Former Wild coaches Bruce Boudreau, Mike Yeo back coaching NHL teams

Dec. 6—It's a good day to be a former Wild coach.

In a span of 12 hours, Bruce Boudreau and Mike Yeo both got back into the coaching game, in charge of an NHL team.

For the 66-year-old Boudreau, the news came late Sunday night as rumors started to swirl. Not long after that, the Vancouver Canucks made the news official, announcing that they had fired coach Travis Green and immediately replaced him with Boudreau.

For the 48-year-old Yeo, the news came early Monday morning when the Philadelphia Flyers announced that they had fired coach Alain Vigneault in the middle of a 1-7-2 stretch that dropped them to the cellar of the Metropolitan Division.

It's a full-circle moment for Boudreau and Yeo. They will always be connected in some capacity as Boudreau replaced Yeo as the full-time coach of the Wild. John Torchetti spent some time as the interim coach before Boudreau got the full-time gig.

Boudreau had a pretty successful tenure with the Wild, guiding the team to a 158-110-35 record from 2016-20. He was abruptly fired on on Feb. 14, 2020 and replaced by current coach Dean Evason.

Yeo finished with a 173-132-44 record, standing behind the bench from 2011-16 before being fired and replaced by Torchetti on an interim basis. While he had some success as the man in charge, Yeo never made it beyond the second round of the playoffs.

Some dates to circle on the calendar in the coming months include: March 3 when the Wild play the Flyers at Wells Fargo Arena in Philadelphia, March 24 when the Wild host the Canucks at Xcel Energy Center, and March 29 when the Wild host the Flyers at Xcel Energy Center.