With the exception of his Flyers Hall of Fame induction weekend in November 2021, Rick Tocchet had not "officially" been part of the Flyers family since his active playing career ended in 2001. On Friday morning, Tocchet stepped back into the Wells Fargo Center as the 25th head coach in Flyers history.
Tocchet met with Flyers season ticket members and then spoke to the media for 25-plus minutes. General Manager Daniel Briere joined Tocchet at the podium. Afterwards, Tocchet, Briere, President of Hockey Operations Keith Jones and Flyers Governor Dan Hilferty answered another 20-plus minutes of questions in one-on-one breakout sessions.
The speakers covered a wide array of topics: Tocchet's coaching style and philosophy, his goals for the 2025-26 campaign, the standard (like his predecessor, Tocchet prefers this word to "identity") he expects, and much more.
Above all, the speakers reiterated the theme that Tocchet's two biggest strengths as a coach are his two-way communication style and day-to-day approachability. Tocchet said current-day coach-player relationships are different from when he played junior and pro hockey.
"Coaches told you, ‘Do this!’ and you just did it. You were scared to ask why. Now this generation wants to know why, they want to ask questions. They’re smart guys. It’s my job to make them buy into it obviously, but you have to accept that as a coach. I’m a partner with the players. It’s not a dictatorship," Tocchet said.
Here are four takeaways (Tocc-aways?) from the new head coach's portions of Friday's discussions.
1. "Working with good people makes you successful."
After electing to depart from the Vancouver Canucks head coach job, Tocchet was in huge demand to interview for numerous head coaching vacancies this offseason. He chose to commit to the Fyers.
On Friday, Tocchet explained his motivations. Among the reasons: his instant familiarity with the city, the fan base, the organizations as a whole as well as his rapport and shared history with his new co-workers under the Hockey Ops umbrella.
Tocchet has known both Briere and Jones for many years. He and Briere were teammates with the Coyotes when Tocchet was an older veteran and Briere was just breaking into the NHL.
"As a coach or anything in life you want to check the boxes. Stability. Box checked. Relationships. Box checked. Passion and the area and the fan base. Box checked," Tocchet said.
"I’m a big relationship guy. I know just from the past being here and working with good people makes you successful. So for me those are the attractive things. Obviously, the roster and the potential. The prospect pool, the cap space that’s coming here. There’s a lot of positives for this job. It’s an attractive job. I think it’s one of the best jobs in hockey."
2. "Accountability matters, but there's a right way to get it."
During his breakout session, Tocchet talked about the importance of routine and day-to-day expectations. What are his non-negotiables as a head coach?
"I'm really not a believer in having lots of rules as a coach; lots of non-negotiables. Accountability matters in any team or job, but there's a right way to get it," Tocchet said.
"I want players to believe in what we do, day in and day out. Practice habits. These are cliches, but you expect a good work ethic. Play for the crest and your teammates. Everyone has to pull the rope in the same direction. Again, cliches, but in terms of expectations, that's really what has to be there.
"You can win with different systems. I don't really stand up and preach systems. There's a lot of smart coaches out there and good, smart players. Different ideas. Different ways of doing this or that. But what's a good system? Play well without the puck. Stay connected. Don't be afraid of some mistakes. The details can be different. But with any team that has success, you have to be working for the same purpose," Tocchet said.
3. Respect existing team leaders, develop new ones.
Over the latter half of the 2024-25 season, the Flyers' locker room makeup was in flux. Some highly respected veteran players departed, such as Scott Laughton and Erik Johnson. Some universally popular teammates within the room, such as Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost, were traded.
Tocchet, like Briere, said that there is a vital opportunity for new leaders to emerge, particularly in terms of filling the role that Laughton played within the room. As head coach, Tocchet wants to empower some of the younger players to embrace the chance to grow into leaders.
"The room is huge, the leadership and making other players evolve in that leadership is huge. So there’s some guys in there with leadership qualities and we’ve got to get it out of them and give them a rope to be a leader. So when you lose these type of guys, that’s one thing I noticed when guys got traded out of here, nobody wants to get traded from the Flyers," Tocchet said.
"They do stuff so well here, in the locker room. It’s a tight group. That’s what I want to continue. Torts did a hell of a job of creating a hard-working team that cared about each other. So I hope I can keep that tradition going here."
4. "Players know if you're genuine."
As Flyers fans know, Tocchet had a prolific NHL playing career. He played under a wide array of coaches and played along the likes of Mario Lemieux, Wayne Gretzky. Jaromir Jagr, Ray Bourque, Mark Howe and many other greats of the game. His coaches included names such as Mike Keenan, Scotty Bowman, Roger Neilson, Jim Schoenfeld, and John Tortorella (as a Coyotes assistant).
Since turning to the coaching side of the game, Tocchet said that he tries to synthesize all that he's learned. He understands what players need and what it's fair for coaches to expect. Above all, though, he doesn't believe in trying to just copy what's worked for others.
"Players know if you are genuine with them," Tocchet said during his breakout session. "So be yourself with them, and let them be themselves with you."
During the podium interview, Tocchet discussed what these core beliefs mean to him.
"When a player walks in that door, the practice rink or this facility, they want trust. They want accountability. And they want to feel safe. Sometimes with the world we live in now, there’s a lot of outside noise. It can affect players. My job is to create a safe environment for those guys so they can feel as soon as they hit those doors that they’re taken care of," Tocchet said.
"We’re going to help them as much as possible and partner up with them. Getting trust from the players from day one is my goal. That's to make sure the players trust me."
