At the end of May, it appeared that Phantoms coach Terry Murray was all but signed to Dave Hakstol’s staff as an assistant coach.
Murray said he had been approached by general manager Ron Hextall about coming on board and expressed interest in doing just that.
Something changed, because in Buffalo on Thursday, Murray was announced as an assistant coach under new Sabres head coach Dan Bylsma.
"We'd like to thank Terry for his years of loyal service to the Philadelphia Flyers organization and wish him nothing but the best in Buffalo," Hextall said. "Moving forward, we will take our time in deciding what's best for the Phantoms and will address this further [Friday]."
Murray, of course, is the uncle of Sabres GM Tim Murray.
“[Hextall] and I spoke a little bit,” Murray said on May 28. “He asked me what my thoughts were and where I would like to go and what I would like to do.
“He and I talked about [the Flyers] but there was no way he was going to interview me for the head coaching job. He wanted a younger coach and I completely agreed with that.
“But he did throw out whether I would be interested in something else in terms of an assistant’s role. Obviously, if there were another head coaching position with another team in the NHL I would want to do that.
“The other option was to go back to Allentown [with the Phantoms] … we’ll take our time and see where it goes.”
Where it led was to Buffalo’s bench as Murray kept it all in the family.