Tocchet just poached an assistant coach from Vancouver Canucks
A day after reportedly hiring a new assistant coach, the Vancouver Canucks have lost someone else from Adam Foote’s coaching staff.
Yogi Svejkovsky is bolting for Philadelphia, joining Rick Tocchet on the Flyers’ coaching staff, as first reported by David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period. The Czech-born coach came up the ranks with the Vancouver Giants and first joined the Canucks organization in 2021 as a skills coach. Svejkovsky was promoted to assistant coach last season, with the power play being one of his duties.
The Canucks didn’t want to lose Svejkovsky, according to CHEK’s Rick Dhaliwal, who added that the 48-year-old coach had an out-option in his contract.
Assistant coach Yogi Svejkovsky is leaving the #Canucks for Philadelphia to join Rick Tocchet.
Canucks did not want to lose him but he has a great relationship with Tocchet.
Believe Svejkovsky had an option in his contract to leave.
— Rick Dhaliwal (@DhaliwalSports) June 4, 2025
The news comes one day after the Canucks reportedly landed Kevin Dean, a highly touted assistant coach, to run the defence. It’s the same role that Foote departed when he took the job of head coach.
Foote said at his introductory press conference last month that he wanted to hire two more assistants — one to run the defence and one with more of an offensive mind. With Svejkovsky leaving unexpectedly, perhaps that means they’ll need to look for one more.