Tocchet excited for challenge of guiding Flyers back to postseason

PHILADELPHIA -- Rick Tocchet was everywhere around Wells Fargo Center on Friday.

The video screens outside the building. In the rafters where his name hangs as member of the Philadelphia Flyers Hall of Fame.

Mingling with some of the approximately 400 season ticket holders who attended his introductory press conference as the Flyers new coach, two days after he was hired to replace John Tortorella, who was fired March 27 before Brad Shaw served as interim coach for the final nine games of the season.

It had the feeling of a hometown hero returning to rescue the local hockey team from the depths of five straight seasons out of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, tied for the longest in franchise history.

But once those positive vibes end, how does Tocchet make the Flyers better?

"I know I'm back, but it's not about Rick Tocchet," the 61-year-old said. "It's about the crest. I'm a crest guy. How do we build the shield?"

Tocchet has a lot invested in that shield. He was selected by the Flyers in the sixth round (No. 121) of the 1983 NHL Draft, and played the first eight and final three seasons of his 18-season NHL career as a forward in Philadelphia.

"I was a young kid, 19 when I came over the Walt Whitman Bridge to play my first game at the Spectrum (the Flyers' former home arena)," Tocchet said. "I've been gone for about 20-something years. Learned a lot as a player and as a coach over those years. I've been very lucky to get ideas off some of the greatest minds in hockey the last 25 years, and I hope to bring back some of that knowledge."

Some of that was gained the past three seasons as coach of the Vancouver Canucks, a job he walked away from April 29. He has also coached the Tampa Bay Lightning and Arizona Coyotes, and won the Stanley Cup twice (2016, 2017) as an assistant with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

But Tocchet said it wasn't as simple as sprinting back to his first NHL home just because there was a coaching vacancy.

"When I left Vancouver, I wanted to take my time in the process," he said. "I didn't want to just jump on any team. I've been on some teams where you didn't have the tools. ... So I said, if I'm going to jump into something, I need some tools. Or I could have went back to TV. I enjoyed it there and it was a great platform for me. I just think there's a lot of tools for me to work with here."

And Tocchet was shown just how many tools the Flyers have, and how much bigger the toolbox could get, during what Philadelphia president of hockey operations Keith Jones called a recruitment effort to convince Tocchet to come aboard.

"It was not like, 'Oh, the Flyers called me, I want to take the Flyers job,'" Jones said. "We had to convince him and go through our roster and show him more than we show [the media] on where we're headed. Thankfully he bought into what we were telling him, and saw where our vision was and wants to be a part of it.

"He recognizes that it's going to be a team effort to get to the top. I'm just happy that he saw enough here that he wants to be a part of it with us."

General manager Daniel Briere was part of that recruitment effort, but said it wasn't Tocchet's history with the Flyers that made him the best candidate for the job.

"The fact that he played here before, for me, had no bearing," he said. "It's a nice add-on, it's a nice plus that he's played here, that he shed blood for this organization, that he has a connection to the fans. Those are all pluses. But going into it, to me, that's not what was going to sway me one way or the other. I wanted the best coach available and one of the top coaches in the NHL, and that's what I feel that he is."

What put him in that category for Briere wasn't Tocchet winning the Jack Adams Award as NHL coach of the year with the Canucks in 2023-24. It was what he did during his four seasons with the Coyotes (2017-21).

"He had a pretty depleted lineup at the time, and a team that probably was ... the experts were saying that the Coyotes would be last in the NHL and get the first overall pick, and he made them competitive," Briere said. "They did make the playoffs the one year (2019-20), and they were in the running, playing good games. That body of work for me was probably the most impressive part of his coaching. And you can't forget what he did, part of the two Stanley Cups on that staff in Pittsburgh, being part of the 4 Nations staff (for Canada) last year, working with some of the best players in the world. So his track record is pretty impressive."

Tocchet is confident he's set up for success in Philadelphia.

"There's a lot of prospects, untapped talent, the stability of ownership," he said. "I walked around that practice facility [Flyers Training Center], I walked around here, the inside, the bowels. There's so many tools to work with. The practice site has three sheets of ice. As a coach, you're like, 'Oh my God, these are things you want as a coach.' So those are attractive things to help me be even a better coach."

There's also a roster he feels is ready to push for playoff contention. That includes the positive experience he had working with defenseman Travis Sanheim and forward Travis Konecny as part of Canada's coaching staff at the 4 Nations Face-Off in February.

"Every individual has untapped talent," he said. "To whatever level is, it's my job to untap it. I know where this is going, and I like the direction. I actually love the direction that these guys have laid out. I believe in it, and I want to be part of the solution.

"It's just not me. It's not about Rick Tocchet, it's about everybody. But for me, I know what I've got to do to keep this ball going, and there's a lot of tools here to work with. That's what has attracted me to this job."