VOORHEES TOWNSHIP, N.J. — His voice could be heard echoing down a hallway at Flyers Skate Zone well before he turned the corner and emerged in a black and orange windbreaker suit.



It was the voice that hadn’t been heard in St. Louis since he walked away from a podium at Enterprise Center on Nov. 19, 2018, after the Blues’ 2-0 loss to the Los Angeles Kings.



That would be Mike Yeo’s final minutes as the club’s head coach. He returned to his office, where general manager Doug Armstrong notified him that the team was making a change.



In the weeks and months that followed, as the Blues ascended in the NHL standings and eventually raised the first Stanley Cup in franchise history, Yeo remained silent. There were multiple text messages sent to him inquiring about an interview, and while he replied to each, one particular response — “still too much emotion right now” — was typical of most.



But finally,...