Vinny Lecavalier Doesn’t Want to Play for Craig Berube

VOORHEES — It was like déjà vu only worse.

At last year's exit meetings, Vinny Lecavalier was talking about how he really came here to play for Peter Laviolette, who was fired three games into the season. Under Craig Berube he didn't feel he was used correctly. Again.

Well, last year he still had 20 goals. This year he had 20 points.

"Any time you get a new boss things change," said Lecavalier, who turns 35 next Tuesday. "Obviously it didn't go well for me."

Lecavalier, a Stanley Cup winner and borderline Hall of Famer, played most of the season on the right wing on the fourth line. There was a stretch of games where he was effective in that role with Chris VandeVelde and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, but for the most part it was clear that he and Berube didn't see eye-to-eye on his role.

He's gone through two seasons of that now and doesn't want a third. At this point, the only way he wants to return to the Flyers for the third year of his five-year contract is if there's a different head honcho behind the bench.

"Yeah, that's fair to say," Lecavalier said. "He's got his views and obviously he's shown that. I think there's 17 or 18 games I was scratched. Obviously it's gonna be tough to change his mind. We'll see what happens."

In his exit interviews with general manager Ron Hextall, Lecavalier said his role next season didn't really come up, that it was more of a "we'll see what happens" scenario