Report: Davis Payne emerges as potential candidate for Flyers' head-coaching job

Philadelphia Flyers general manager Ron Hextall may turn to his old club in search of a new head coach.

Hextall, who used to work in the Kings' front office, could look at Los Angeles assistant coach Davis Payne, a source told Randy Miller of NJ.com.

From the report:

Meantime, the source offered up a dark-horse candidate for the Flyers' position, Los Angeles Kings assistant coach Davis Payne.

Payne, 44, was an assistant for the 2012-13 season in L.A., when Flyers GM Ron Hextall was assistant there under Dean Lombardi and before that was the St. Louis Blues' head coach for parts of three seasons, building a 67-55-15 record.

"Payne is a guy who got hired by (Kings GM) Dean Lombardi when Hextall was there and when he was in St. Louis his teams played hard for him," the source told NJ Advance Media. "Before that he won a championship in the East Coast League. That's a name that comes to mind who Hextall could go after."

While there's no shortage of potential coaching candidates available or soon to be made so, Hextall could get an early jump on things by speaking to Payne, with both the Flyers and Kings fully in offseason mode.