By Harry Allison
The Flyers hired a new coach on Monday to replace the fired Craig Berube but things look the same for overpaid, underachieving Vinny Lecavalier.
The bad news for Lecavalier (above) is his situation as a Flyers’ outcast almost certainly won’t change under new coach Dave Haxstol.
“We haven’t been through it with the coach yet, so once we kind of get the plan here we’ll have a better answer,” Flyers GM Ron Hextall said in a conference call Wednesday according to NJ.com. “But I’ll say the same thing that I said at the end of the season. It hasn’t worked for Vinny and it hasn’t worked for us, and at this point it’s safe to say I’m not convinced this (coaching hire) changes anything.”
Lecavalier, 34, scored just eight goals, 20 points and was a minus-7 in 57 games last season. He also was a healthy scratch for 17 games, the first benchings of an illustrious 14-season NHL career in which he’s scored 411 goals, played in four All-Star Games and won a Stanley Cup playing for the 2003-04 Tampa Bay Lightning.
After the season, Lecavalier admitted it was best for all parties if he and Berube aren’t together next season.
“Yeah, that’s fair to say,” Lecavalier said. “Obviously he’s got his views. Obviously, he’s showed that. … Obviously it’s going to be tough to change his mind, but we’ll see what happens.”
