10 things to know about Keith Jones, the Flyers’ new president of hockey ops

For the last decade, Keith Jones’ voice has colored Flyers fans’ experiences, ringing through the radio and television broadcasts. Now, he’s taking his voice to the board room as the Flyers’ new president of hockey operations.

Jones succeeds Chuck Fletcher, who served as general manager and president of hockey operations before being fired on March 10. Alongside the news that they were moving on from Fletcher, the Flyers also announced they would be breaking his role into two positions.

» READ MORE: Flyers name Keith Jones president of hockey operations, Danny Briere general manager

While new general manager Danny Brière will focus on building the roster and the long-term game plan, Jones will focus on the business aspects of hockey operations. He’ll manage the staff and be a public face for the organization.

Two months after the Flyers began their search for their next president of hockey operations, with help from third-party advisory firm Modern Executive Solutions, they hired Jones on Friday.

Here are 10 things to know about the new but familiar face in the Flyers’ leadership structure:

Jones was born in Paris, Ontario, just outside of Brantford. That’s the birthplace of a pretty important hockey player: Wayne Gretzky. However, born in 1968, Jones did not play against Gretzky, born in 1961, growing up.

When Jones was 18, he was still playing Junior C-level hockey in Ontario. Jones is one of the only players to make the NHL after playing Junior C-level hockey at 18.

A college scholarship offer from Western Michigan helped Jones develop into an NHL player. As a broadcaster calling games of fellow Western Michigan alumni like Wade Allison and Ronnie Attard, Jones liked to joke that his alma mater was the “Harvard of the Midwest.”

Jones played 153 games in four seasons with the Broncos, racking up 83 goals and 163 points.

The Washington Capitals drafted Jones in the seventh round (pick No. 141) in 1988. Jones debuted for the Caps in the 1992-93 season.

In the 1994-95 season, the bruising right winger finally established himself as an every-night NHLer. He played for Washington for five years, tallying 62 goals, 65 assists, and 454 penalty minutes in 258 games. He infamously negotiated his own contract with general manager David Poile and would bring an empty briefcase to the negotiations.

Jones later played two-plus seasons with the Colorado Avalanche before landing in Philadelphia.

With over two-thirds of the 1998-99 season left, Jones was traded to the Flyers. His third NHL city would be his last one.

Jones made an immediate impact, scoring 18 goals, adding 31 assists, and playing a physical brand of hockey in his first season. Already in his 30s, Jones saw his numbers drop significantly the following year. He played in just 57 regular-season games, scoring nine goals and adding 16 assists.

Jones played just eight games because of a knee injury and a concussion in his final season before retiring in November 2000.

Shortly after retiring, Jones pivoted to a career in broadcasting. He began cohosting 94.1 WIP’s morning show with Angelo Cataldi and did so for over two decades.

Three years after starting in radio, he took the plunge into TV. Jones worked as an in-studio TV analyst for The NHL on NBC as well as a color commentator for NBC Sports Philadelphia. In 2021, he moved downstairs behind the glass as TNT/TBS’ “inside the glass” reporter. When not calling national games for TNT, he served as Jim Jackson’s color commentator for NBC Sports Philly.

In 2007, Jones tried his hand at a different type of media: the written word. Working with ESPN anchor John Buccigross, Jones published an autobiography, Jonesy: Put Your Head Down and Skate. NHL Hall of Famer Ray Bourque wrote the forward for it.

The book describes Jones’ career as “improbable,” saying no player has been more successful for being average. It also shares several funny tales of Jones’ time in the NHL.

Jones said there won’t be a Book 2 coming anytime soon. It was “very difficult,” he told Bleacher Report. All proceeds from Jones’ book go to Alex’s Lemonade Stand foundation for childhood cancer.

Jones has his fingers deep in another sport — thoroughbred horse racing. He was a part-owner of Wild Desert, the horse who won the 2005 Queen’s Plate, Canada’s most prestigious horse race.

Jones has also owned another horse, Toccet, along with Dan Borislow, who was the majority owner of Wild Desert. Toccet won the Champagne Stakes before an injury derailed his attempt at chasing a Triple Crown. Jones claims the horse was named after former Flyer Rock Tocchet, but he spelled his name wrong.

Jones, along with his wife, Laura, and daughter Adrian, also purchased a New Jersey-bred horse, All of the Above, in 2009.

In 1999, Jones was in his first season with the Flyers. He was rooming with Flyers legend Eric Lindros in Nashville when near disaster struck. During the team’s April 1 game, Lindros had suffered what was deemed a broken rib.

But when Jones woke up the next morning, he found Lindros lying in the tub, clearly unwell. Jones insisted the Flyers take him to the hospital.

At the hospital, they found that Lindros’ lung had collapsed, and he had lost over half of his body’s volume of blood. If he had been put on the plane, he likely would have died.

Jones loves his pizza. Even when the Flyers play an early game against the Detroit Red Wings, he still makes sure he gets his Little Caesars pizza, eating it alongside breakfast.

It’s fitting that pizza has become part of his legacy. Locked in a 1-1 deadlock with the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 4 of the 2000 Eastern Conference semifinals, the Flyers were searching for answers. Tocchet recalls Jones, in an attempt to provide some comic relief, wandering through the locker room between one of the overtimes with a piece of pizza hanging out of his mouth. It worked, as Keith Primeau scored the winner in the fifth overtime in what is still the longest playoff game in the post-expansion era. Jones received a plus-1 on the goal and has the box score framed.