Scott Gordon's six-year run in the Flyers' organization has come to an end.
On Tuesday, the Flyers and their AHL affiliate Lehigh Valley head coach mutually agreed to part ways. In a related move, Phantoms assistant coach Kerry Huffman decided to step down from his role.
"I would like to thank Scott and Kerry for their service to the organization," Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher said in a statement released by the team. "Both Scott and Kerry have dedicated their time and effort in developing Flyers prospects and bringing success to Lehigh Valley over the last several years. In speaking with each of them, we felt this was best for the future direction of the organization."
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Throughout his time in Lehigh Valley, Gordon had blended the development of the Flyers' prospects with a winning environment. The 58-year-old head coach put up a 186-121-40-1 record in parts of six seasons behind the Phantoms' bench. He took Lehigh Valley to the playoffs in 2016-17 and 2017-18. This season, there were no AHL playoffs because of COVID-19; Gordon's Phantoms finished second in the North Division at 18-7-6.
During 2018-19, Gordon did an admirable job serving as the Flyers' interim head coach after the club fired Dave Hakstol in December 2018. The Flyers went 25-22-4 under Gordon. With an 18-4-2 stretch from Jan. 14 to March 11, the club crept to within three points of a playoff spot before it ran out of gas with a 3-10-0 finish.
Gordon was considered a candidate for the full-time gig before the Flyers hired Alain Vigneault as head coach in April 2019. Gordon then returned to his post in Lehigh Valley.
"I kind of went into it with the expectation of that's where I was going to end up," Gordon said in June 2019.
Gordon reported daily to Vigneault, Fletcher and Flyers assistant general manager Brent Flahr about the performance of the club's prospects. He had seen a lot of movement with player personnel over the last two seasons. Here are some of the younger names that Gordon watched get called up to the Flyers since the start of 2019-20: Nicolas Aube-Kubel, Philippe Myers, Joel Farabee, Morgan Frost, Samuel Morin, Connor Bunnaman, Carsen Twarynski, David Kase, German Rubtsov, Mikhail Vorobyev, Mark Friedman, Maksim Sushko, Tanner Laczynski, Wade Allison, Egor Zamula and Cam York.
Huffman, 53, had been with the Phantoms for five seasons. He filled in as head coach when Gordon was summoned by the Flyers. Lehigh Valley went 24-21-5 with Huffman as its bench boss.
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