Rick Tocchet to guest on NHL on TNT panel as Flyers weigh coaching decision

Rick Tocchet could return to the NHL on TNT panel next season if he doesn’t land a coaching gig.

There has been a lot of smoke around the Philadelphia Flyers and former Vancouver Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet. There’s an obvious connection with Tocchet starting and finishing his playing career in Philadelphia, but there hasn’t been anything too concrete in recent weeks.

Tocchet declined to stay with the Canucks after his second full season in Vancouver. One of the reasons he stepped away was due to being burnt out, leading some to speculate if the former TV analyst would return to the media side of things.

Well, Tocchet has yet to make a decision, but he will be joining the NHL on TNT panel this weekend.

Tocchet was a regular on TNT’s hockey coverage as a studio analyst starting in 2021 after leaving his coaching post with the Arizona Coyotes. He then joined the Canucks in the middle of the 2022-23 season.

The longtime head coach was also a member of the Flyers Postgame Live panel in the early 2010s.

While a guest spot for a few days obviously doesn’t mean he’s returning to that gig in a full-time role, going back behind the desk for the weekend may remind him how much he enjoys the lighter side of hockey.

Tocchet has a few teams that could be vying for his services this offseason, but none of them are exactly desirable destinations in win-now mode. Given how quickly coaches are fired in-season nowadays, he could take a load off this summer and see if anything better comes up next season (or offseason).

There was some more Flyers-related Tocchet news dropped on Wednesday as well with The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun reporting that Philadelphia “had not reached out on Rick Tocchet” as of Tuesday, but he expects it to happen before the end of the week.

That’s an interesting development, given that Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman said last week that he believes Tocchet is the Flyers’ “number one guy.” Wouldn’t the team have already reached out to the guy at the top of their list?

Nevertheless, the Flyers appear to be taking their time in their search for the team’s next head coach. Tocchet and Brad Shaw remain top candidates with Pat Ferschweiler and Jay McKee as darkhorse options.