PHILADELPHIA — The orange carpet will be laid out for Rick Tocchet on Friday, some 40 years since the days that his first glaring NHL head coach ordered him to go and lay out any and every opposing player in the name of old-time hockey.
Mike Keenan knew what Flyers fans wanted, and in his own often weird way, he pushed young Tocc into knowing it, too.
Tocchet was a rough-and-tumble sixth-round draft choice from a Toronto suburb whose talents came to the fore not only with furious fists but with his head and hands. He was one of several players on a young Philadelphia squad that embodied a never-say-how attitude while twice coming very close to upsetting a Hall of Fame collection of Edmonton Oilers in the 1980s.
By the time that Flyers team’s halcyon days were winding down, Tocchet was still there, possessing a brilliant shot, displaying a limitless work ethic, gaining wisdom beyond his years and unpeeling his intrinsic leadership ability even as age and inevitable change sapped his club’s fortunes. Not so for Tocchet, who would eventually welcome a trade to a team on the rise in Pittsburgh, where he would win his only Stanley Cup during a should-be Hall of Fame playing career.
As is the way of a Flyers franchise that grew desperate to win back the Stanley Cups that the franchise founders forged in the 1970s, Tocchet would be brought back to try to resurrect lost glory with a team that in the 2000 playoffs was deemed worthy of having a chance.
And yet, it was a club in turmoil, with superstar Eric Lindros felled by concussions and at war with his team bosses, and other players trying to outrun time and injury.
One of them, with knees as bad as Tocchet’s, was Keith Jones, who now as grinning team president rather than smirking veteran player will also be walking that carpet during a morning press conference at Wells Fargo Center, nearly 25 years after he and Tocchet hobbled out of there, their playing careers rapidly nearing an end.
Along the way, they gained a knowledge of what Flyers fans want. And for the challenge of once again trying to lead a franchise that is in the midst of its darkest days since a 28-year-old Tocchet first departed as a traded star, he returns as a 61-year-old head coach with one of the richest coaching contracts in the league.
He’ll also have a mandate: Somehow find a way to end a five-year stretch of poor, non-playoff hockey.
“I couldn’t be more excited to lead this team back among the NHL elite where we belong,” Tocchet said in a statement Wednesday after being reeled in via a reported five-year, $26.25 million deal. “We have a lot of work to do and much to accomplish, but I am confident in the direction we are heading and determined to get us there.”
There will be fans, of course, decrying the choice.
They will have short memories, or perhaps never had the pleasure of seeing the way Tocchet handled himself before, during and after games. There will be the same cries that the Flyers, with team alums Jones and Danny Briere at the controls, are still following the old franchise format of reaching back for past glories rather than forging into the future.
That, of course, is bunk.
As a GM, Tocchet’s old teammate Ron Hextall was all about upending the club’s roster for youth and even went into the college ranks to try to find a head coaching answer with Dave Hakstol. All that accomplished was an unfinished rebuilding attempt that ended with Hextall’s firing in November 2018.
So it goes. In this profoundly recycled sports league, whether you’re a management front or a front office leader, getting fired is simply part of the deal. It’s unavoidable. This is a league where the average tenure of a head coach is less than 2½ years.
The longest-tenured current NHL head coach is Tampa Bay’s Jon Cooper. He’s terrific at it, and maybe because he was trained as a lawyer, it’s helped him argue his way through the hockey minefield since first getting the job dumped in his lap in March 2013. That’s a relative eternity. But winning a pair of Stanley Cups along the way helped.
Then there’s Mike Sullivan, who lasted a long time in Pittsburgh, also winning a pair of Stanley Cups. He did so with Tocchet as a top assistant coach, and while Tocchet owes him for that earned honor, he also owes him for the huge coaching contract Sullivan signed last week with the New York Rangers, a five-year deal worth a reported $6.5 million annually.
Tocchet’s agent from his early days as a player, Bryn Mawr-based Steve Mountain of Cornerstone Management, was crafty enough to keep Tocchet in the mix with the Flyers, Penguins and other teams until Sullivan signed that megadeal. Now Tocchet will be the third-highest paid head coach in the league, behind only Sullivan and Cooper.
This for a head coach with a career record of 286-265-87 with Tampa Bay, Arizona and, for the past three seasons, Vancouver. But Jones and Briere know well that numbers, just as head coaches, are easily discounted in this league.
“What is impressive about Rick is that players gravitate toward him,” said Jones, “and develop a strong relationship in the process.”
Relationships. They might be easily forged in a league with so much leadership change. They are never easily forgotten. Tocchet’s oldest professional relationship resumes Friday.
Contact Rob Parent at rparent@delcotimes.com.
Source: Berkshire mont
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