Is Todd Reirden the man to replace Lindy Ruff?

In-house candidate

There is one candidate within the organization who could step into Ruff’s role.  Gord Murphy is currently an Associate Head Coach with the Hartford Wolf Pack who was promoted to the big club for the Qualifier series against Carolina.   Murphy was an NHL defenseman for 14 years, mostly with the Flyers and Panthers.  Since retiring, he has been an assistant coach for the Blue Jackets, Panthers and Flyers before joining the Rangers’ organization.

Is Murphy the answer?  In his one year in Hartford, the Wolf Pack boasted the fifth best penalty kill in the AHL and allows the tenth fewest goals in the league. Of course, they did have Igor Shesterkin in goal and he had the kind of season that would make any defense coach look good.

Murphy’s latest NHL stint as assistant coach from four years in Philadelphia from 2014 to 2018.  In those four years, the Flyers penalty kill was never better than 20th best in the NHL and in his last year was 29th worst in a 31 team league.  They fared better in goals allowed, finishing with 12th fewest in 2015-16 and 14th fewest in his last season, 2017-18.

It has to be noted that he helped develop Flyers defensemen Ivan Provorov, Shayne Gostisbehere, Travis Sanheim and Robert Hagg.   Gostisbehere had his best seasons with Murphy and when he was fired, Gostisbehere spoke about him.  “He was my first D-coach in the NHL…He helped me a lot, complete my game sort of in some ways.”