In Ken Hitchcock, the Philadelphia Flyers have hired the coach with the biggest, longest and greatest pedigree available. Hitchcock is a very structured coach going to a team that was craving structure.

His previous stint with the organization as an assistant coach (1990-93) is a plus. Hitchcock inherits a team loaded with quality veterans, like Mark Recchi, John LeClair, Keith Primeau, Jeremy Roenick, Eric Desjardins and Eric Weinrich. As long as he is willing to listen to his senior players, he will be a good fit.

No one on the Flyers will challenge him any more than Ed Belfour and Brett Hull did in Dallas. At the same time, it helps to have a Hull type of player on the team. In the Flyers' case, I think it is Roenick because he is somewhat of a conscience for the team.

Hitchcock will be starting with a much better team than the one he started with in Dallas. Plus, he wouldn't have taken the job without the promise of some financial security. The terms of his contract have not been released, but I would be shocked if he isn't one of the highest-paid coaches in the NHL.

It will be interesting to see how the players adjust to his system, which calls for very little continuous skating and a lot of stopping and starting. There are definite places to be and places not to be in Hitchcock's system. Donald Audette and Jyrki Lumme were unable to adapt to the style in Dallas. Not all of the Flyers' players will make it work. But with every change behind the bench there are changes on the bench.

One of the issues Philadelphia still has to address is goaltending. We shall see how much input Hitchcock has. Remember, Belfour is an unrestricted free agent, but I'm not sure he and Hitchcock are on one another's respective Christmas card list.

Bill Clement is a hockey analyst for ESPN. He played 11 seasons in the NHL as a center and won two Stanley Cups with the Philadelphia Flyers.