On Boxing Day 18 year old Joe Lynch made his debut for the Fife Flyers. Kirkcaldy born Joe came through the Kirkcaldy Ice Hockey Club junior development programme playing for the Fife Flames at U16 for a couple of seasons. After the pandemic he joined the Dundee Stars U16 for a season before heading to play in the Scottish National League for the Edinburgh Capitals in season 2022/23. A regular that season and last, where he finished 4th in points, he has played 70 games at SNL level and this season has also iced with the Solway Sharks in the NIHL1. In January 2025 he will make his International debut as he has been selected as one of five Scottish born players to play for the GB U20 team in Croatia at the World Junior Ice Hockey Championship Division IIA. He also joins the Flyers Brodie Kay.
As many will know Joe’s father is Steven Lynch who has been the Head Coach of the Edinburgh Capitals since season 2022/23. Steven who was also Kirkcaldy born started his junior development with Kirkcaldy Ice Hockey club too and broke into the senior Flyers team in season 1991/92 as a 15 year old with the Flyers playing that season in British Division One. Steven made his Flyers debut in a shock home defeat by the Telford Tigers on February 8th and the following weekend he scored his first senior goal when he netted two, in a matter of 25 seconds, against the Basingstoke Beavers who were thrashed 17-4 in Kirkcaldy. With the Flyers having made a successful return to the British Premier League Jim Lynch took over as Head Coach. Steven, his stepson, played the next three seasons in Fife playing 95 regular season games recording 18+21 as well as 19 playoff games where he picked up 3+3. During this time he made his International debut for GB appearing at two U18 European Championships where he lead the team in points in season 1993/94. He followed stepfather Jim for a season with the Dumfries Border Vikings in British League One. He had 53 points in 49 regular season games and lead the team with 103 penalty minutes. During his season in Dumfries he stepped up to GB U20 for their World Junior Championship campaign. The newly formed Ayr Scottish Eagles was the next coaching stop for Jim and Steven followed making the step up to the Ice Hockey Super league as one of only two home born players on their roster. Although playing 49 games and scoring two points Steven moved on to the Paisley Pirates in the British National League for the next two seasons. The Pirates had a number of Kirkcaldy born and ex-Flyers players on their roster and the games against Fife were often raucous affairs. In 81 games Steven scored 107 points. For season 1999/00 Steven started an eight year association with the Edinburgh Capitals. He was their top scorer that season and by the 2001/02 season he wore the ‘C’ for the remainder of the time that they played in the British National League. In season 2005/06 the Capitals jumped ship to the Elite Hockey League and Steven spent two seasons with the Caps before returning to Kirkcaldy. He played a total of 329 BNL games scoring 127 goals and 184 assists for 311 points . The Flyers had dropped down into the Northern League following the demise of the BNL and the now 31 year old Steven scored a hat trick in his first game back in a Flyers jersey as the Flyers won 6-0 against the Solway Sharks in a Challenge game in Dumfries. His four seasons playing with the Flyers ended in season 2010/11 with the club joining the EIHL the following season and Steven moved to the bench to be assistant coach to Todd Dutiaume in that inaugural season. Steven continued to be involved with Junior development in Kirkcaldy as Joe started taking his initial steps in the game before taking up the head coaching role with the Capitals.
The first Lynch to play for the Flyers was of course Steven’s aforementioned stepfather Jim. A successful player and coach, with awards from both ends of a career in Britain stretching over 20 years, Jim holds the unique achievement of coaching play-off Championship winners in the Heineken British League and the Sekonda Superleague, with the subsequent award of Coach of the Year on both occasions. Born in 1953 in Toronto, Jim came to Scotland to join the Flyers with two friends in September 1980, following a junior career as a winger with the local Markham Waxers and later in the Inter Collegiate League. On his Flyers debut he scored three times in a 14-3 Northern League win at Aviemore. By the end of his inaugural campaign he was named joint winner of the Northern League Overseas Rookie of the Year award and to the All-Star ‘A’ team. He scored 100 points in 30 games to lead the Flyers in scoring whilst also picking up 113 penalty minutes. Third highest scorer in the Scottish National League and Northern League the next winter earned Jim a second successive All-Star ‘A’ rating when he scored a more modest 60 points from 20 games played. Season 1982/83 saw the formation of a new British Ice Hockey League and Jim formed a formidable partnership with the Flyers American import Gordon MacDougall who top scored with 149 points from 20 games with Jim returning 48 points from 18 games. During the summer of 1983 he contacted Alex Dampier at Murrayfield and he stayed in the Scottish capital for three seasons, taking over from Dampier as player-coach two years later. In his first championship triumph, as a player-coach, he led Murrayfield Racers to victory in April 1986, having already lifted the Norwich Union Cup the previous autumn. In that Wembley final he scored the insurance goal, in the 4-2 win over Dundee, on an assist from Paul Heavey – the man who would later replace him as coach at Ayr, when in October 2000 ill health forced Jim to stand down from the job he loved. He also mentored a young Tony Hand as the pair topped the scoring charts for the Racers. At 33 years of age Jim returned to Kirkcaldy for a season with the Kestrels as player coach for their debut season in British League One campaign and he scored 101 points in 30 games. He was in a Flyers uniform again for the next two seasons following his reclassified as a non-import by the British Ice Hockey Association.
Jim spent the next three season in England firstly with the ambitious Solihull Barons who made an approach for his services for the 1989/90 campaign. Appointed coach the next autumn, but always his own man, he quit before the season commenced due to management interference, to join Humberside where his on ice performances assisted Seahawks in gaining promotion to the Premier Division. He first came into contact with William J. Barr in January 1992, after a season and a half playing at Humberside, moving behind the bench to coach the Barr sponsored Ayr Raiders based at the Summit Centre in Glasgow. He then renewed his connection with the Flyers where he coached for the next three years, taking Flyers to runners-up spot in the British League’s Premier Division in 1994. During that campaign Flyers history was made when Jim laced up again for three games to help in times of emergency including the first time he iced with stepson Steven as the Flyers flu stricken bench went down 8-1 in Sheffield on 7th November. This is the only time, to date, in Flyers history where a father and son have appeared together in a competitive game for the club. That autumn he surprisingly moved, with his assistant, the late Milan Figala and Steven, a youngster with promise, to Dumfries. With the advent of the Superleague the following season he renewed his acquaintance with Barr, owner of the Ayr Scottish Eagles, the only new club to join the rookie league. Astute recruiting of a mixture of North American’s and Europeans immediately paid off with an unbeaten run of 11 matches, although losing in final of the B & H Cup to Cardiff. A respectable third place in the ISL and a play-off semi-final gained Jim the Coach of the Year award. The next winter saw his greatest coaching triumph with the grand slam of B&H; Cup, The Express Cup, Superleague title and an overtime play-off final victory. A second successive Coach of the Year award acknowledged the skills of hockey’s ‘quiet man’. Eagles’ success gained them entry to the European Hockey League with outstanding home and away victories, by 4-2 and 3-1 in October 1998 over Russian champions AK Bars Kazan. As mentioned earlier he stepped down from the bench in Ayr for health reasons in October 2000 and he would return to the game the following season with the Paisley Pirates before finally ending his coaching tenure mid-way through the BNL campaign. During a 12 year playing career in Britain, he amassed a total of 927 points from 450 goals and 477 assists in 438 competitive matches whilst serving 545 penalty minutes. In almost 150 appearances for the Flyers he was greater than a two points per game player.
