The Philadelphia Flyers will have a new athletic trainer in 2026-27.
Multiple sources confirmed to PHLY that Tommy Alva, the team’s head athletic trainer since 2022-23, will no longer hold the position in the coming season. He will be replaced by Alex Ambrose, who has served as assistant athletic trainer with the club since 2023-24.
A team source noted that while the Flyers were happy with the job that Alva did during his four-season run as head trainer, they felt it was time to make a change and believed Ambrose was the best candidate.
Ambrose held the position of head athletic trainer for two AHL clubs — the Charlotte Checkers and Springfield Thunderbirds — prior to joining the Flyers’ organization in 2023 as assistant trainer. As for Alva — who leaves the organization in the shakeup — he had spent over a decade as an assistant trainer in the Florida Panthers organization before behind hired in 2022 by then-GM Chuck Fletcher in the wake of Jim McCrossin’s medical issues and subsequent lawsuit against the organization (along with then-assistant trainer Sal Raffa).
Now, Ambrose will take over Alva’s former position — his first time serving as head trainer of an NHL club.