Flyers’ Tocchet finally has chance to grow with team he’s coaching

It\'s been a few weeks since the Philadelphia Flyers officially named Rick Tocchet as the 25th head coach of the franchise.

The fan reaction has been mixed, to say the least, with some viewing Tocchet\'s connections with Philadelphia as the main reason he was hired rather than sticking with Brad Shaw or bringing in new blood. Nevertheless, Tocchet will be behind the bench in Philadelphia for the foreseeable future.

A quick glance at Tocchet\'s coaching history doesn\'t exactly do him any favors. He\'s only made the playoffs twice, including in the shortened 2019-20 season with 74 points in 70 games. The other time was just last season, with Tocchet winning the Jack Adams Award in his first full season in Vancouver.

Even with of brief periods of success in Vancouver -- and Arizona, if you want to include that -- Tocchet just looks like another Hockey Man retread. But despite coaching three different teams before joining the Flyers, Tocchet has never quite been in the situation he is in Philadelphia.

Tocchet\'s first head coaching gig came in Tampa Bay. Just over three months after being hired as an associate coach, the Lightning gave him the interim head coach job on November 14, 2008, after firing Barry Melrose.

The Lightning were only a few seasons removed from their first Stanley Cup in 2004, but the team was far from the same. They had 92 and 93 points in the first two years following the lockout, losing in the first round both times.

It was a bad time for Tampa Bay in the 2008-09 season, going 5-7-4 under Melrose before Tocchet finished out the season with a 19-33-14 record the rest of the way to. They still had Martin St. Louis and Vincent Lecavalier in their primes, but then it was 18-year-old Steven Stamkos third on the team with 46 points and a 40-year-old Marc Recchi putting up 45 points.

The interim tag was removed in the offseason, and the Lightning improved to 80 points in Tocchet\'s only full season in Tampa Bay. Stamkos won the Rocket Richard as a 19-year-old, but it was still a three-man show in Tampa Bay.

But with ownership changing in Tampa Bay, Tocchet\'s time came to an end following that season. Guy Boucher then took the Lightning to the playoffs the next year.

Tocchet then spent the next few years in Pittsburgh, winning two Stanley Cups and learning the ropes on Mike Sullivan\'s staff. His success in Pittsburgh helped him land another head coaching job, but once again, it wasn\'t exactly a great spot for Tocchet.

We know now what happened in Arizona with its issues trying to keep a team, so Tocchet was pretty much a stopgap until they figured out what was going to happen with the franchise. He had a history with the Coyotes, which is actually the first NHL team he ever coached back in 2005 when head coach Wayne Gretzky was away from the team.

If anything, Tocchet\'s time in Arizona could be viewed as a positive since he got them up to 86 points in the 2018-19 season and the bubble playoffs in 2020.

But in short, the Coyotes were a bad team with even worse ownership. The two sides ultimately mutually agreed to part ways following the 2020-21 season. After another short break, including some time on the TNT desk, the Canucks tapped Tocchet to turn the team around on January 22, 2023.

The team felt distant from the one that went 40-30-12 for 92 points the year prior. Tocchet was brought in to fix the team, and he got right to work. The Canucks went 20-12-4 under Tocchet after winning just 18 of 46 games with Bruce Boudreau at the helm.

And we all know what happened next. Everything came together for the Canucks to win the Pacific Division, and Tocchet was rewarded with the Jack Adams Award. He got them to 109 points, the most in Vancouver since 2012, with J.T. Miller, Quinn Hughes, Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser, and Thatcher Demko all having tremendous seasons.

But that all came crashing down last season with the Miller-Pettersson feud causing plenty of in-season commotion and an eventual trade. There were clear problems in Vancouver for a few years, and although Tocchet was able to patch them up for one deep playoff run, the foundation and building blocks were pretty much already set.

Tocchet decided to leave Vancouver despite the Canucks reportedly offering him a contract extension. He may have been eyeing up the Flyers\' job the whole time, and it immediately became clear that he was their top choice.

In Philadelphia, Tocchet now finally gets a chance to grow right alongside the team he\'s coaching. He wasn\'t given a proper chance in Tampa Bay with the ownership change, Arizona got him back into the swing of things following success as an assistant, and that put him in a position to help a team like the Canucks. But he\'s never quite been in this situation.

Danny Briere took over as general manager two years ago and put a clear plan in place. He had to tear down some of the counterproductive band-aids and moves made by the previous regimes in order to build the new foundation.

Perhaps it was a blessing in disguise that the Flyers already had John Tortorella in the fold as the head coach to set the tone and help figure out which pieces were worth sticking around, and which needed to be traded, let go, or bought out. Briere wasn\'t forced to hire a coach that he knew would be a stopgap, or just one to help the team grow a bit. Tortorella did that in his own way.

Now, Briere handpicked Tocchet as his head coach, and the bench boss can join the vision and plan in the early stages. The tearing down is finished. The bad apples have been plucked out. There are clear veteran pieces -- including two he coached on Team Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off -- as well as an up-and-coming superstar. Not to mention a cupboard of prospects and draft picks that the team can use in any way they want, thanks to the salary cap maneuvers over the last two offseasons.

Tocchet was drafted by the Flyers and grew as a player in Philadelphia. He now gets a chance to grow as a head coach with this New Era of Orange.

Rick Tocchet finally has chance to grow with team he’s coaching in Flyers

Talking Points