FTC Report: The First Building Block

Training camps opened around the National Hockey League on Thursday. In Voorhees, the Philadelphia Flyers underwent their first practice under new head coach Rick Tocchet and his staff. Day One at the renovated and expanded Flyers Training Center (FTC) in Voorhees had a decidedly different feel from past camp openers.

It wasn't just some new faces (or familiar one, such as Flyers Hall of Famer Tocchet). Likewise, it wasn't just some cosmetic changes to the facility itself. Rather, there were substantive changes to how the team conducted its first day of practice during training camp.

Immediate work on systems

In the past, many of us have become conditioned to the first on-ice day of camp being primarily (or entirely) set aside for, well, conditioning skates. In 2025, there was no first-day bag skate at all: no line-to-line wind sprints, no endless laps ("NASCAR laps" as defenseman Cam York called them), and no rope laid across the middle of the ice.

Instead, right off the bat, players in the two main practice groups, engaged in situational drills and some basic systems work. Line rushes came a bit later in the session before players switched ice surfaces.

"We’re actually getting into some systems, and playing hockey. It’s different than using a rope and skating laps, that’s for sure," team captain Sean Couturier said.

Tocchet himself is a conditioning fanatic. However, the coach trusted that his players did their conditioning homework over the summer, both on the ice and in the gym.

There was, of course, an off-ice workout aspect to Day One. On the ice, however, everyone focused their energies immediately on hockey drills. The very first drill was a 3-on-2 simulation in the attack zone.

Throughout the day, Tocchet and his assistant coaches emphasized common themes from how they want the team to play. The head coach used the word "staples".

"I need to get these guys [to understand] concepts, what we want to do. We need to hold on to pucks. We don't want to throw pucks [blindly]. We want to be a better possession team. So we got to work on that stuff," the head coach said.

Staple No. 1: Force other teams to expend more energy defending. The Flyers have been a good team off the rush the past few years. However, with the exception of the Tyson Foerster-Noah Cates-Bobby Brink line last year, they often struggled to hem other teams in their defensive zone and eventually grind out goals.

Staple No. 2: Everyone needs to focus on being in the right place. Tocchet's systems heavily depend on the center to be the "glue guy" of any five-man unit.

Tocchet said that he and the staff didn't want to throw too much X-and-O detail right off the bat at the large camp-opening roster. Those points -- the Box +1 defensive zone system, breakouts, neutral zone forecheck, special teams, etc. -- will come over the course of camp. Day One was just about the overriding "staples" he expects players to keep in mind every day.

Line combo concepts

Line combinations early in training camp almost always vary as the days go past. Training camp is the time to experiment with different looks. It's a chance to see if certain players or combos have chemistry with one one another.

Tocchet added, however, that sometimes coaches (including himself) are too quick to break up a combination if it doesn't click almost immediately. Sometimes, coaches also tend to nitpick flaws rather than focusing on the aspects that work well with a combination.

Overall, Tocchet said he's a believer in the "pairs" concept for forwards: each center works regularly with a certain winger. Meanwhile, the third player of the line rotates through the pairs.

Last year, from December onward, the Foerster - Cates - Brink line rarely got separated. In the past, even some checking-focused regular lines -- such as the Minnesota Line trio of Shjon Podein, Joel Otto, and Trent Klatt -- did their best work when all three members were kept together.

In general, though, Tocchet said that he tends to favor maintaining two regular linemates up front per five-man with a varying third member. With these caveats in mind, the Flyers used some intriguing Day One combos.

Group A: Day One

Alex Bump - Trevor Zegras - Travis Konecny
Nikita Grebenkin - Sean Couturier - Matvei Michkov
Lane Pederson - Jack Nesbitt - Garnet Hathaway
Rodrigo Abols - Jacob Gaucher - Devin Kaplan

Travis Sanheim - Spencer Gill
Nick Seeler - Jamie Drysdale
Ty Murchison - Luke Vlooswyk
Dennis Gilbert - Austin Moline

Goalies: Dan Vladar, Aleksei Kolosov

Right off the bat, Tocchet and his staff gave rookie hopefuls Bump and Grebenkin a chance to play with upper-lineup veteran regulars. The head coach said he and the staff are leaning on General Manager Daniel Briere on whom to play together at the start. However, the coach said that it wasn't a hard sell to want to see right away to look at certain groupings.

Group A: Day One Quote Book

• Couturier joked that he needs to learn some Russian to communicate with Michkov (an occasional linemate last year) and Grebenkin. Meanwhile, Michkov said that he already knew Grebenkin fairly well on a personal level and from having played against each other in the past.

• The team captain said that his player-coach relationship with Tocchet is off to a good start. In particular, he noted Tocchet communicating with him regularly. The head coach gave a bit more insight. “There’s been a couple times he has come up to me and asked me, ‘Can we do this? Can we do that?’ And that’s the relationship I want to have....The leadership, it will come. I’ll help him out on that.”

• Michkov reported that his own grasp of English is "better" than last year, although he still leans on Slava Kuznetsov to translate during media availability. However, he did respond for himself to a couple of basic questions. A humorous moment arose when Michkov mostly responded to a query about Grebenkin by referencing "backcheck, forecheck, paycheck", Kuznetsov, smiling, translated it as "he'll be better."

• Tocchet said he's also had conversations, both off the ice and now on the ice, with Michkov. Right off the bat, the coach is impressed by the player's competitive drive and will to get to the net.

• Konecny said that he's getting to know Bump during camp. He sees some of himself from his early pro career in the first-year pro.

• Konecny noted that the grind of the 2024-25 season -- compacted schedule, 4 Nations Tournament and a spot on Sidney Crosby's line during the IIHF World Championships -- emphasized the need to get rest this year when he has opportunities. The 2025-26 season features another compacted schedule. Konecny (and Travis Sanheim) were also part of Hockey Canada's recent Olympic orientation camp.

• Zegras said he's been fine diving into the Philadelphia sports scene. The new arrival has already been to Phillies games and attended the Eagles home opener against the Dallas Cowboys.

• Zegras expressed a desire to remain at center if possible. He said that he feels his overall game has improved significantly over the past year or so, although the improvements didn't show up in his personal stats. He knows he still needs to improve on faceoffs if he's to play center for the Flyers.

• Zegras is a well-known video game enthusiast. On Thursday, he referenced playing the new EA Sports NHL '26 game with Couturier as a lead-in to asking the captain for some tips on faceoff improvement in real life as well as the gaming universe."Playing the new video game, his X-factor is faceoffs. So I went right up to him and I said, 'What have you got for me?'" Zegras quipped.

Group B: Day One

The Group B session featured two regular forward lines during reps plus three wingers rotating through the other two lines. The D pairs, conversely, were steadily together.

Alexis Gendron - Jett Luchanko - Owen Tippett

Tyson Foerster - Christian Dvorak - Denver Barkey

rotation -- Noah Cates - Bobby Brink

rotation - Karsen Dorwart - rotation

Rotating wingers: Nick Deslauriers, Samu Tuomaala, Anthony Richard

Cam York - Helge Grans
Egor Zamula - Emil Andrae
Hunter McDonald - Noah Juulsen
Adam Ginning - Ethan Samson

Goalies: Samuel Ersson, Carson Bjarnason

Group B: Day One Quote Book

• Foerster wore a purple no-contact jersey, as planned during his recovery from an offseason upper body injury. He actually did test himself with some contact during the session. The player hopes to get into a regular practice jersey soon and into preseason game action before the season starts.

• Last season, Cam York had a strong working relationship with former assistant coach and interim head coach Brad Shaw. York said that new assistant coach Todd Reirden reminds him of Shaw in a lot of ways. Reirden and York have already had some productive, if basic conversations. York said he's excited to work with Reirden, who built a reputation (especially in Washington) of helping defensemen unlock their full potential

• Gendron said after the Rookie Series that he feels his overall game is trending the right way (he even killed penalties during the Rookie Series). Meanwhile, he scored two goals over the weekend, including a shorthanded tally. On Day One of NHL camp, Gendron arguably scored the two prettiest goals of the afternoon.

• One was a bar-down shot during line rushes, one timing a pass into the net. The other was a tic-tac-toe sequence started by Luchanko. Tippett faked a shot, and slid a pass to Gendron. Promptly, Gendron tucked the puck into the net. A bit like veteran Anthony Richard, there are undeniable strengths to Gendron's game: his skating and his hands.