Earlier this week, the Flyers officially introduced John Snowden as the new head coach of the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. They also announced his assistants: Terrance Wallin and Nick Schultz.
On Friday, I wrote a feature article on Snowden and his staff for the Flyers’ official website. Snowden has some interesting insights about the differences from a coaching standpoint between running the bench at the ECHL level and being an AHL coach. This also translates to the difference in taking the final step up the hockey ladder from the American Hockey League to the National Hockey League.
Snowden says that players challenging a coach and asking hard questions is a sign of an intelligent and engaged player. Rather than finding it threatening, Snowden wants such interactions. He also said that AHL players are more likely to ask questions of their head coach. Likewise, NHL players do so more often than their American Hockey League counterparts.
Flyers Daily: Denver Barkey
Coming off a Memorial Cup championship with the OHL’s London Knights, prospect Denver Barkey spoke at length with Flyers Daily host Jason Myrtetus during the Flyers’ recent development Camp in Voorhees. Barkey discussed his captaincy for Dale Hunter’s team, the winning environment in London and his growth as a player. He also set some of his goals for his first professional season, proving he can thrive despite critics concerns over his size.
Jason also discusses the Flyers’ 2025-26 schedule. Finally, he provides a personal update on his health: a very promising prognosis in his ongoing cancer battle.
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Excellent work as usual Bill
“The way we’re going to mesh our systems together. So when players move up, it’s not going to be so much thinking,” Snowden stated when asked about how the prospects will be ready once they jump from the AHL to the NHL. “‘Toch’ and I have a very similar approach on what makes a player very good and what makes a player hard to play against. So for us, it’s about being able to play with people around you,”
A breath of fresh air from Torts who didn’t believe systems mattered and didn’t care that the AHL team ran a different system than the big club