Flyers Head Coach Candidates: Brad Shaw

John Tortorella was always a polarizing hire.

There’s a loud sect of the fanbase who never wanted Tortorella because they felt he would stunt the development of players, which requires a muddied response. Others thought Tortorella was what the Philadelphia Flyers (32-37-9) required, which is also true, considering the roster turnover. Daniel Brière shared the latter sentiment in his press release after firing Tortorella.

“First, I’d like to thank Torts [Tortorella] for everything he did; the work he put into this team and this organization over the last three years. [It’s] something we want to make sure to address and really say thanks to him for that. You’ve seen this team [the Flyers] play hard over the years. They’ve showed they have a no-quit attitude ingrained in them. Torts is a very, very big reason for that, and that standard he set back in place over the last three seasons.” – Daniel Brière; 3/27/2025

Add ‘hire a new head coach,’ to the already long off-season to-do list for the Flyers. Names are circulating, and Brad Shaw was in the driver’s seat for the interim.

As an interim head coach, it wasn’t Shaw’s first rodeo. He closed the 2005-2006 regular season as the interim head coach of the New York Islanders following Steve Stirling’s dismissal. Finishing with an 18-18-4 record didn’t sell him in the head coaching market, but Shaw thrived as an assistant with the St. Louis Blues, Columbus Blue Jackets, and Vancouver Canucks. He melded minds with Ken Hitchcock, Bruce Boudreau, and Tortorella. Now, he’s a candidate for another potential head coaching opportunity in the NHL with Philadelphia.

After relieving Tortorella, Shaw and the Flyers finished 5-3-1. Almost a ten-game stand to close out 2024-2025.

His audition went well. Philadelphia unlocked their scoring, except for a shutout loss to Jet Greaves and the Blue Jackets.

• Shaw (5-3-1): 4GF/60; 3.55GA/60
• Tortorella’s Last 10 Games (1-8-1): 1.8GF/60; 4.2GA/60

How the players respond to Shaw is worth noting.

One of the most critical shifts throughout the Tortorella era in Philadelphia was the leadership and culture inside the locker room. The Flyers went from former leadership members such as Kevin Hayes and Ivan Provorov to a more headstrong group featuring Sean Couturier and Travis Konecny.

Tortorella clashed with Cam York before Brière fired him. It was a notable event, and everyone knows Tortorella was always hard on York throughout his tenure. In a vacuum, a player like York is too valuable to Philadelphia, and if it came down to him or Tortorella, who had a year left on his coaching contract, Brière chose what best fit the rebuild.

Shaw will challenge players. It’s what you do as a head coach. He got a lot from a team eliminated from postseason contention. The players played more freely, translating to wins on the ice. This part sounds cliché, but players gained confidence before the offseason, helping the case for Shaw to perhaps become an NHL head coach without the interim tag.

The Case For Shaw

An exclusive advantage Shaw has over other candidates is familiarity with the lineup. He’s very familiar with the defensive and penalty-killing units because it was his pride and joy as an assistant coach to Tortorella. In the nine-game span, Shaw strengthened his relationship with the forwards, admittedly not understanding them all. Shaw cited communication, teaching, and understanding the players as crucial traits he would maintain if he did become the next head coach of the Flyers, which invited a bright contrast from Tortorella. Furthermore, his explanation of why he prefers ‘concepts’ to ‘rules’ is concise, offering insight as to why the players looked more free on the ice:

“You provide the concepts you want them to work under and don’t paint the whole picture. I love rules. I think rules make you fast. They also make you predictable, and they can also limit how much you’re learning on the ice. I think concepts allow guys to fill in the blanks, and I think it allows them to not necessarily play any slower, or be less predictable, but also have an extra layer of learning where they’re actually making some of that decision-making based on the concepts that are put forth.” – Brad Shaw; 4/18/2025

Intensity isn’t the method to push a point, a stark contrast from Tortorella. That doesn’t mean Shaw has any issues holding players accountable. Shaw added another nugget during his exit interview, citing how he asks how he can be held responsible by the players and, in the same breath, how he can hold the players accountable. During his interim window, Shaw grew quickly into an honorable candidate.

“There would be a level of accountability. Absolutely. I actually ask the guys, ‘How do I hold you accountable?’ I think the answer allows you, then, to hold them accountable with no beef on their part because they provided you with the [answer], right?” – Brad Shaw; 4/18/2025

York, Jamie Drysdale, and Emil Andrae are a few defensemen Shaw held accountable in his exit interview. He expressed that putting York and Drysdale in the same defensive pair didn’t provide the spark he thought it would. Shaw went into more detail about Andrae, citing areas of improvement, and his approach to the criticism was constructive:

“We [would] like that progression to be a straight line. A lot of times, there’s a lot of squiggles in that line. Sometimes, there’s a couple that go a little lower than you like. Sometimes, the highs aren’t maybe as high as you [would] want. I haven’t talked to him [Andrae], but my message to him is that one of the great lessons in the game is you don’t have to make the great play every shift. I think he still gets caught in that at times; instead of just making the play, I think he tries to make too much of a play. It sets the ball in motion the wrong way, as far as negative momentum. I actually talked to a player today that said when that lightbulb went off in his head, in that exact thing, is when he started playing way better. You almost have to make the mistakes, recognize, and go through that process of realizing the mistake, and then, ‘How do I fix that?’ For him to play at his stature in this league, there has to be a more consistent game. You can’t have the plays that end up being fairly good scoring chances against, especially when some of them are fairly, easily solved with a little bit smarter, simpler play on his behalf. That’s part of the process.” – Brad Shaw; 4/18/2025

Brière confirmed Shaw would be a part of the interviewing process.

If Philadelphia hired a different head coach, Shaw is open to returning as an assistant. In more ways, if Shaw remains on the Flyers coaching staff, he’s an asset instead of a handicap.

The Case Against Shaw

Is ‘interim’ the ceiling for Shaw, and does Brière agree? Shaw certainly doesn’t have the experience that Rick Tocchet, Joel Quenneville, Luke Richardson, and Jay Woodcroft but he does have more experience in the NHL than Pat Ferschweiler, Jay McKee, David Carle, and Ian Laperrière.

Choosing Shaw could represent a higher risk. On the one hand, he’s put together a record trending toward success when stepping into the interim head coaching role. On the other, he’s an outstanding assistant.

When Shaw stated he would be open to returning as an assistant coach, he could’ve provided Brière the out he needed to keep Shaw with the Flyers while hiring a different candidate as the new head coach:

“I got three years invested in this defense core and a lot of the main players that [I] feel like I have good relationships with. From that point of view, that continuity has a big value. I’ve enjoyed my time here. I’ve enjoyed how I’ve been treated and how my family’s been treated. It’s been fantastic. I would definitely consider that.” – Brad Shaw; 4/18/2025

Tocchet is a likely hire. Shaw is a good candidate, too. If Philadelphia could keep Shaw as an assistant and hire a new head coach with more experience, that’ll likely be the blueprint. We know Shaw is interested in the head coach position, but to accentuate the coaching staff, remaining an assistant with an outside hire could accelerate this rebuild with the incoming flux of talent and prospects.