It appears veteran coach Michel Therrien will be back behind an NHL bench for next season. TVA Sports’ Renaud Lavoie reports (Twitter link) that the Flyers are expected to announce in the next few days that he will be joining them as an assistant head coach to new bench boss Alain Vigneault.
Therrien last coached in the NHL back in 2016-17 with Montreal (his second stint with the team) before being let go in February in favor of Claude Julien (who was getting his second go-round with the Canadiens). He also spent parts of four seasons with Pittsburgh from 2005-06 through 2008-09. Overall, his head coaching record is 406-303-105 for a respectable .563 points percentage but that didn’t help him garner much consideration for open vacancies over the last couple of years.
This will be Therrien’s first foray as an assistant coach at the NHL level. In fact, it will be his first time as an assistant at any level since he spent two years as an assistant in the early 1990’s with Laval of the QMJHL. Philadelphia already has three assistants on their staff in Kris Knoblauch, Ian Laperriere, and Rick Wilson so it will be interesting to see if there will be any further changes coming. It’s worth noting that Wilson had retired a year ago when he was with Dallas before changing his mind and joining the Flyers in December.
“I really think they are trying to be the worst defensemen in the league!”