if the team makes the right moves most fans won’t care to learn the name of POHO.
UPDATE
Manadtory Credit: Johnny Ulecka
