The Philadelphia Flyers announced Friday that Ian Laperriere, Gord Murphy and Joe Mullen will return behind the bench as assistant coaches on Dave Hakstol's staff.
Entering his third season as an assistant, Laperriere, the 41-year-old former fan favorite, will continue to work on the Flyers' penalty kill unit. The Flyers' penalty kill finished at an abysmal 77.1 percent last season, yet had seen significant strides in the second half of the season. Laperriere has proven experience with working on the PK, as the unit finished seventh in the NHL (at 84.8 percent) in his first season.
Murphy, previously a ninth-round draft pick of the Flyers in 1985, returns for his second season as an assistant coach. He has 12 seasons of experience as an NHL assistant, as he served as an assistant with Columbus from 2002-2010 and Florida from 2010-2013.
The 58-year-old Mullen returns for his ninth season behind the bench to continue work on the team's power play, and will work under his fourth Flyers head coach. The power play was one of the Flyers' bright spots last season, as it finished third in the league at 23.4 percent. Under the Hockey Hall of Fame inductee's supervision, the Orange and Black's power play has finished in the top-10 in seven of the last eight seasons, and top-five in five of those seasons.
The team made the announcement one day after Lehigh Valley Phantoms coach Terry Murray had taken a position on Dan Bylsma's staff in Buffalo. Murray and Hakstol had reportedly met earlier in the week to discuss a position, with Murray expressing to finish his career behind an NHL bench. In three seasons as Phantoms coach, Murray's record finishes at 94-111-12-11.
All the Flyers need now are a goalie coach and a Phantoms coach. Both announcements are expected to be made after next week's NHL draft.
Following the storybook ending to Kimmo Timonen's hockey career on Monday, GM Ron Hextall expressed an interest in bringing him to the Orange and Black's front office – a sentiment that was previously echoed by Timonen as well.
Flyers GM Ron Hextall says he couldn't be happier for Kimmo Timonen & will give him a job with #Flyers if Kimmo wants pic.twitter.com/qMJhuiEaGJ
— Jeff Skversky (@JeffSkversky) June 19, 2015
The two sides will discuss a possible position once Timonen returns to Philadelphia. Timonen spent his Thursday at the Blackhawks' Stanley Cup parade.
It's unclear exactly what Timonen's role would be in the organization. His best shot comes as a scout, or within the player development department – currently run by Kjell Samuelsson.
Rob Riches is a contributor to Flyerdelphia. Follow him on Twitter @Riches61
