In this Coaching Benchmarks series, we look at what happened to the former coaches of the Flyers after they stepped out from behind the bench in Philadelphia. The We Hardly Knew Ye Group looks at former coaches who had a cup of coffee behind the bench in Philly.
Mike Yeo (2021-22, interim)
In Yeo’s sole season as the Flyers’ coach, the team finished 17-36-7. The Flyers finished last in the Metro and 29th overall. That season, they had the fifth overall pick in the 2022 Draft and took Cutter Gauthier. After leaving Philly, Yeo was hired as an assistant coach of the Vancouver Canucks. After leaving the team in 2024, he joined the Ottawa Senators as an assistant coach.
Most of Yeo’s success came in Minnesota before joining the Flyers. In his five seasons there, the Wild made the playoffs four straight times, including 2014-15, after he was fired.
Mike Yeo coached 60 games with the Flyers. The team was simply not a good team under him. The resulting fifth-overall draft pick ended up being used on Cutter Gauthier, who was later traded.
Scott Gordon (2018-19, interim)
Gordon might be the guy that makes you do a double-take because you don’t remember him coaching the Flyers. That’s understandable. His 2019 team racked up all of 54 points in 51 games. He then went on to coach the Phantoms for two seasons, one of which was canceled early due to the pandemic. Since 2022, he has held assistant coaching jobs with the San Jose Sharks, Team USA (2023 World Championships), and the USHL’s Youngstown Phantoms.
Scott Gordon replaced Dave Hakstol midseason as an interim coach in 2018. His performance as a coach was underwhelming, but his rapping career was not.
Craig Ramsay (2000-2000)
Ramsey logged only 53 games as Philly’s head coach, split between the end of the 2000 and 2001 seasons. He took over for Roger Neilson in June of 2000. Less than halfway through the following season, then GM Bobby Clarke decided Ramsay’s team was too soft and too easy an opponent. So, they opted to bring in a former Broad Street, Bill Barber, to replace him.
The Tampa Bay Lightning hired Ramsay as an assistant coach in 2001, and he won the Stanley Cup there in 2004. He then joined the Boston Bruins in 2006 as an assistant, where he stayed until being named head coach of the Atlanta Thrashers in 2010. He lasted one full season before moving on to assistant roles with the Florida Panthers and the Edmonton Oilers. In 2017, he left the NHL to coach the Slovakian men’s national ice hockey team.
Craig Ramsey coached all of 53 games for the Flyers before spending a season with the now-defunct Atlanta Thrashers. He landed the gig after Roger Neilson had to step away to receive cancer treatments.
Wayne Cashman (1997-98)
Cashman’s NHL head coaching career ended as quickly as it began. After earning his way to the head coaching spot in 1997, he was demoted after 61 games when the Flyers decided to bring in Roger Neilson. To add insult to injury, the organization asked him to stay on as an assistant to help his replacement for a smooth transition and playoff run. He agreed to do so. This was very much in character for the Bruins legend. As stated on the Greatest Hockey Legends site:
“Wayne's humility after being fired by the Flyers sums up Cashman the man - a great person who would do anything it takes to help out his team. Wayne did that for 18 NHL seasons, and he continued to do that long after his playing days.”
The team finished third in the Eastern Conference and did not make it out of the first round.
After leaving Philadelphia, he was an assistant coach on Canada’s 1998 Olympic team and then returned to his hockey home in Boston, where he served as an assistant from 2001-06.
Wayne Cashman was a good guy and consummate professional. His NHL coaching career did not really amount to anything, as he lasted only 61 games as an NHL head coach before returning to an assistant role.
Terry Simpson (1993-94)
The 93-94 season was the second of two to feature 84 games, and that is precisely how many Terry Simpson coached in Philadelphia. Under his tutelage, the Flyers finished the season with 80 points in those games and ended up sixth in the Atlantic Division and 10th in the Eastern Conference. This was not because of a lack of talent up front. The team had five players with over 50 points (Josef Beranek had 49), two players with 97 points (Rod Brind’Amour, Eric Lindros), and one with 107 points (Mark Recchi).
Simpson ended up in Winnipeg as the Jets' coach at the end of the 1994-95 season and lasted only one full season after that. The Jets lost in the first round of the 1995-96 postseason. The team packed its bags and moved to Arizona for some reason.
Simpson took on a few assistant jobs in Toronto and Anaheim, a scouting job in Minnesota, and a head coach position for the WHL’s Red Deer Rebels, never lasting more than two years in any of the roles. After his stint as an assistant coach with Anaheim in 2000-01, he left hockey.
Terry Simpson did not experience much success as a head coach in the NHL, especially in his one season Philadelphia where the team finished sixth in the Atlantic. He bounced around for a bit in different roles before leaving hockey around the turn of the century.