New Lehigh Valley Phantoms coach John Snowden. (Credit: Lehigh Valley Phantoms)
The Flyers will finalize coaching vacancies with their AHL affiliate, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, by hiring John Snowden as head coach and Terrence Wallin as assistant coach.
Snowden, 43, was an assistant coach with the Phantoms the last two years under Ian Laperriere. When the Flyers decided to replace Laperriere behind the bench, Snowden was on a short list of candidates to replace him as the head coach.
Before joining the Phantoms staff in 2023, Snowden served as an assistant with the Toronto Marlies of the AHL for two seasons.
Prior to his coaching stints in the AHL, Snowden was the head coach of the the Newfoundland Growlers of the ECHL for parts of two seasons, winning a championship with them in 2018-19 after taking over as their head coach midseason.
A native of Everett, Wash., Snowden played just three games in the AHL during his career, spending most of the time playing in the ECHL and the now defunct Central Hockey League.
He started his coaching career as an assistant coach in the ECHL with the Orlando Solar Bears from 2016-2018 before heading to Newfoundland.
Wallin, 33, who was born in Yardley and briefly attended La Salle College High School, has been the head coach and general manager of the Maine Mariners in the ECHL for the past three seasons.
New Phantoms assistant coach Terrence Wallin (Credit: Maine Mariners)
Wallin has strong connections to the Flyers organization. Current Flyers G.M. Danny Briere's first gig with the organization when he got into management was running the Mariners, who were owned by Comcast-Spectacor until they were sold to Dexter Paine last year.
As President and Director of Operations for the Mariners from 2017-2022, Briere first traded for Wallin as a player, prior to the 2018-19 season and then named him an assistant coach in 2021-22 after Wallin had told Briere he wanted to have a coaching future.
Fun fact on Wallin: he had a chat with Danny Briere all the way back in 2019 about potentially being a coach. He was playing for the Maine Mariners when Briere was running them. https://t.co/BYEP9tPMKh pic.twitter.com/IG7dnR4mhR
Wallin served as an assistant coach with Maine to Riley Armstrong, who Briere brought in as head coach and assistant GM in 2018. Armstrong left Maine to become the Flyers Director of Player Development, and Wallin replaced him as head coach and G.M.
In three seasons as the Mariners' bench boss, Wallin compiled a record of 107-94-15. Maine made the playoffs twice - in 2022-23 and 2023-24 - but lost in the first round each time. Maine did not make the playoffs last season.
