Q&A: New Phantoms coach John Snowden discusses philosophies, his impressions of Alex Bump and Jett Luchanko, and more
Snowden, who will be an American Hockey League head coach for the first time this season, is tasked with developing and nurturing some of the Flyers' top prospects.
ALLENTOWN ― John Snowden may be the new head coach for the Flyers’ American Hockey League affiliate in Lehigh Valley, but his ties run deep to Pennsylvania.
A native of Washington State, he played one year with Reading of the ECHL and served as an assistant coach for the past two seasons with the Phantoms under Ian Laperrière, who moved into an adviser role.
“We have a very exciting group of players that are going to be coming in here and mesh with the players that we already have,” he said Wednesday at his introductory press conference. “We have a pretty good, solid foundation that Lappy left for us and built for us to build upon. We have a good foundation, and now we need to take it to the next level of where we’re going to be.”
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Snowden, 43, understands the importance of his role in creating the foundation of the Flyers through the development process. Highly-regarded prospects like defenseman Oliver Bonk, goalie Carson Bjarnason, and forwards Denver Barkey and Devin Kaplan, and possibly Alex Bump and Karsen Dorwart, could see extended time in the AHL this season.
He has already met with Flyers’ new head coach Rick Tocchet for a pair of days in Atlantic City, leading up to the draft, and more meetings will be held in August to make sure the on-ice structure is cohesively running from Reading up.
The Inquirer sat down with Snowden to delve more into his philosophies and thought process as he heads into his first season as an AHL head coach.
This interview has been edited for brevity.
Q: Why do you think it’s so important for the Phantoms to play a similar style to the NHL club run by Rick Tocchet?
A: Yeah, I just think it takes the thinking out for the players. And that’s a lot of what Tocc and myself were talking about. It’s like 80-20, it doesn’t have to be 100% the same. It’s more like when they come up to play and they can jump into the game, and we don’t have to talk to them about D-zone coverage, because that’s an intricate thing, right? ... And when you have two different systems that are very different, it takes a lot, and you’re going to miss reads, especially in the NHL, just because you’re not used to playing the structure.
So this allows us to teach it the same way. And the beautiful thing about the way that he looks at the D zone, and I look at the D zone, it’s the same. ... It allows the players freedom, just to get away from thinking about the hard parts of the game.
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Q: There will be a lot of young players in Allentown this season. How do you balance developing them and their games with winning?
A: We have to have a good plan in place to start with. We have to believe the plan in place is the next part of it, and then we can’t veer off of that. I’m a process-driven person; I see what it looks like at the end, and in all fairness, I’ve done this in the ECHL. I did it in the ECHL, where I had the youngest team in the league by almost two calendar years, and we won [the 2019 Kelly Cup with Newfoundland]. And our development focus was on these types of things: to be very hard to play against, which allows us to have the puck more, which allows us to control games more.
So, I think you have to empower players to be able to drop the things that we’re teaching them, development-wise, into gameplay. Empower them to do that, and then teach them when they don’t do it right, and allow for some freedom to make mistakes, especially creative offensive players.
Their game is based on making a play and creating offense. So we need to empower that, and we need to teach them that when they make a mistake, what was the mistake? Was it an execution? Or was it a decision problem? And then after that, what did you do? So if it’s an execution problem, just got to make the play, and if it’s a decision problem, now we’ve got to teach them what the decision needs to be better in the situation of the game, whatever it may be. And then, again, what did you do after it? If you lost the puck, you turned it over in a bad area, did you go for a skate or just stop and get it back?
Q: So it’s a conversation. You’re not going to bench players for one mistake, because this is all about learning and making those adjustments?
A: You’re not going to bench him for making a mistake, especially if you’re trying to make some kind of play. I think there are careless plays, and you still have to teach those, right? But I think if you’re making the same mistake over and over and over, there has to be a consequence eventually. And maybe that’s the rule of three. The first one, I don’t say anything. The second one, I tell you. The third one, you come sit with me for a couple of shifts, I tell you why, and then we go back and play. ... I don’t want to say that I love mistakes. I don’t think any coach loves mistakes, but it’s on us to be very mindful and to help them through the mistakes.
Q: How do you allow offensive players, then, to play free, and use their creativity and hockey IQ, but also teach within a system?
A: It’s a tough balance. But I think the way that I always look at offense is, like, it’s a very gray area, right? Making plays and creating scoring chances more times than not is like the gray part of the hockey game. D-zone coverage is black and white.
But O-zone is taking advantage of what the defense gives you, and that’s never looking the same. I believe the five guys have to be active in it. I think there have to be guidelines as to what it’s going to look like inside of these things. And balance to the O-zone, this is a big one that I want to use. If we have a D going down [into the offensive zone], we can’t have the other D going down as well, right? So we got to teach that and how that’s going to look, and then allow them to just really feel themselves through these spots.
The way I look at it is, sometimes when you teach a five-man moving O-zone, you’re trying to teach them the perfect play inside of it. For me, I look out on the other side of it. That’s them being creative, and them playing off of each other and playing off the puck and reading what the D-zone gives you.
Q: How much direction will you get from the Flyers on where and how you have to play the prospects in the lineup?
A: Well, I think it’s a collaborative effort. I will have the opportunity to put what I think is going to be the right fit for each player. I’m sure they’re going to want certain players in certain situations, certain ice time minutes, and maybe this guy needs to kill penalties, this guy needs to play the power play, which is fine. It’s a collaboration of all of us talking about it, and what’s going to be the best team to put on the ice every single night.
Q: You had Alex Bump and Jett Luchanko at the end of last season, so what are your thoughts on them?
A: Excellent players. High, high, high hockey IQ. Obviously, you can see Luchanko’s speed is just off the charts. And his competitiveness, and just his brain, he’s a computer out there. He’s got a bright future.
Bump’s got incredible offensive abilities, and he showed that early in his time when he came here. And then, you know, he’s got a lot of things that we’re learning, working through. It’s going to be hard to be that offensive guy at the NHL level, especially once people get a book on you. They’ll figure you out, and now you’ve got to think about different ways to do that.
So they’re both exciting players, and I think they’re going to be NHL players. I think they both have an opportunity to maybe crack it this year. Who knows, that’s not for me to decide. But I think they’re both putting in the summer to give themselves the best opportunity to do so.