Loaded Saint John Sea Dogs hiring coach Danny Flynn — report

As soon as Ross Yates was moved out in mid-April as Saint John Sea Dogs coach, Danny Flynn's name came up as a possibility.

Indeed, it appears the erstwhile Buffalo Sabres assistant coach, who had a championship team with the Moncton Wildcats in 2010 just before the Sea Dogs won back-to-back Quebec League titles, will be handed the keys to the Porsche that is one of the QMJHL's most talented core groups. On Wednesday, Stéphane Leroux reported at RDS that Flynn's hiring in Saint John is imminent.

As if the Wildcats-Sea Dogs rivalry needed to be trumped up; now there's a coach crossing the divide, as it were. Saint John is on the cusp of some big things across the next two seasons. Drafting early during the post-championship seasons, along with having a No. 1 overall choice in this summer's QMJHL draft after making a trade with Drummondville and winning the coin flip, means they are potentially going to be stacked for two seasons. They were up among the league leaders for a good chunk of the regular season with relying heavily on the underclassmen such as forwards Adam Marsh and Nathan Noel and defencemen Thomas Chabot, Luke Green and Jakub Zboril. They eventually tailed off befor losing out in the first round.

The last time that Saint John had a team that was poised to peak but had yet to share playoff success, they also went for a coach with a NHL résumé. In 2009, Gerard Gallant, now the Florida Panthers coach, took over and was able to steer Saint John to three consecutive league finals, including one in '10 against the Flynn-led Wildcats.

That's not to say this will work out as well. However, the Sea Dogs' window to win is open widely, and their players are at the age where it's time to buckle down and get into be-a-pro mode. In that regard, it would make sense why they would turn to the no-nonsense Flynn. His knowledge of the QMJHL, after having been on the player personnel side in Moncton in 2013-14, could also give Sea Dogs GM Darrell Young an extra set of eyes come trade-period time.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.