Mike Yeo joins Nolan Baumgartner on Travis Green’s coaching staff in Ottawa

Several former members of the Canucks organization will be linking up in the nation’s capital, as the Ottawa Senators announced that Mike Yeo and Nolan Baumgartner will join Travis Green to round out the coaching staff.

 

This move comes less than a week from when the Canucks announced that Yeo and the organization mutually agreed to part ways after he rejected a contract extension to take up an opportunity closer to home. While there was speculation he could work alongside Craig Berube in Toronto, Yeo was interviewed by the Senators a few days ago and reports emerged soon after that he would be hired.

Yeo spent the past two seasons with the Canucks, with his primary task being the penalty kill. Under his watch, they finished dead last in the 2022-23 season at 71.6% and improved to 17th overall this past campaign at 79.1% for an average of 75.4%. There were certainly some bumps along the way, but by the end of his tenure, Vancouver had a pretty successful PK unit that played a major factor in them getting past the first round and pushing their series against the Edmonton Oilers to the limit.

Baumgartner spent nearly two decades within the Canucks organization, both as a player and an assistant coach. The former defenceman spent parts of four seasons in Vancouver during his playing career, where he scored 42 points (seven goals and 35 assists) in 99 games. Upon hanging his skates, he immediately took up an assistant coaching gig with the Chicago Wolves, their then-AHL affiliate, and spent the next five years honing his craft.

He was then promoted to the NHL in 2017-18, where he worked alongside Green for the next four seasons, where he helped run the defence. He would ultimately be let go on the infamous date of December 5th, 2021 after the Canucks struggled out of the gate that year to the tune of 8-15-2. Before getting the gig in Ottawa, he coached Team Canada at the 2022 U18 World’s and had spent the last two seasons as an assistant coach with the Manitoba Moose.

At the time of writing, no word yet on who the Canucks will look to hire to fill the void left by Yeo.