The Phantoms have hired former New York Islanders head coach Scott Gordon as their next head coach, the team announced on Monday morning.

The hiring comes after former head coach Terry Murray left for an assistant job with the Buffalo Sabres earlier this offseason. There was talk that Phantoms assistant coach and former Flyers enforcer Riley Cote could have a shot at the job, but Ron Hextall and Co. decided to go this different route. Cote will remain an assistant for his sixth season.

"We are extremely pleased to add Scott to our organization as head coach of our top affiliate in the Lehigh Valley," said Hextal in a press release. "He brings in a proven track record of success and knowledge as a coach at all levels, and we are confident he can help develop our prospects through our system, as well as lead the Phantoms back to the Calder Cup playoffs."

Gordon was the head coach of the Islanders from 2008 to 2010, fired 17 games into the 2010-11 season. He obviously didn't have much of a team to work with on the Island back in those years, and the results show: the team won just 64 of the 181 games they played while Gordon was behind the bench. It's probably not fair to judge him on those Isles teams, because they were terrible regardless of coach.

From 2002 until taking the Islanders job in 2008, Gordon was the head coach of the AHL's Providence Bruins. His teams qualified for the Conference Finals once, and never finished with a regular season record below .500. In 2007-08, his Bruins finished with the best regular season record in the AHL.

Most recently, Gordon was the assistant coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs. While that might not be comforting at first, he was in charge of the power play there, and it wasn't too bad. Despite all of that team's other issues, that power play finished sixth in the NHL -- about even with the Flyers -- in 2013-14.

He was fired in May 2014 in Year 1 of a much-needed house cleaning in Toronto, and after his dismissal he gave a lengthy interview to The Globe & Mail about the Leafs' woes. It provides some insight into his thinking, although it should be noted that he was extremely loyal to now-former Leafs coach Randy Carlyle, which could cloud what's being said in the interview. Here's a portion: