Flyers Quick Hits: Coach Search, Phantoms, Royals, Flyers Daily

Here are your daily quick hits and musings for April 30, 2025.

1. Cue the Rick Tocchet rumors. On Tuesday, the Flyers Hall of Fame inductee terminated his head coaching contract with the Vancouver Canucks. Some assume a return to Philadelphia is nearly inevitable. I don’t see it that way. Would I be shocked if the Flyers hire Tocchet? No. Do I think “Tocc”, general manager Daniel Briere and president of hockey operations Keith Jones automatically see this as the best fit? No.
2. Tocchet’s two-stint playing career with the Flyers and warm relationships with Briere and Jones do not automatically make him the favorite. Tocchet and Jones were Flyers teammates in the late 1990s and have many like-minded views on hockey. Briere briefly and Tocchet played together for the former Phoenix Coyotes. As with most people, Tocchet gets along well with Briere on a personal level. However, much of this is also true of former Chicago Blackhawks head coach Luke Richardson. I have not seen his name as a potential short-list candidate. It’s true of Western Michigan head coach Pat Ferschweiler, Jones’ old friend and college hockey linemate. Would mutual history alone convince Ferschweiler to leave a very secure job with the Broncos to return to pro hockey? The head coach turnover rate in the NHL is the polar opposite of the NCAA realm.
3. Jones is someone who likes to confound people’s expectations. If you don’t know Keith at all, this commentary won’t make much sense. If you do know him, however, it may. Yes, it would be in character for him to tab a trusted old friend/ For example, Mike Eastwood’s 2023 hiring as the organization’s director of pro scouting was no surprise. However, it’d be even more “Jonesy-ish” to NOT hire one of the two candidates (Tocchet or Ferschweiler) whom many think are his near-automatic preference. Jones won’t avoid it just for the sake of being impish. He cares more about what he sees as the best interests of the organization, and he won’t care much if others disagree. But there’s a substantial part of his personality that loves a swerve.
4. Jones himself says that he’s tired of settling for the “best available” acquisition (ala Kevin Hayes in the 2019 offseason). He want to start luring “the best, period” within the next couple of years. Jones (and Briere) want a Flyers version of the Phillies’ Bryce Harper acquisition or the way the 76ers went from a fallen franchise to a contender built around Julius Erving.
5. That’s a very Ed Snider-like ambition. Is it doable? Is the team ready for that? I think fans have every right to be skeptical until proven otherwise. There are a lot of needs on this hockey team, not the least of which are in goal and down the middle. I don’t actually think the Flyers are THAT far away from making the playoffs as a wildcard in the so-so Eastern Conference. But it’d be more in the realm of the in-one-year and out-the-next bubble teams. There’s massive work to be done to become a contender again. There must also be some good luck and risk tolerance that bears fruit.
6. Getting back to the coaching search, I still see Jay Woodcroft as someone who is laying the weeds. His name isn’t atop public speculation. However, he’s one of two candidates that came to mind last year. John Tortorella’s contract ran through 2025-26. A lame-duck season wasn’t in either the organization’s best interests or the coach’s. I also did not think a preemptive extension made sense for the Flyers. At the time, Mike Sullivan was the one who jumped out the most to me. I thought he’d be dismissed by Pittsburgh after the 20024-25 campaign (which proved to be correct). As Tortorella’s former protege and one of his closest friends, it seemed like a natural scenario. Sullivan would be the next Philadelphia coach, and Tortorella would become a senior advisor. However, with Tortorella punching his own ticket out of the Flyers’ head coaching job before the end of the season, that line of thinking went out the window.
7. As you may recall, Woodcroft came to the Flyers’ training camp last September. Officially, he was there as Tortorella’s invitation. It is true that Tortorella is very generous when it comes to interacting with fellow coaches (from various levels of the sport). it still seemed highly unusual to bring in a recent NHL head coach as a training camp guest for the sake of a nice gesture. Even then, at some level, I thought Woodcroft’s candidacy for an eventual role with the Flyers crossed Briere’s mind as well as Jones. Does that make Woodcroft a favorite for the current vacancy? I wouldn’t take it that far right now. Do I think he’s at least an interview candidate? Yes. Is he a possible short-list candidate? Maybe.
8. One of these days, I need to write down my own feelings about Tortorella and his Philadelphia tenure. Briere’s description of Tortorella as a “complicated” man and coach is apt. There are a lot of contradictions with Tortorella on both fronts. Ultimately, it comes down to whether the results he’s produced have justified the headaches. My own view before he ever came to Philadelphia was that the answer is no. I still feel that way. He’s coached teams with a wide-cross section of abilities. Contenders mixed with also-rans and rebuilds. I don’t think his career .475 winning percentage and 21-year-gap between his Cup win in Tampa and his final game in Philadelphia are sufficient to overlook the negatives. Tortorella is a very competent head coach. It would be ridiculous to say otherwise, especially in terms of implementing structure and demanding competitiveness. But competence and excellence are two different things. I consider him a good coach to cajole and demand competence. Excellence? Only when it’s a group that is capable of high achievement but needs more structure or fire. Think of Mike Keenan’s Flyers and Rangers vs. Bob McCammon’s Flyers (lack of structure) or Roger Neilson’s Rangers (structured and talented but needed a push).
9. The Lehigh Valley Phantoms open their best-five Atlantic Division semifinal series this evening against the two-time defending Calder Cup champion Hershey Bears on Wednesday evening. Brian Smith and I recorded a 30-minute series preview podcast for the “Prospect Pipeline” show on the Flyers Broadcast Network. I will post the podcast here when it’s available. On another Flyers affiliate note, the organization announced yesterday that it has extended its ECHL affiliation with the Reading Royals for the 2025-26 and 2026-27 seasons.
10. The NHL Draft Lottery will be held on May 5. For a rundown of the odds across the 16-team lottery, click here.