With the regular season coming to an end and playoff hockey kicking into high gear, the Philadelphia Flyers wasted no time in letting interim head coach Mike Yeo know that he would not be returning next year, at least not as the head coach. There’s been a lot of talk about how well he developed some of the young players and dealt with the influx of youth that was added after the trade deadline. The Flyers now are on the prowl for their 23rd head coach in franchise history, but their 7th since 2013.
When Chuck Fletcher was brought in to replace Ron Hextall in 2018, the next obvious move was to fire Dave Hakstol and find a new head coach. The Flyers chose to replace Hakstol with an interim head coach in Scott Gordon, who had been serving as the Lehigh Valley Phantoms bench boss since 2015. In another dreadful season, where no real blame could be tossed towards the interim coach, the writing was on the wall for Gordon, but he did return as the Phantoms’ head coach for the 2019-20 season.
Fletcher was then tasked to overhaul the coaching staff and to find the right man to help the re-tooling Flyers contend. The theme behind his hirings was evidently about experience and bringing in Alain Vigneault to the fold was essentially the opposite of the Dave Hakstol hiring. It was not an “out-of-the-box” hire, as Vigneault had 1,216 games coached to that point, and at the time of his hiring he was tied for 12th with Ron Wilson with 648 wins. He had also helped carry his teams to three Presidents’ Trophies, he reached the Stanley Cup Final twice, and was the recipient of the Jack Adams Award in 2006-07.
If adding more than 1,200 games behind the bench at head coach wasn’t enough experience, the Flyers and Vigneault then brought along former NHL head coaches Michel Therrien and Mike Yeo as his assistants. Both coaches had served as assistants before but in terms of just head coaching, Therrien had 814 games of experience with the Montreal Canadiens and the Pittsburgh Penguins, while Mike Yeo had 422 games under his belt with the Minnesota Wild and St. Louis Blues. Combined, the Flyers coaching staff now had 2,452 games as the bench boss compared to Dave Hakstol’s 0 when he was hired.
Things didn’t start out too well for the Flyers in 2019-20, as they were middling and struggling to find consistency until January of 2020. After the New Year and all the way until the COVID-pause, the Flyers were the hottest team in the NHL and things were looking really good. They entered the playoff bubble as one of the top four teams in the Eastern Conference and ending up sweeping the mini-round robin tournament and claimed the number one seed. Once eliminated, the Flyers went from good to bad in 2020-21 and then from bad to worse in 2021-22. In December of 2021, Vigneault and Therrien were fired only for Yeo to assume head coaching duties until the end of the season.
It wasn’t an easy gig to pick up either with the Flyers in the midst of an 8 game losing streak, they were without their assumed number one defenseman in Ryan Ellis, had players in Kevin Hayes and Sean Couturier playing through injury, and an abysmal special teams unit to boot. That’s also not to mention the morale and confidence in and around the locker room was probably at an all time low. Even though Yeo was already behind the bench, taking care of the defense and penalty kill, taking full control of a team in utter shambles was never going to end well.
The Flyers looked better right off the hop and even though they lost a couple more games, they looked more energized, dangerous, and certain players had their shackles removed. They went on a mini-run of successful hockey and played quite possibly their most complete game of the season in their 6-1 win over the New Jersey Devils on December 14th. However, with the injuries mounting, COVID hitting others, and with the Flyers looking worse for wear, the losses piled up into another 10+ game losing streak, with this one reaching 13.
The playoffs were essentially out the window by January, and all the focus was then on trading Claude Giroux and whoever else at the trade deadline. The influx of youth didn’t really kick in until after the March 21st trade deadline but names like Noah Cates, Ronnie Attard, and Bobby Brink joined the fold that already included Morgan Frost, Cam York, and Owen Tippett. By season’s end, Linus Hogberg made his NHL debut, Egor Zamula was recalled on an emergency basis, and Felix Sandstrom got some much needed time between the pipes.
With the Flyers slumping to 29th in the NHL standings, possessing the worst quotient of special teams in the NHL while also having the most anemic power play, and only having two 20 goal scorers and two players to hit 50 points in a very historic season around the NHL in terms of offensive production; whether warranted or not, Mike Yeo was essentially a stop-gap until the 2022-23 season.
He did get Travis Konecny, Travis Sanheim, and Oskar Lindblom rolling again, which was a very welcoming sign. Yes, they weren’t recording earth-shattering numbers, but all things considered it was a very strong finish after how poorly they started the season. Travis Konecny had 5 goals and 10 points in the team’s first 22 games, Travis Sanheim had 0 goals and 3 assists in 22 games, and Oskar Lindblom had 0 goals and 1 assist in 21 games.
Konecny finished off the season as the team’s leading point-getter with 52 in 79 games, meaning he scored 11 goals and 42 points in 57 games under Mike Yeo. Sanheim won the Barry Ashbee Trophy as the Flyers’ best defenseman and all those accolades came under Yeo as he scored 7 goals and 28 points in his last 58 games. Lindblom had some middling moments but he was dealing with injuries and maintenance issues, while also being placed on the fourth line for the majority of the final stretch. In saying that, he did finish the season with 12 goals and 25 points in his last 58 games.
Morgan Frost didn’t have the most eye-popping statistics but one could argue that he finished off the season very well, confidently, and was making plays he was too worried to even attempt in the last few years. Noah Cates had 5 goals and 9 points in his abbreviated 16 games. He averaged over 13 minutes a game, finished off 21 checks, and took 23 shots for a whopping 21.7% shooting clip, but his IQ that everyone raved about was on full display in such short order.
Cam York was also getting a lot of ice time and reps with Ivan Provorov before his season was derailed by injury. He finished off the season with 3 goals and 10 points in 30 games, he showed his prowess on the power play, his smooth skating was on full display, and for the season he averaged over 19 minutes a game but near the finish line he was playing well over 20 minutes a game next to Provorov to boot.
Yeo definitely did as good a job as anyone could’ve with what he was given. However, it was only an interim position, so the Flyers were always looking towards 2022-23. Without an identity and with several question marks heading into the off-season, trying to find a coach who best suits your strengths is tough when you don’t even know what those strengths are. You can always build an identity through your coaching staff, and one name that could help with that is John Tortorella. He’s had success wherever he’s gone and he does have a Stanley Cup ring, albeit from 2004.
Accountability has always been an issue with the Flyers and it never comes off well when your own players tell you that when things get bad, they crumble under the pressure. Tortorella is a no-nonsense kind of guy who will keep players in check, will tell you exactly what you’re doing (right or wrong), and will make you accountable for your mistakes. His methods seem unorthodox, and he has a little old-school flair to him which might not entirely translate with the younger players, but his methods work and generally turns teams around.
The Tortorella-led Columbus Blue Jackets in 2019 had seemingly no chance going into their series against the big bad Tampa Bay Lightning, but they ended up sweeping the juggernauts and advanced to the second round. He had a lot of regular season success in New York as the head coach of the Rangers as well. There are plenty of other options but in terms of filling an identity-crisis with a head coach and one who fits the mantra of Philadelphia, Tortorella is your guy.
As for Yeo, there’s a good chance he remains in the organization as Chuck Fletcher and company see very little faults in his resume. Development is his strongest asset at the moment and it wouldn’t be all too shocking to see him coaching the Phantoms next year. As for now, we wait as the Flyers sit down and evaluate their team from top to bottom over the next 4-6 weeks.
