The Philadelphia Flyers are continuing their hunt for a new head coach after interim Mike Yeo was notified that he will not be running their bench for the 2022-23 season. And, as reported by Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli, there are certainly some recognizable names being thrown around as candidates that the team is looking into and interviewing.
Not only are the names some that fans will know, but they are also people that were recently head coaches in the NHL. The only thing is that there is a wide range of known talent and abilities among the crop of available bench bosses.
Let’s start with the good news and options that this team is looking into. Bruce Cassidy, recently fired by the Boston Bruins for squeezing all the success out of the depleting pool of talent he has been handed and it just not being enough, will reportedly be someone that the Flyers will have interest in once he opens his door and welcomes teams to interview him to run their bench.
Along with Barry Trotz — who, interestingly enough, was not mentioned in Seravalli’s report as someone the Flyers are continuing discussions with, which probably means that he said no with a hearty laugh — Cassidy will be one of the most sought after coaches for teams that have openings this summer. He took a Bruins team that was expected to do fairly well, to be a mainstay in the playoffs, despite losing players like Zdeno Chara, Torey Krug, and David Krejci, throughout his tenure.
In the less-great-but-still-tolerable section of the most recent update we have on the Flyers’ search for a coach, John Tortorella is expected to continue on to the second round of interviews. There is no specific date for when those talks will start up again, but the bombastic free agent will stay involved.
And now on to the aforementioned trash. The Flyers have reportedly already interviewed former New York Rangers coach David Quinn and recently fired Detroit Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill. For Quinn, he was in charge of a fairly good roster that just never came together and he had a massive influence over that. Young stars like Alexis Lafreniere and Kaapo Kakko were booted down to the bottom of the lineup if they had even minor struggles, and the general structure of the Rangers was awful to watch. And for Blashill, some of his misdoings could be blamed on the Red Wings going through a large rebuild while he was in charge, but that’s still not the best guy you want when trying to suddenly make the playoffs or be competitive — as GM Chuck Fletcher seems to want to do.
There are some good options, and other guys that just seem to be available and experience enough to be considered. At least they’re not all terrible.
