Flyers

After a rough sophomore season as the Philadelphia Flyers bench boss, some are clamoring for Dave Hakstol to be shown the door. Here’s why the Flyers will and should keep the head coach for a third season.

As the Flyers enter the offseason with a number of questions, specifically regarding coaching, they answered on Thursday by relieving longtime assistant coach Joe Mullen of his duties.

Following Sunday’s game, the Flyers were beginning an early offseason, having missed the playoffs for the third time in five seasons. In those five seasons there has been one constant: Claude Giroux has been the team’s captain. It looks like it’s time for that to change.

The Lehigh Valley Phantoms needed only one point to clinch their first playoff berth since 2009 on Wednesday night, but took two points in a 2-1 shootout win over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

Of course, for the players, breakup day came a little earlier than anybody wanted it to. Frustration was paramount, and in the case of a few, it got emotional.

The Stanley Cup Playoffs start on Wednesday night and the first-round series are set.

The most important player to the Flyers future may actually be the longest-tenured Flyer, captain Claude Giroux. Giroux is facing some scrutiny, as pundits wonder if the Flyers need to move on from the current captain, who will enter his 10th season in 2017-18. It’s not the most absurd idea in the world.

The Philadelphia Flyers missed out on the playoffs by eight points this past season. However, if they won a few key games, they would have had gained the 10 points needed to clinch a postseason position.

For many of the Flyers junior prospects, the playoffs are either over or hanging by a thread. But for the two top minor leagues of hockey, the playoffs are just around the corner.