There is a big change coming to the Philadelphia Flyers, and it’s coming right at the top of the organization. On Monday morning, the Flyers announced that Dave Scott, chairman of Comcast-Spectacor and governor of the Flyers, will be retiring effective April 17.
Dan Hilferty, who was hired on Feb. 14 as CEO of Comcast-Spectacor, will take over Scott’s role as chairman of Comcast-Spectacor on April 17 and assume the role of Flyers governor on July 1.
Scott retires after 30 years with Comcast, serving in multiple roles. Scott became the President of Comcast-Spectacor in Dec. 2013 after spending 20 years at Comcast Cable as CFO. Scott officially became CEO of the Flyers ahead of the 2014-15 season, two years prior to the passing of founder Ed Snider. Following Snider’s passing, Scott officially assumed the role of chairman and governor of the Flyers.
Hilferty succeeded Scott as CEO of Comcast-Spectacor just six weeks ago. At the time of his hiring, while the Flyers were very much a key entity of Spectacor, the belief was Hilferty’s role around the team would be minimal.
That has seemed to change quickly as developments have happened around the team since. Chuck Fletcher was fired as GM and President of Hockey Operations on March 10, one week after the trade deadline. When Danny Briere was named interim GM and addressed the media for the first time two days later, he noted that both Scott and Hilferty were going to be part of the decisions going forward, implying Hilferty’s role was going to be greater than anticipated.
Now Hilferty becomes the main man behind the Flyers at a time when changes are coming more rapidly and only figure to intensify. Hilferty, who grew up in Ocean City and lives in Ardmore, PA, is a self-described “tenacious Flyers fan.” As such, it seems that the fans are being heard even more than they were just a few weeks ago.
The Flyers have 10 games remaining in the 2022-23 season before an active offseason begins. It will certainly include the hiring of a new President of Hockey Operations and a definitive decision on the general manager moving forward. There will be numerous player decisions to make.
The big question was whether any changes would go higher than that. We now have that answer.
