The Philadelphia Flyers will be in the market for a new head coach this offseason.
General Manager Chuck Fletcher announced Tuesday that interim head coach Mike Yeo will not be returning for the 2022-23 season. Yeo, who had previous stops in Minnesota and St. Louis went 17-36-7 down the stretch with Philadelphia, as the Flyers missed the postseason for the second consecutive year.
“I met with Mike yesterday and I advised him he won’t be our head coach for next season,” Fletcher said. “We dealt Mike a really tough hand. He’s a good coach. I thought he did a really good job under the circumstances. He kept our players competing and playing hard to the end.”
The 48 year old took over coaching duties for Alain Vigneault on Dec 6th after he was relieved of his duties following 3 up and down seasons in the City of Brotherly Love. In Vigneault’s first season behind the bench the Flyers finished in 2nd place in the Metropolitan division before bowing out in game 7 of their 2nd round playoff series against the Islanders.
Since then, Philadelphia finished a disappointing 6th in 2020-21, followed by their 8th place finish this season. This year the club struggled in virtually every aspect ranking 31st in goals per game, 27th in goals against per game, 26th on the penalty kill, and dead last on the powerplay with an unsightly 12.6% success rate.
Fletcher told members of the press that the club would begin its search for a new head coach immediately, but that the organization was hopeful that Yeo would stay on board in another capacity.
“We’re going to get together tomorrow … and the first thing we’re going to do is put together an ideal candidate profile,” the GM said. “We’re going to really go through a very thorough discussion on what we’re trying to achieve, what we’re looking at. At this stage all options are open. We’re just starting the process. Once we build that candidate profile, what we’re looking for, we’ll start to reach out to candidates we want to interview.”
Yeo was the Flyers 6th head coach since the 2013-14 season. During that span, the club failed to qualify for the postseason in 5 out of 9 campaigns.