Flyers Hire Wayne Simmonds as a Hockey Ops Consultant

Wayne Simmonds, one of the most beloved Flyers of all-time, was hired by the team for hockey ops role, the team announced Friday.

Simmonds, officially retired as a Flyer in April, but did not play during the 2023-24 season. He is joining the organization in a dual role, as a consultant in the hockey operations department, but also as a community ambassador. 

Simmonds spent eight of his 15 NHL seasons with the Flyers (2011-19). During that time, he tallied 378 points (203g-175a), including 91 power-play goals, 34 game-winning goals, and 786 penalty minutes in 584 games. Simmonds had two standout seasons with 60 points each in 2013-14 and 2015-16 and led the team with a career-high 32 goals in the latter. He also recorded 15 points in 30 playoff games with the Flyers.

The addition of Simmonds is not a surprise as he discussed the possibility with us on the Snow the Goalie podcast in April.

It's also not surprising the roles in which he will serve. Simmonds can get his feet wet on the executive side, serving as a consultant, but can still be very active as a community ambassador. Even in the five years since leaving the Flyers. Simmonds has remained active on the Board of Directors for the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation.

Simmonds was deeply involved in community work as a player, founding "Wayne’s Warriors" for military members and hosting "Wayne’s Road Hockey Warriors" to give underprivileged children access to the game. Over his 15-year career with Philadelphia, Nashville, and Toronto, Simmonds played 1,037 regular-season games, notching 526 points and 22 playoff points across 53 postseason contests.

The Flyers acquired him in the summer of 2011 in a trade with the Los Angeles Kings along with Brayden Schenn in exchange for Mike Richards. Simmonds quickly became a fan favorite, earning various team awards, including the Bobby Clarke Trophy for the 2016-17 season. He was an NHL All-Star in 2017 and won NHL All-Star Game MVP honors and was a two-time finalist for the Mark Messier NHL Leadership Award (2017-18 & 2018-19), and won it in 2018-19.

In addition to Simmonds, the Flyers announced six additional hires.

• Former NHL winger and 1989 Flyers fourth round draft pick Reid Simpson was hired as the Director of Professional Scouting in Europe. Simpson worked the previous eight years with the Montreal Canadiens.
• Kedryn Orrison-Pilgrim is the new head athletic trainer for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. She spent the past three seasons as the assistant athletic trainer for the Rochester Americans, the Buffalo Sabres AHL affiliate.
• Lindsay Eastwood was brought in as the manager of player and hockey communications.
• Ryan Cyr was brought in as a goaltending scout and development consultant. 
• Oleg Znarok was hired as a European player development and scouting consultant. (This is notable as Znarok has a long and successful history in the KHL.)
• Ellyse Robert is a new hockey analyst on the analytics team after serving as a data analyst intern with the Kings.