Flyers GM Danny Briere agitated this NHL legend a few times during their playing days. (Photo: Eric Hartline, Imagn Images)
New Philadelphia Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet has made the first two additions to his coaching staff, but he still needs one more. How about an NHL legend who just left the Vancouver Canucks?
Tocchet, after hiring Yogi Svejkovsky and Jay Varady, still needs to find a dedicated coach to replace the departed Brad Shaw on the defense and penalty kill sides of things.
All he needs to do now is place a call to Sergei Gonchar, his old friend from Vancouver.
Gonchar, 51, was just replaced by the Canucks with Tocchet out of the picture and new head coach Adam Foote opting to build his own coaching staff.
The two-time Stanley Cup champion (as a coach) was a defense development coach and assistant coach with Tocchet while the two were with the Pittsburgh Penguins, and Gonchar again joined Tocchet in Vancouver in 2022-23, reprising his role as a development coach.
In his first full season under Gonchar and Tocchet, Canucks captain Quinn Hughes erupted for 17 goals and 92 points, smashing his previous career highs of eight and 76, respectively.
Penguins star Kris Letang had two of his three most productive NHL seasons under Gonchar, who also oversaw the development of defensemen like Brian Dumoulin, Marcus Pettersson, Erik Gudbranson, John Marino, Jamie Oleksiak, and Olli Maatta.
Tocchet and the Flyers would assuredly love to have a coach like Gonchar join the coaching staff, especially given the importance of player development at this point in the rebuild.
A guy who's won three Stanley Cups - two as a coach and one as a player - and played in 1,301 NHL regular season games may know a thing or two about the league. It helps, of course, that Gonchar scored 811 points as a defenseman, with 427 of them coming on the power play.
Defensemen like Cam York, Jamie Drysdale, Egor Zamula, and Emil Andrae still need to grow and learn, and prospects like Spencer Gill and Oliver Bonk will be joining the fold soon. All would benefit equally from Gonchar's tutelage if Tocchet and the Flyers can make the hire.
No solution for the last assistant coach opening was apparent, but perhaps the news of Gonchar leaving the Canucks changes things. What happens next could be massive for the Flyers.
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