The Flyers will not have AHL head coach Ian Laperriere back with the organization next season, according to NHL.com’s Bill Meltzer.
Laperriere has been a part of the Philadelphia organization in some capacity since 2009. The Montreal native played 1,083 NHL games as a checking winger, including the final season of his career with the Flyers in their run to the 2010 Stanley Cup Final. Multiple concussions sustained during that season ended his career, though. After his contract expired following the 2011-12 season, he officially retired and joined their front office as their director of player development. He was shifted to a bench role as an assistant coach the following year and remained in that position until 2021, when Philly reassigned him to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms to serve as their head coach.
After four AHL campaigns with the Phantoms and well over a decade with the Flyers, Laperriere now moves on. He posted a 134-120-38 record in the regular season and made the Calder Cup Playoffs every year but his first. This season, he coached the Phantoms to an upset two-game sweep of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in the first round before taking the defending champion Hershey Bears to a winner-take-all Game 5 in the Atlantic Division Semifinals.
Laperriere’s departure from the organization is mutual, Meltzer said, adding he “covets an NHL head coaching chance.” It’s unlikely he’ll get that in this cycle, but with Rick Tocchet signing a five-year deal to serve as the Flyers’ bench boss this month, it certainly wasn’t going to come in Philadelphia anytime soon. He’ll now look for a role in another organization with a clearer path toward being an internal promotion candidate and serving as an NHL head coach for the first time.