Flyers announce several hockey operations hires including the return of Wayne Simmonds

Wayne Simmonds is back.

The Flyers announced several hockey operations hires Friday, with Simmonds as the headliner. “Wayne Train,” who scored 203 goals for the Flyers from 2011 to 2019, and March signed a one-day contract to retire with the team, was named a community relations ambassador and hockey operations consultant. The position is a natural fit for Simmonds, who was renowned for his work in the community, particularly with Snider Hockey, Wayne’s Warriors, and March of Dimes during his tenure in Philadelphia. Simmonds still serves on the board of Snider Hockey and was recognized for his charitable efforts with the NHL’s Mark Messier Leadership Award in 2019. He is the latest former Flyer to rejoin the organization, joining an ever-growing cast that includes general manager Danny Brière, president Keith Jones, scout Sami Kapanen, and advisers John LeClair and Patrick Sharp.

Other hires announced Friday include Reid Simpson as the new director of European pro scouting, Oleg Znarok as a European scouting consultant, and Kedryn Orrison-Pilgrim as head trainer for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

» READ MORE: Wayne Simmonds officially retires as a Flyer: ‘Greatest eight years of my life’

Simpson, a fourth-round pick of the Flyers in 1989 and one of the most feared fighters of his era, joins the organization after eight years as a pro scout for the Montreal Canadiens. Znarok, whose background is in coaching, is interesting, given his connections within Russia and the Kontinental Hockey League. The KHL’s top coach on four occasions, Znarok won three Gagarin Cups and also led Russia’s national team (playing under different monikers) to a gold medal at the 2018 Olympics and silver in 2022. The Flyers recently facilitated top prospect Matvei Michkov’s release from his KHL contract and currently have goaltender Egor Zavragin and potentially Alexei Kolosov playing in the league.

Orrison-Pilgrim will oversee the training operation in Lehigh Valley after three years working as the assistant athletic trainer for the Rochester Americans of the American Hockey League. While working with Rochester, she became just the third woman to work behind an NHL bench as a trainer when she worked a game for the Buffalo Sabres in 2022.

The Flyers also hired Lindsay Eastwood as a manager of player and hockey communications, Ryan Cyr as a goaltending scout and development consultant, and Ellyse Robert as a hockey analyst. Eastwood and Cyr have professional hockey playing experience, while Robert joins the Flyers’ analytics department after working the past two years as a data analyst intern with the Los Angeles Kings.