Russ Farwell

An astute workaholic. A master tactician with an almost uncanny knack for sniffing out character players, and for taking other teams' rejects and transforming them into useful contributors. A players' general manager with the ability to get unwavering loyalty from his men. That, in sum, is the way some guys who have both known and competed against Russ Farwell describe this driven 34-year-old man who is expected to be named the fifth general manager in the Flyers' 23-year history.

Russ Farwell, the junior-hockey executive who seems to be gaining NHL star status, yesterday completed his second interview session in less than a month for the Flyers' general manager's job and said he expected the team to make its final choice in two or three weeks. Farwell, the first GM candidate known to be invited back by the Flyers for a second round of interviews, met with Flyers president Jay Snider and other team officials for two days. He ended his stay yesterday by having lunch at the Rittenhouse Hotel with Snider and executive vice presidents Ron Ryan and Keith Allen.

Bill Dineen, who has trouble with push-button phones, sometimes gets lost in airports, and forgets the time of day but knows a thing or two about inspiring hockey players, probably will be back as coach of the Flyers next season. General manager Russ Farwell rendered an unqualified endorsement yesterday of the job Dineen had done with a youthful, restructured team, and said he expected the 59-year-old former scout to be his coach next season - if Dineen wants the job. "There's no reason to think Bill wouldn't be our coach," Farwell said just before the Flyers flew to Pittsburgh for tonight's game against the Penguins.

The Flyers show every indication of agonizing over who their coach will be next season. They're playing golf. They're lounging in their offices scanning tapes of the Stanley Cup playoffs. And they spent a week in Germany, working on some European contracts for next season. Some agony. And what this may add up to is that the Flyers may just be sticking with coach Bill Dineen next season. With Mike Keenan out of the picture, few names of coaching candidates have made the rounds.

Throughout these hush-hush, week-long Eric Lindros hearings, Jay Snider and Russ Farwell have been pretty cool customers. It has been hard to guess how their case was going: No smiles. No frowns. No comment. But late last night, as the hearings appeared to be drawing to a close, their moods became apparent. With dance music from a high school graduation party pulsating throughout the Radisson Le Grand hotel, Snider and Farwell left the hearing room to meet privately in a nearby hallway.

Flyers general manager Russ Farwell, still seething over the crude and dangerous behavior of dozens of fans during Tuesday night's 6-3 loss to the Quebec Nordiques at the Coliseum, said yesterday he will not protest the game. But he wants some answers. "There isn't another rink in the NHL that would have allowed them to throw materials on the ice and not do something," Farwell said. "The security just wasn't up to NHL standards. "We're upset because there was nothing done at all. No one was ejected that I know of. That all has to be addressed.

Forget just for a second that the Flyers are involved in negotiations for junior superstar Eric Lindros, and consider whom they might select with their two first-round picks in Saturday's annual draft. From all indications, the Flyers will go heavy on wingers and defensemen. Never mind that general manager Russ Farwell said that's what they will do. General managers have been known to fib around draft time. But wingers and defensemen are just what the Flyers need. They have chosen centers with their first pick in each of the last three drafts.

Paul Holmgren is back in the Flyers' fold again. The club announced last night that Holmgren had accepted a job in the organization as a scout. Holmgren, who was fired as Flyers coach on Dec. 4 after the club went through an 8-14-2 start, will do amateur scouting in Ontario and Quebec, along with some minor-league pro scouting. He left Tuesday for Ontario. Ironically, he will be fulfilling some of the same duties that his successor, Bill Dineen, had before he got Holmgren's job. "We met last Saturday and talked it over," said Flyers general manger Russ Farwell.

The irony would be so delicious, it can't possibly really happen, but for what it's worth, former Flyers general manager Russ Farwell is in the running for the job Bob Clarke left in Florida. Clarke replaced Farwell two weeks ago, offering Farwell a chance to stay with the organization in an unspecified job. Farwell indicated he wasn't much interested in staying, and wanted to see what was out there. That Panthers GM job, obviously, is out there. Farwell confirmed that he met last weekend with Panthers president Bill Torrey.

No meeting between Russ Farwell, the Flyers' general manager, and Steve Mountain, the new agent for Flyers goaltender Ron Hextall, has been scheduled. But coach Paul Holmgren is optimistic that the two sides will resolve Hextall's wish for a new contract before training camp begins Sept. 5. Contracts are Farwell's department, but Holmgren doesn't mind acting as a mediator because he doesn't want any more Hextall-related distractions. Shortly after Farwell was named general manager in June, Holmgren, who also is represented by Mountain, arranged a brief meeting between Hextall and Farwell.

EVEN THOUGH A Stanley Cup hasn't been added to the trophy case since 1975, the Flyers usually are in contention. That's obviously not the case this season as the Orange & Black failed to reach the playoffs for just the ninth time in franchise history. Here's a quick look at the years the Flyers missed the postseason with some of the key moves that resulted: 1969-70 - 17-35-24 Recap: Blew a seven-point lead with six games left and lost out on a tiebreaker with the Oakland Seals.

Bob Gainey took Ken Hitchcock for a walk around a lake in Minneapolis. It was 1993. Gainey, the general manager of the Minnesota North Stars, was thinking of hiring Hitchcock to coach the Kalamazoo Wings, a minor-league affiliate of the Stars. But Hitchcock had two serious impediments to overcome - lack of National Hockey League playing experience and a scale-busting weight that once had reached more than 450 pounds. Instead of quizzing Hitchcock in the office, Gainey conducted the interview during a 75-minute walk.

They went through two mock drafts a year ago. They had Justin Williams rated the 14th-best skater in the first round. Imagine the Flyers' surprise when the skinny right winger was still on the board when they made their pick at No. 28. "It's more difficult to predict this year," Flyers assistant general manager Paul Holmgren said about today's NHL draft at the National Car Rental Center. Holmgren oversees the scouting department and coordination of the draft, which begins with three rounds today and ends tomorrow with rounds 4-9. "Last year, we had an idea of four or five guys who'd be available," he said.

Bill Barber's Stanley Cup championship rings and plaque in the Hockey Hall of Fame got his old linemate Bobby Clarke off the hook with Flyers fans. After an embarrassing 5-1 Flyers loss in Detroit on Friday night, Clarke reluctantly decided that Craig Ramsay had to go. Yesterday he elevated Barber - his linemate on the Broad Street Bullies in the 1970s - to head coach. The move, Clarke's fifth coaching change since inheriting Terry Simpson from Russ Farwell in 1994, might have smacked of panic.

Mikael Renberg, a second-round pick in 1990, was the highest-drafted player among the Flyers' own picks on last season's final roster. "That sort of surprises me," said Renberg, who himself was traded before being reacquired last season. But, he acknowledged, "there are a lot of trades around the league. " When it comes to making deals, the Flyers have been active. Shifts in upper management as general manager Bob Clarke left the team for five years between 1989 and 1994 and changes in philosophy have played a role.

Ken Hitchcock, two victories away from the Stanley Cup, is having a wonderful time. The Dallas Stars coach meets with the media every day, twice on game days, and he always gives the impression that there is nowhere he would rather be. Even after the Stars' 2-1 loss to Buffalo Tuesday night, which sent the series back to Dallas for tonight's Game 5 tied at 2-2, Hitchcock was upbeat, expansive, calmly analytical. Discussing the gut-wrenching twists of the evening with him was like debating with your neighbor across the fence the performances in a movie you both have seen.

Quite often, it appears that Peter Forsberg is so concentrated on his hockey chores that he seems removed from the brief but joyous celebrations that break out after each goal scored by the team he leads, the Colorado Avalanche. Whether it's the result of Swedish stoicism, single-mindedness, or a mixture of both, Forsberg's intense expression - a focus of ESPN's Stanley Cup pregame montage - rarely changes. So when Forsberg raised his arms in triumph and his bearded face brightened with a smile after his beautiful third-period goal gave the Avalanche a 5-2 lead over Detroit on Tuesday night in Game 6 of the Western Conference semifinals, you knew the Red Wings' dreams of a third straight Stanley Cup were dead and Colorado was in the tournament's final four.

When Bob Clarke returned as the Flyers' general manager four years ago, there was one apparent certainty: He and Eric Lindros would get along. Clarke and Lindros forged a close relationship during Lindros's rookie year, when Clarke had spent nine months as a Flyers senior vice president between GM stints in Minnesota and in Florida. The strength of that bond was demonstrated when Eric showed up for his second NHL training camp in 1993, a bit lighter than he'd played as a rookie.

Enjoy Barry Melrose and his thoroughbred mane on TV while you can. The ESPN hockey analyst wants to coach in the NHL again. "I probably do need my head examined," he said before last night's Game 2 of the Detroit-Washington Stanley Cup final. Melrose, who coached Los Angeles to the 1993 Stanley Cup finals, has conferred with Chicago general manager Bob Murray about the Blackhawks vacancy. During the dark days of Russ Farwell's term as the Flyers general manager, Melrose was mentioned as a coach in Philadelphia.

The poor Florida Panthers couldn't have seen this coming. After clawing through three rounds of the Stanley Cup playoffs by being hungrier than anybody in their path, the Panthers ventured out West to the finals, only to run into the Donner party. The McNichols Arena crowd gave its Colorado Avalanche a standing ovation in the final seconds of last night's 8-1 victory, partly because the rout was so pleasing, and partly because, with the series shifting to Miami for Game 3 and Game 4, the Colorado fans might next see their heroes outdoors, at a parade.