Philadelphia Flyers general manager Danny Briere announced Friday that Flyers legend Wayne Simmonds, who spent eight seasons in Philadelphia, has been hired as a community relations ambassador and hockey operations consultant, among other additions.

Simmonds, 36, last played in the NHL for the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 2022-23 season, appearing in 18 regular season games and scoring two assists. Simmonds started his NHL career with the Los Angeles Kings in 2008 but was traded to the Flyers in 2011 as part of a package for Mike Richards and Rob Bordson.

In parts of eight seasons with the Flyers, Simmonds played in 584 regular season games, scoring 203 goals, 175 assists, and 378 games, winning the Mark Messier Leadership Award in the 2018-19 season.

Simmonds retired as a member of the Flyers on April 13, signing a one-day contract and being honored before a game against the New Jersey Devils.

“The history of this franchise and standard of being a Flyer that was set is unique and one that I hold in the highest regard,” Simmonds had said.

Flyers Add to Front Office Staff

Simmonds was just one of multiple additions to Philadelphia’s front office announced on Friday.

Former Flyers enforcer Reid Simpson, who played in over 300 NHL regular season games, was hired as the team’s director of pro scouting in Europe. Other additions include Lindsay Eastwood, the new manager of player and hockey communications, Ryan Cyr, the new goaltending scout and development consultant, Oleg Znarok, a European player development and scouting consultant, and Ellyse Robert, a hockey analyst who previously worked in the NHL with the Los Angeles Kings.

Additionally, Kedryn Orrison-Pilgrim joins the organization as the head athletic trainer of the Lehigh Valley Phantoms of the AHL.

Znarok, who we wrote about last week, is the mystery man spotted hanging out with Ivan Fedotov and Matvei Michkov on Instagram a few weeks back. He will be primarily tasked with working closely with the Russian players, though he will have other roles to fulfill, too.