The Flyers have been slowly trickling out news as of late, and today they added another piece of news that will impact the Lehigh Valley farm team. Today, the Phantoms announced that head coach Ian Laperrière has extended his contract with the team for another two years. Laperrière will continue to work with the Flyers organization and lead the Phantoms for the foreseeable future.
In his 220 games coached, Laperrière has a record of 98-92-30 with the Phantoms, and he has just finished his third season as head coach. The squad failed to make the postseason in 2021–22 after finishing in last place in the Atlantic Division. They had a better 2022–23 season, finishing sixth and earning playoff berth, but they lost in the play-in round. Also in 2023–24, they were sixth again, but they beat Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in the play-in series and fell to Hershey in the first round.
Although Laperrière’s coaching and development methods have shown modest improvement year over year, the outcomes have not been spectacular. Nonetheless, management obviously finds value in Laperrière’s approach. To be fair, after being mentored by Laperrière with the Phantoms, each of the following players—Cam York, Morgan Frost, Tyson Foerster, Bobby Brink, Egor Zamula, Ronnie Attard, Adam Ginning, Olle Lycksell, Sam Ersson, and Felix Sandstrom—spent time with the Flyers this season and have at least partially graduated to the NHL. That graduation rate is still a mark in Laperrière’s favor, but doubts remain over how much of an impact that mentorship had on some of the players and on those who have struggled to develop under it.
The Flyers’ work with the Phantoms in the AHL as a developing team is going to be crucial to their overall success in the NHL as they continue their reconstruction. Finding top-tier talent through trades is challenging; instead, it’s usually best to cultivate it in-house. There are a lot of prospects who have risen through the ranks of the Phantoms and are making an impact in the NHL right now, and there are even more who are close to reaching their potential and even more who are coming up who will require coaching to reach their full potential.
The Flyers are continuing to use their current goaltender, who has been performing admirably thus far, despite the risk involved. The outcome will be determined by the passage of time.
