The Philadelphia Flyers announced today they have hired Jaroslav Svejkovsky and Jay Varady as assistant coaches, according to General Manager, Daniel Briere.
The Philadelphia Flyers announced today they have hired Jaroslav Svejkovsky and Jay Varady as assistant coaches, according to General Manager, Daniel Briere. They will join head coach Rick Tocchet behind the bench.
“I’m excited to bring Yogi and Jay on board with me,” said Tocchet. “I know both of them very well. They each provide a different skill set and more importantly, a different voice, both of which I believe is crucial in not only building a coaching staff, but an entire team and how we grow together. I very much look forward to getting down to work with them again soon.”
Svejkovsky, 48 (10/1/1976), comes to the Flyers after spending the 2024-25 season as an assistant coach with the Vancouver Canucks under Tocchet where he helped lead the team to a 38-30-14 record and 90 points. Svejkovsky was promoted to assistant coach after serving the Canucks as a skills coach from 2022-24 and previously in the same capacity with their American Hockey League (AHL) team, the Abbotsford Canucks.
Prior to joining the Canucks, Svejkovsky was an assistant coach for the Vancouver Giants of the Western Hockey League (WHL) from 2006-14 before being named their skills coach from 2014-18. During his tenure as an assistant coach, the Giants made the playoffs in seven of his eight seasons behind the bench.
A native of Tabor, Czech Republic, Svejkovsky played parts of four seasons in the NHL with the Washington Capitals (1996-00) and the Tampa Bay Lightning (1999-00) where he registered 23 goals and 19 assists for 42 points in 113 games as a forward after being selected in the 1st round (17th overall) of the 1996 NHL Entry Draft.
Varady, 47 (9/16/1977), joins the Flyers after serving as assistant coach for the Detroit Red Wings for the past three seasons (2022-25). During his time with the Red Wings, they held a 115-104-27 record in 246 regular season games.
Before joining the Red Wings, Varady served as head coach of the AHL’s Tucson Roadrunners for three seasons (2018–20, 2021–22), compiling a 93-84-17 record over 194 regular-season games. He led the team to its first-ever Pacific Division title in 2019–20. During the 2020–21 COVID-impacted season, he joined the Arizona Coyotes, Tucson’s NHL affiliate, as an assistant coach under Tocchet.
Varady’s coaching career includes a stint as head coach of the Kingston Frontenacs in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), where he guided the team to the Eastern Conference Finals for the second time in franchise history during the 2017-18 season. He also served as head coach and director of hockey operations for the Sioux City Musketeers in the United States Hockey League (USHL) from 2013-17.
As a native of Cahokia, IL, Varady has coached for Team USA on four occasions. He served as video coach for the U.S. Under-20 team at the 2010 IIHF World Junior Championship, helping guide the team to a silver medal. In 2011, he was an assistant coach at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup. Varady later led the U.S. Under-19 team to gold medals as head coach at the World Junior A Challenge in both 2014 and 2016.
