Flyers Want Coach To Stay

Philadelphia Flyers general manager Bob Clarke wants Terry Murray to return next year as the team’s coach.

Murray, 46, is in the last year of a contract he signed in 1994. When Clarke declined to talk about renewing it during the season, it was interpreted that Clarke wanted to see how Murray did in the playoffs.

Now that the Flyers will play for the Stanley Cup against Detroit beginning Saturday night, Clarke said he’s ready to talk contract with Murray.

The Boston Bruins signed Swedish forward Per-Johan Axelsson, their seventh-round draft pick in 1995 to a two-year contract.

Mike Keenan, the former St. Louis Blues coach and general manager who was ousted in December 1996 after a much-publicized rift between him and all-star forward Brett Hull, is anxious to prove himself again.

Keenan stopped in Buffalo to talk with Sabres president Larry Quinn about the team’s general manager post and has met with Phoenix Coyotes general manager Bobby Smith about the team’s vacant head coaching job.