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The Philadelphia Flyers fired coach Alain Vigneault on Monday morning, per multiple reports. The Flyers lost their eighth straight game on Sunday, a blowout 7-1 to the defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning. The Flyers are 8-10-4 through 22 games so far this season, second-to-last in the Metro Division, only ahead of the New York Islanders.
Former St. Louis Blues and Minnesota Wild coach Mike Yeo will take over as interim coach of the Flyers for now. It’s unclear if Philadelphia will search for a permanent replacement now or wait until after the season. There’s still plenty of time to right the ship and we’ve seen coaching replacements do wonders mid-season for teams.
Vigneault had signed a five-year contract back in 2019. The Flyers also fired another familiar name in Michel Therrien, the former Montreal Canadiens and Pittsburgh Penguins coach.
Vigneault was hired back in 2019 and only lasted a few seasons with the Flyers. He has coached around the NHL since the early ‘90s. Before being hired by the Flyers, Vigneault had coached the rival New York Rangers, leading the team to the Stanley Cup Final in 2014, losing to the Los Angeles Kings in five games.
Philly hasn’t had much luck with coaches throughout the past few decades. The most successful stint was from Peter Laviolette, who helped the Flyers advance to the Final in 2010, losing to the Chicago Blackhawks in six games. Before hiring Vigneault, the Flyers had a short stint with Dave Hakstol, who is the current coach of the expansion Seattle Kraken.
The Flyers issues appear to be on special teams and aren’t really personnel related. Carter Hart in net showed potential back in 2019-20 with a strong season. The power play is toward the bottom of the NHL, though that can also be coached a bit. Philadelphia has a strong group of forwards with Claude Giroux, Sean Couturier, Travis Konecny, Joel Farabee and Cam Atkinson. The blue line is deep but somewhat filled with past-their-prime players like Keith Yandle and Rasmus Ristolainen.