Even though Nail Yakupov is no longer in the NHL, that hasn't stopped his father, Rail, from speaking his mind on one of his son's former NHL coaches.
In an interview with Championat.com, Yakupov's father didn't hold back as to why he thinks the St. Louis Blues have gotten off to a slow start with a 2-4-3 record.
***The following text was translated from Russian to English using Google Translate.
“When the coach is an idiot, the team will fail.”
“Mike Yeo didn’t succeed at Minnesota, he only lost time there. A similar situation is happening now. The team will not fight for such a coach. I saw them play, familiar with their system. This club should fight for the Stanley Cup, but, again, if the coach is an idiot, then you can forget about it. It seems to me that Yeo doesn’t understand anything at all in hockey. Unrestrained, unrestrained. I wouldn’t even trust the children’s team to him.”
Yikes. Safe to say that Rail doesn't think too highly of Yeo, to say the least.
The Blues were one of the more active teams in the offseason by signing Tyler Bozak, Patrick Maroon and acquiring Ryan O'Reilly. Expected to be a contender in the Western Conference by boosting their roster, the Blues sit 5th last in the league with 7 points and have struggled at keeping the puck out of their net entering Saturday's slate of games.
Yakupov played with the Blues in the 2016/17 season under Yeo and managed just three goals and six assists in 40 games. Yakupov fell in Yeo's doghouse and was often scratched by the Blues' bench boss.
The Blues eventually rejected Yakupov's qualifying offer after the Russian suffered a season-ending knee injury. Yakupov spent last season in Colorado where he tallied nine goals and seven assists in 58 games.
The first overall pick in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft by the Edmonton Oilers returned to Russia in the offseason by signing a one-year deal with St. Petersburg SKA of the KHL where he’s amassed 12 points (seven goals, five assists) in 15 games so far.
