The Philadelphia Flyers technically don't have a revolving door of coaches. Yet Flyers fans like myself know not to get too attached to them, as they usually leave after four years at the most. However, the franchise is ready to let Peter Laviolette break that trend, after giving him a multi-year extension on Aug. 2.

If Laviolette finishes his new contract, he will coach until the end of the 2014-15 season, which would be the end of his sixth year with the Flyers. This would be historic in Philadelphia, as no Flyers coach has lasted more than four years since two-time Stanley Cup champion Fred Shero, who made it through seven.

Several coaches like Ken Hitchcock, Pat Quinn, Mike Keenan, Paul Holmgren and John Stevens have made it to a fourth year, but gone no further. If Laviolette can survive longer, it will give him a real chance to be the second greatest Flyers coach of all time. Of course, actually winning a Stanley Cup like Shero did will help even more.

Laviolette has won at least one playoff round for the Flyers every season, and gotten to the 2010 Stanley Cup Finals after taking over in December 2009. He already has the resume as one of the top coaches in Philadelphia history, but he needs one more deep playoff run to really rise up the list. With a young core developing under him and with Claude Giroux becoming one of the NHL's top superstars, a few more years with this squad could be all Laviolette needs.

Still, there is no guarantee that one bad stretch or poor start won't put Laviolette's job in jeopardy. He won a Stanley Cup for the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006, yet got fired just 25 games into his fifth season anyway. If the Flyers underachieve to a great extent, there will be more pressure to make a big change - plus it has been two years since Laviolette actually got Philadelphia past the first round.

In any case, the next NHL season could be delayed, shortened or even canceled due to a lockout, so Laviolette and the Flyers may not even get their chance for a while. As such, he could have only two more full seasons under this new contract, and the Flyers may suffer from not having a full 2012-13 season to further develop their new stars.

This is usually the time when lockouts, setbacks, collapses and pure dumb luck occurs to ruin a Flyers coach. Except for Shero, they all flame out after a few years and leave the Flyers even further away from a Stanley Cup.

Laviolette has gotten closer to a Cup than many of those coaches, however, so Philadelphia has faith that he can go further with enough time. Yet if he has the longest tenure of any coach since Shero and doesn't deliver a Stanley Cup, it will make his failure all the more upsetting.

Robert Dougherty is a life-long Philadelphia resident and a Flyers fan since the age of eight.

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Excerpt from:
Laviolette Poised for Second Longest Coaching Tenure in Flyers History: A Fan's Analysis