Rocky Thompson’s future as Flyers coach depends on Tortorella staying

As the season winds down, and the Flyers find themselves out of the playoff parking lot and en route to a possible top five (dare we say top three?) draft pick this June in Los Angeles, a lot of questions are coming up.

The goaltending has been suspect at best. What to do about that? The power play numbers, eye test and metrics are in a league of their own (a bad one). How does it get fixed? But perhaps the biggest elephant in the room is what happens with John Tortorella moving forward. And could the status of assistant coach Rocky Thompson -- who has led the team\'s power play into an historically pitiful abyss -- play a role in whether Tortorella is here next September as head coach?

That\'s a hell of a lot of ifs to toss out, not going to lie. Come September, Tortorella and Thompson could both see themselves behind the bench as Tortorella enters the final year of his four-year deal and signs a short-term extension. And this becomes a moot point. Tortorella has routinely spoken about Thompson, throwing his support behind the beleaguered assistant who has a hand in running the power play.

\"If I could have the people that think Rocky is some sort of idiot sit down and watch his presentation and how he handles himself as a coach and how he does things, I wish they could see that before those comments are thrown around,\" Tortorella told NBC Sports Philadelphia\'s Ashlyn Sullivan in the first of a four-part interview with the head coach which aired during the Flyers pre-game show Monday evening. \"Because he is such an intelligent coach.\" Tortorella was also irked at how people were \"ripping my coaching staff.\"

Thompson\'s intelligence and the Flyers\' power play are two separate things. Whether it\'s the need for much higher-level talent, the inability to simply get pucks on net for rebounds, or just a commitment to keep things the same come hell or high water, the Flyers are now ranked 33rd in a 32-team NHL the last three seasons. (The 33rd designation comes from Arizona relocating to Utah this season, hence 33 teams and is incredibly fun to point out.)

Heading into Thursday\'s game against Washington they haven\'t scored a power-play goal in March, now 0-for-23. It currently ranks 30th in the league with a 14.3 per cent success rate and just 26 goals scored, five fewer than last year\'s total. They\'ve had 20 minutes and five seconds of more time on the power play than the Winnipeg Jets, who were humming heading into Thursday\'s play at over 30 per cent. Without an additional myriad of statistics that should come as no surprise, the power play is terrible. And you\'d have to be an ultra-optimist to believe they\'re capable of scoring five power-play goals in the last 13 games to equal last year\'s total of 31. But whether that awfulness is enough for Thompson to get the axe remains to be seen.

Which brings us to Flyers general manager Danny Briere and president of hockey operations Keith Jones. Both have done an admirable job of trying to steer the course of the franchise away from fan apathy and towards a direction that sees playoff potential and prospect development on the horizon. They seem to care and haven\'t made a huge wrong move yet. And Briere, Jones, and Tortorella have often been in lockstep with each other. The lone sticking point perhaps was whether Jett Luchanko deserved an early-season look with the Flyers or not. Tortorella was extremely gung-ho initially to keep Luchanko up, Briere not as much. Outside of that they\'ve basically spoken from the same rebuild hymnal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYxDmGiFOcI

The front office also brought in people this season to help with the power play, trying to offer Thompson help regarding how to execute an effective power play. Bringing in John LeClair, Dany Heatley, and Patrick Sharp this season was a good idea in hindsight. Yet it hasn\'t panned out. After what looked like a promising month to six weeks to start the season, the Flyers\' man advantage cost them more than a handful of winnable games this season. Now it\'s just seemingly broken until training camp. Some of that is personnel. But a lot of it also lies at Thompson\'s doorstep.

Although it\'s a separate subject, with Flyers ticket prices increasing across the board by an average of $5 per game next season, fans aren\'t eager to pay more to see the same results. Particularly when you have more skaters on the ice than your opponent. Something has to give. If Briere, Jones, and Tortorella don\'t recognize that now then this organization is in serious trouble.

\"Our power play cannot be as bad as it was this year with the people we had,\" Tortorella said last April looking back at the 2023-24 season \"So we have to look at ourselves with this here. I think we need to have a discussion on our power play, but Rocky Thompson is one hell of a coach. He\'s so frustrated, as the players are, as we all are, with our power play. And I\'ve got a general manager that was one of the best power play guys in the game. So we\'re going to sit as an organization with those people and just discuss it this summer. I think it\'s a big point of emphasis for us, our power play.\"

So while a lot of people might want to do something with Thompson, the only two people capable of using their clout to make a change is obviously Briere and, to a lesser extent, Jones. With more draft picks and possibly attempting to land a top-six center either by trade or free agency this sumer, the Flyers shouldn\'t want to go into 2025-26 with the same plans playing five-on-four. Or with the same guy attempting to lead the way.

They just haven\'t worked. It\'s only natural Briere and Jones take a very hard, close look on whether they should continue with Thompson running the power play. If it\'s based solely on results, the Flyers\' power play was as bad this year if not worse. If not for Matvei Michkov being in on almost 57 per cent of this year\'s power play goals, the team would be hovering around 10 to 11 per cent easily. Or lower.

People should also forget the assumption that Briere isn\'t capable of making moves with personnel who have been with the team a while. One only has to look at the last three months to see Scott Laughton (considered a Flyer for life by some), Joel Farabee, and Morgan Frost being shipped out to improve the club down the road. And if Rocky Thompson\'s supposed smarts and intelligence aren\'t resulting in power play success, he could be on thinner ice than he was this time last season, regardless of what Tortorella says or wants. Briere isn\'t letting personal relationships get in the way of making the team better.

It\'s this part which could be the sticking point, namely just how loyal Tortorella is to his coaching staff. The idea of Tortorella simply throwing Thompson under the bus after three seasons is the antithesis of what Tortorella has done throughout his career. You don\'t defend your assistant coach so overtly as Tortorella did earlier this week if you plan on trying to get him replaced 13 games from now.

If you look at Tortorella\'s recent coaching stint in Columbus, Tortorella likes keeping things similar behind the bench. From his first full season with the Blue Jackets in 2016-17, Tortorella\'s coaching staff consisted of Brad Shaw, Brad Larsen, and Kenny McCudden. In five full seasons, that trio of Shaw, Larsen and McCudden stayed. The lone addition was Paul McLean in 2019-20 for one season. But outside of that, the guys Tortorella started with in Columbus were the same guys he ended with. Larsen replaced Tortorella, becoming Columbus\' head coach in 2021-22.

In his tenure with Tampa Bay, Tortorella had two assistants including Jeff Reese who was there from 2002-03 through to 2007-08. Tortorella added Mike Sullivan in 2007-08, but outside of those two, there was no revolving door of assistant coaches. During Tortorella\'s four full seasons with the Rangers, Sullivan and Jim Schoenfeld were his assistants from start to finish. In short, if you\'re an assistant coach starting with John Tortorella, you are going to finish your assistant coaching stint when Tortorella is shown the door. He\'s loyal to his coaches. Perhaps almost to a fault.

If Tortorella sticks around, and demands to keep his staff the same as long as he\'s behind the bench, then Briere has to make a decision. Do you bring the same gang back, hoping to develop more of the younger players at the cost of another possibly piss poor power play? Or do you thank Tortorella for his service, clean house, and seek a new head coach, one who will likely bring new assistant coaches with new ideas and approaches that could help turn things around?

It seems logical that Tortorella, Briere, and Jones will have discussions immediately following exit interviews to weigh Tortorella\'s interest in returning. It wouldn\'t help anyone having him ride out next season as a lame duck coach. Ultimately Briere decides whether Thompson remains as an assistant, regardless of how much Tortorella has Thompson\'s back. Letting Thompson go would also give him the professional courtesy of not twisting in the wind for a portion of the spring and summer when he could be looking for new opportunities elsewhere.

Tortorella has every right to defend Thompson as a person and a teacher. But on the power play neither the assistant coach nor head coach have a leg to stand on. Unless the current two per cent improvement over last year is considered enough, the Flyers need to make a change so that Rocky Thompson is not running the power play next season. And if Tortorella is willing to die on that hill to keep Thompson, it might be time for him to go too.

How future of Rocky Thompson on Flyers bench ties into Tortorella’s future too

Talking Points