Boston College Men’s Hockey Coach Prospects: Scott Gordon

Next up in our list of potential coaching replacements for Jerry York is Scott Gordon, a Boston College alumnus who has spent most of the past two plus decades coaching at both the AHL and NHL levels.

Scott Gordon started his head coaching career in the IHL and the ECHL before becoming an assistant coach for the AHL’s Providence Bruins in 2000. He eventually became the team’s head coach in 2002 and remained in that position for six seasons. Gordon’s Providence Bruins made the playoffs in each of his six seasons behind the bench before he was eventually hired as the head coach of the New York Islanders in 2008.

Gordon’s time in the NHL was less successful than his AHL tenure, as he was fired just 17 games into his third season with the Islanders. His teams finished well under .500 in each of his first two seasons, and he spent the next few seasons as an assistant with the Toronto Maple Leafs. In 2015, he was hired as the head coach for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, the AHL affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers.

The Phantoms had some success under Gordon, making the playoffs three times in the five full seasons he spent as coach. During the 2018-19 season, he was named the interim head coach for the Philadelphia Flyers after Dave Hakstol was fired, and coached the team to a 25-22-4 record to end the season, but he was never seemed to be a serious candidate for a full time head coach and he returned to the AHL the following season.

Gordon spent four seasons as a goalie at BC from 1982-1986 before bouncing around different levels of minor league hockey for a while. He did end up playing 23 games in the NHL with the Quebec Nordiques, but wasn’t able to stick around for longer than that. It’s not super likely that BC hires Gordon, but based on his resume, he at least deserves a chance to interview for the job.