Paul Holmgren

The Flyers have hired Paul Holmgren to scout other NHL teams, general manager Bob Clarke said yesterday. Clarke also indicated that Bill Barber, who stepped down as director of pro scouting to replace Jay Leach as head coach of the minor-league Hershey Bears, had the inside track to become coach of the Flyers' expansion American Hockey League team next season. Holmgren, fired as head coach of the Hartford Whalers on Nov. 6, was head coach of the Flyers from 1988 to '91, and served as an assistant to Mike Keenan before taking over.

TAMPA, Fla. - Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren, who has been criticized for the team's tumble, is not in danger of losing his job, according to a source close to the situation. "Look at his body of work. He's done a very good job," the source said. "He's not going anywhere. " Entering Monday's game against Tampa Bay, the Flyers were 13-15-1 and 11th in the Eastern Conference. Holmgren is in his seventh season as the Flyers' GM. In 2007-08, Holmgren's first full season in the position, the Flyers collected 95 points after registering just 56 points the previous season.

General manager Paul Holmgren said he was not considering a coaching change, and he criticized the Flyers' "compete" level during an impromptu news conference at the team's practice facility in Voorhees on Thursday. At first, Holmgren gave coach Peter Laviolette a seemingly lukewarm endorsement. Asked if Laviolette was on the hot seat, Holmgren said, "I don't think so. " Holmgren later added: "I haven't even thought about" making a coaching change, and he was "not at the point" of consummating a major trade.

Stalemate. That's the best way to describe the state of negotiations between the Flyers and the Toronto Maple Leafs on a potential trade of Eric Lindros' rights. Yesterday, players, coaches, and even Maple Leafs owner Steve Stavro railed over what they said had become such a huge distraction that it was hurting the struggling Leafs, who have been fighting for a playoff berth but are falling in the Eastern Conference standings. Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, Flyers management and scouts met for what they said was a routine meeting and went home in the early afternoon without hearing from the Leafs.

PITTSBURGH — Paul Holmgren was standing in the bowels of the Consol Energy Center, briefcase in tow, after restocking the Flyers' farm system in the 50th annual NHL daft with picks that will take years to grade. He was asked whether he was disappointed that the Flyers did not make a big, headline-stealing splash in Pittsburgh to upend the host Penguins. Holmgren chuckled, already knowing that he was knee-deep in negotiations with the Maple Leafs to bring Luke Schenn to Philadelphia.

As their reeling team tried to regroup from its latest clunker, Flyers coach Peter Laviolette and general manager Paul Holmgren were given a vote of confidence Sunday. Asked whether the Flyers' dismal start had put the jobs of the head coach and the general manager in jeopardy, Peter Luukko didn't hesitate. "Absolutely not," said Luukko, president of the Flyers' parent company, Comcast-Spectacor. "We just need to be patient, and to even think the general manager or coach are in trouble [is false]

For all his good work in the last two-plus seasons, Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren deserves a mulligan. If managing a hockey team is described in golf terms, Holmgren has been under par on most of the courses he has played since assuming his duties on Nov. 11, 2006. But, backed against the $56.7 million salary cap because of his previous moves, he scored a triple-bogey recently. First, he tried to clear cap space by sneaking popular veterans Glen Metropolit and Ossi Vaananen through waivers.

The Flyers' search for a new general manager won't stop at the door of Colin Campbell. The club announced yesterday that Campbell, the NHL's director of hockey operations and chief disciplinarian, had declined to be a candidate for the job. "Colin Campbell and I have been friends for a very long time, and we both have worked closely together on the NHL's competition committee," club chairman Ed Snider said in a statement.? "When Bob Clarke announced his resignation on Oct. 22, I contacted Colin and we had a discussion about the general manager position," Snider said.

Losing to Pittsburgh in the Eastern Conference finals, the Flyers realized, in the words of coach John Stevens, that they have to "close the gap" between themselves and others. Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren said yesterday that he wants to see what the Penguins do in the Stanley Cup Finals and in their bid to re-sign 12 unrestricted free agents this summer. Pittsburgh will look very different next fall. The gap between the Penguins and Flyers could shrink between July 1, when free agency begins, and early October, when the season starts.

There is a downside to the Flyers' surprising playoff run: They get a lousy position in the first round of Friday's NHL draft. Nevertheless, the club is hoping the player it drafts will make a mark down the road. The Flyers will select 27th overall, and before you start thinking that pickings are slim at that position, consider this: Jimmy Watson, Pelle Lindbergh, Ron Hextall, Rick Tocchet, Chris Therien and Vinny Prospal were among the Flyers selected much later than 27th.

The last time the Flyers won the Stanley Cup, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was a box-office sensation, sentences were handed out for the Watergate cover-up, and gas was about 57 cents a gallon. Yeah, it's been a while. Thirty-eight years, to be exact. No one is more frustrated than Ed Snider, the Flyers' founder and chairman of Comcast-Spectacor, the team's parent company. The frustration grew this season. First there was the senseless lockout. Then the Flyers' head-scratching, inconsistent play caused them to miss the playoffs for just the second time in the last 18 years.

IT BEGAN with a prank, as his Flyers teammates sent newly named captain Claude Giroux onto the ice alone during an open-to-the-public practice at Wells Fargo Center to thank fans for waiting through the lockout. It ended with him answering awkward questions in front of a locker room filled with equipment bags packed far earlier than anyone expected. But if coach Peter Laviolette and general manager Paul Holmgren are grading the first season of his captaincy, Giroux passed with flying colors.

General manager Paul Holmgren said the Flyers, who completed their lackluster season on Saturday, need just a little offseason tweaking to return to the playoffs. "I still think we have good-enough talent to win," Holmgren said. In a far-reaching, 24-minute media session Sunday after the Flyers cleaned out their lockers at their Voorhees practice facility, Holmgren said that bolstering the defense, which was decimated by injuries this year, will be a priority. "We're always looking to get better on the back end. We're always looking to get bigger," he said.

Peter Laviolette will return as the Flyers' coach next season, general manager Paul Holmgren said on Sunday after the players cleaned out their lockers at their Voorhees practice facility. Laviolette has two years remaining on his contract, but Holmgren had declined several chances to say the coach would return - until Sunday's news conference. The Flyers finished 23-22-3 and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2007. Holmgren said he had "no doubts" that Laviolette still was getting his message through to the players after nearly four seasons as their head coach.

ILYA BRYZGALOV performed his final stand-up routine of the season yesterday; please, tip your servers and try the caviar. It really was a Tour de Bryz. His target this day was the media. At one point, he said that perusing stories written about him - which he apparently does with a highlighter - often leaves him thinking, "Sometimes you're reading and it's like, 'Oh my God, who is this lunatic?' " But, he said, it doesn't bother him. "Not anymore," Bryzgalov said. "Not anymore.

KURTIS FOSTER was laughing. Unless you include call-ups Erik Gustafsson and Brandon Manning, who played a combined 34 games with the team last season, no defenseman in the Flyers' lineup in Tuesday night's win against the Bruins was on last year's roster. Foster and Luke Schenn were the only two to start this season with the Flyers. For some, a glimpse at the Flyers' injury list - with more than $30 million committed to 12 players - at the close of the season may be a good reason why the Stanley Cup playoffs will go on without Philadelphia for the second time since 1995.

FIVE DAYS before the NHL's draft lottery that will determine the order for perhaps hockey's best class since 2003, Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren said he isn't keeping a close tabs on the overall standings to pinpoint where his team might fall. "I don't really look at it that closely," Holmgren said. "I think it's a fairly deep draft. I know where our list is going to be. I've seen a lot of those players. We'll wind up getting a good player. " Like his bosses, Holmgren is accustomed to the success that the Flyers have achieved - now missing the Stanley Cup playoffs only twice since 1995.

WITH THE HEAD coach apparently returning for at least the start of next hockey season, and the general manager likely to survive the Flyers season that wasn't, this star-crossed team seems poised for yet another franchise-shifting decision. And wouldn't you know it, it revolves around a goalie. Alas, who to use their amnesty buyout on - Danny Briere or Ilya Bryzgalov? From a performance standpoint, Briere seems to be the no-brainer. He's 35, just back from a concussion, just a few months removed from a hand injury suffered while playing in Germany, which began his worst season since he was an underachieving kid in Phoenix.

MONTREAL - Forget the rumors about Peter Laviolette's being fired after the season. It sounds as if the Flyers' fiery coach is staying. Without formally announcing it, general manager Paul Holmgren gave Laviolette a strong vote of confidence in Montreal on Monday. Asked whether he planned to make a coaching change after the season, Holmgren was succinct. "I haven't even thought along those lines," he told The Inquirer in a phone conversation. "I think it's been a difficult year because of the [injury]

BUFFALO - There is a bright side to the Flyers' flop of a season: This is regarded as one of the best draft classes in recent years, and they figure to get an early selection June 30 in Newark. The draft includes two big defensemen who are related to former pro athletes: Seth Jones, son of Popeye Jones, who played 10-plus NBA seasons, and Darnell Nurse, nephew of Donovan McNabb, whose career with the Eagles is well-documented in these parts. Scouts call the 6-foot-3, 208-pound Jones the consensus No. 1 overall pick, while the 6-4, 190-pound Nurse is projected to be drafted as high as fifth and as low as 11th in the first round.