Coach Peter DeBoer deserves a look from Flyers

The most underrated candidate to become the Flyers' next head coach has never had an NHL team finish better than third in its division, has coached in the postseason once over his seven years in the league, and was fired on the day after Christmas.

At first glance, Peter DeBoer's resumé doesn't seem worthy of a spot near the top of the stack on Ron Hextall's desk, as if DeBoer were a second-class contender compared to the bigger names who have or might yet become available: Mike Babcock, Claude Julien, Todd McLellan. Hextall has promised to think this process through, to take his time in finding Craig Berube's successor. And yes, if Babcock were to decide to leave the Detroit Red Wings, it would be a coup for Hextall to coax the NHL's most accomplished and respected coach to join a franchise that looks a long way from challenging for a Stanley Cup anytime soon.

But as Hextall gets closer to making his most important decision so far as a general manager, there are enough clues and connections to suggest that everyone ought to keep an eye on DeBoer, that he might be a good fit here.

DeBoer has been out of work since Dec. 26, the day that New Jersey Devils president and GM Lou Lamoriello fired him for apparently not getting more out of a team that poor drafting and bad luck had left barren. To a degree, that's been the story of DeBoer's NHL coaching career: He spent three seasons with the Florida Panthers and 31/2 with the Devils, and some of the circumstances he confronted made it pretty much impossible for him to succeed.

In Florida, a market in which hockey is an afterthought and there's minimal public pressure to put a respectable team on the ice, he coached under three ownership groups and three general managers. In New Jersey, he watched as one star forward, Zach Parise, walked away to sign with his hometown team, the Minnesota Wild, and another, Ilya Kovalchuk, left 12 years and $77 million on the table to return to Russia and play in the Kontinental Hockey League.

Only once over that time, in 2011-12, DeBoer's first season with the Devils, did a front office supply him with enough resources to be competitive. For that year, though, when the Devils had ample depth and skill among their forwards - Parise, Kovalchuk, Patrik Elias, David Clarkson, Adam Henrique - DeBoer showed what he could do: guiding the Devils to a 102-point regular season, outcoaching Peter Laviolette in a five-game second-round swamping of the Flyers, getting the franchise to its first Stanley Cup Finals since 2003.

At the time, Hextall was an assistant GM with the Los Angeles Kings, the team that beat the Devils to win the Cup. From observing that series, Hextall might remember now how DeBoer shaped the Devils into a club that came within two victories of a championship, because there are parallels between those Devils and these Flyers.

The season before DeBoer arrived, New Jersey had finished 30th (i.e. dead last) in the league in goals scored, and Lamoriello had hired him with a quasi-mandate to turn the Devils into a more-dynamic offensive team. "I felt he was the right person because of the style that he played," Lamoriello said in 2012. "He was going to use the talent we had that could be more offensive and yet not sacrifice the defense."

The Devils lacked a bona fide No. 1 defenseman, although their group's overall skating ability was adequate. (The same description might apply to the Flyers next season, especially if a couple of their highly touted defensive prospects end up on the roster.) The advantage they did have was that their goaltender, Martin Brodeur, was arguably the NHL's greatest puckhandling and passing goalie. (The Flyers' Steve Mason is not on Brodeur's level - who is? - but he is excellent in this regard.)

So DeBoer drew up a new system that suited his personnel: an assertive, forechecking approach in which the Devils forced opponents to dump the puck in and relied on Brodeur to act as something of a third defenseman, moving the puck out of New Jersey's zone to ignite offensive counterattacks. The Devils jumped from 30th in the league in goals scored to 11th, and they were eighth in goals against.

Here is a head coach, then, who has been in tough rebuilding situations before, who has shown he can win if he's given enough talent, and who has implemented an aggressive-yet-responsible style of play that elevated an undistinguished collection of defensemen from a weakness to a strength. It doesn't make Peter DeBoer the perfect choice to coach the Flyers. It doesn't mean he'll get the job. But it ought to give Ron Hextall something to consider as he contemplates how he can get this team where he wants it to go.

@MikeSielski