Rick Tocchet, the new Head Coach of the Flyers, has a clear primary goal for the 2025-26 season: to improve the team’s performance and steer them toward playoff contention, ending their five-year postseason drought.
The Flyers struggled in the 2024-25 season, finishing with the fourth-worst record in the NHL (33-39-10), tied for the Eastern Conference’s worst. Tocchet aims to leverage his experience, player relationships, and coaching style to elevate the team’s play, particularly focusing on developing young talent and addressing key weaknesses like Goaltending, Power Play, and roster depth.
Key Objectives for Tocchet:
Improve Team Performance and Culture:
- Tocchet emphasizes building trust with players from day one, creating a safe environment where they can focus on hockey despite external noise. He wants players to feel supported and form strong partnerships, fostering a cohesive team culture, as Tocchet says, “I know I’m back, but it’s not about Rick Tocchet. It’s about the crest. I’m a crest guy. How do we build the shield?”
- His goal is to make the Flyers play better collectively, as he stated: “My goal next season is to get the team to play better, and I want to be part of the solution.”
- He aims to instill a hard-working, structured style of play, drawing on his success with the Vancouver Canucks in 2023-24, where he led them to a 50-win season and a Pacific Division title.
End the Playoff Drought:
- The Flyers haven’t reached the playoffs since 2020, and their last postseason game in Philadelphia was in 2018. Tocchet is determined to “lead this team back among the NHL elite,” with a focus on pushing for a playoff spot in 2025-26.
- General Manager Danny Briere has set playoff contention as a realistic aim for next season, despite the team’s rebuild status, noting that the roster’s potential was undermined by poor goaltending and power-play struggles last year.
Develop Young Talent:
- Tocchet’s ability to connect with and develop young players is a cornerstone of his hiring. He’ll work with rising stars like Matvei Michkov, Tyson Foerster, and Bobby Brink, as well as prospects like Oliver Bonk, Jett Luchanko, and Alex Bump, who are close to NHL readiness.
- His track record includes guiding Vancouver’s Quinn Hughes to a Norris Trophy in 2023-24, showing his knack for elevating young talent.
- Tocchet believes every player has “untapped talent” and sees it as his job to unlock it, particularly with players like Travis Sanheim and Travis Konecny, whom he coached at the 4 Nations Face-Off.
Fix the Power Play/Address Goaltending
- Tocchet must navigate the Flyers’ ongoing rebuild while meeting Briere’s expectation of being “in the mix” for a playoff spot. He believes the roster has “a lot of tools” and is impressed by facilities like the Flyers Training Center, which he sees as assets to improve the team.
- With the No. 6 overall pick, additional first-rounders from Edmonton and Colorado, and 11 total draft picks in 2025, plus cap space from trades like Joel Farabee’s, the Flyers could add talent this offseason, which Tocchet will need to integrate.
- Rick Tocchet says that there are guys on the roster that they have to “Unleash” In regards to the Power Play. He believes there are players on the current roster that haven’t unlocked their talent in that area.
- Flyers’ goaltending has been a noted area of concern, with the team posting the worst single-season save percentage in Evolving-Hockey’s tracking history (since 2007–08) during the 2024–25 season. The trio of Samuel Ersson, Ivan Fedotov, and Aleksei Kolosov combined to allow 42.5 goals above expected, per MoneyPuck, highlighting significant struggles in net. Tocchet’s teams were tied for the fourth-fewest goals allowed at 5-on-5 over two full seasons. His approach could involve leveraging the Flyers’ strong defensive metrics (fourth in expected goals against, sixth in shots allowed at 5-on-5 over the past two seasons) to mitigate goaltending weaknesses, but he will likely rely on Danny Briere to address the position through roster moves.
Low and behold, Tocchet’s relationships with Briere and President Keith Jones, both former teammates, ensure alignment with the front office. His Jack Adams Award in 2024 and success with Vancouver’s turnaround demonstrate his coaching chops, while his reputation for connecting with players like Sidney Crosby and Quinn Hughes bodes well for Philadelphia’s young core.
Tocchet’s immediate goal isn’t a Stanley Cup but measurable progress—improving the Flyers’ record, developing their young stars, and making them competitive for a wild-card spot. Briere and Jones see him as the “absolute right coach” to unite the team and lay the foundation for a perennial contender, with significant roster moves likely this summer to support his vision.
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