Ron Hextall said he would get around to hiring Joey Mullen's replacement sometime after the NHL Scouting Combine.
And he did.
The Flyers' general manager tabbed Kris Knoblauch as Dave Hakstol's new assistant coach Wednesday morning. He will handle the Flyers' power play.
The 38-year-old Knoblauch had been the head coach of the Erie Otters in the Ontario Hockey League since 2012.
"Kris has had great success at the junior level with the Erie Otters and Kootenay Ice," Hextall said. "He's coached a lot of good young offensive gifted players. We feel he is a real good fit with our group and we're excited to have him in our organization."
Under Knoblauch, the Otters have had four consecutive 50-win seasons. They won the OHL this past spring before losing the Memorial Cup final to Windsor.
"He has an excellent skill set and is a very good fit for our staff and team," Hakstol told CSNPhilly.com.
NHL
The Flyers struggled this season on the power play under Mullen, finishing 14th overall in the NHL. The PP units ranked first (25 percent efficiency) during the Flyers' 10-game winning streak on Dec. 10, then went through a second-half collapse (5 for 50 in March alone).
During Mullen's decade-long tenure here, the Flyers' power play finished among the NHL top 10 seven times. Five times, it was in the top five, finishing No. 1 overall in 2011-12.
Despite the man-advantage's unpredictability this season, Brayden Schenn finished tied atop the league in power-play goals with 17, while Wayne Simmonds had 16.
Claude Giroux, another first-unit PP member, finished fourth in the league with 31 power-play points and third with 26 power-play assists.
Knoblauch knows something about power plays. His Erie clubs led the OHL in power-play efficiency in consecutive seasons, 2013-14 and 2014-15, and were second in the OHL in each of the last two seasons.
Erie ranked among the top three in power-play scoring during each of Knoblauch's four full seasons.
"I'm very excited not only for a chance to coach in the National Hockey League but also to join an organization like the Flyers and to work with Ron and Dave and the rest of the staff," Knoblauch said.
"It's a great opportunity and I'm really looking forward to getting started."
Some familiar names under Knoblauch: Edmonton center Connor McDavid played under him from 2012 to 2015. So did Washington's Andre Burakovsky in 2013-14 and Arizona's Dylan Strome (2013 to 2017).
In all, 19 NHLers have played for him in Erie. American right winger Ivan Lodnia, who played this season, is ranked 36th among North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting for this month's draft in Chicago.
Knoblauch, who was born in Imperial, Saskatchewan, was a seventh-round draft pick of the Islanders in 1997, but never played in the NHL.
Instead, he played four seasons in the Western Hockey League, then five seasons at the University of Alberta, where he won a national championship in 2000. He spent a short time as a pro in the CHL (2004) and in Europe (2005).
Most recently, he served as an assistant coach for Team Canada at this year's IIHF World Junior Championship.
Knoblauch was also head coach of Team Canada Red at the 2015 U-17 World Hockey Challenge and an assistant for Team Canada Pacific at the 2010 U-17 World Hockey Challenge.