Flyers Coaching Search: Tocchet in Driver’s Seat for Flyers Job?

For two of the eight teams with coaching vacancies, the search for a new coach has already come to an end. The New York Rangers, who fired Peter Laviolette after the 2023-24 season, hired Mike Sullivan. The Anaheim Ducks, who fired Greg Cronin at season’s end, hired Joel Quenneville.

The Flyers are among the teams still in a coaching search, which also includes the Pittsburgh Penguins, Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks, Seattle Kraken, and Vancouver Canucks.

So far, there hasn’t been much in the way of concrete progress in the Flyers coaching search. They reportedly interviewed Pat Ferschweiler, the current head coach at Western Michigan.

They also have retained Brad Shaw while dismissing assistant coaches Rocky Thompson and Darryl Williams. Shaw has remained a lurking candidate of sorts, in part because he’s already with the organization, as the front office looks at options outside.

As for outside options, most of that revolved around the availability of Rick Tocchet. When Tocchet officially turned down an extension to stay in Vancouver, thus opening up the Vancouver job, many pointed to the Flyers as a likely destination.

Seattle, Boston, and Pittsburgh have also been linked to Tocchet, who seems to have his pick of where he wants to go. As Elliotte Friedman put it on 32 Thoughts this week, “teams aren’t interviewing him, he’s interviewing them.” Tocchet has also been linked to a return to television and did make a return to the TNT panel over the weekend.

Specifically, Darren Dreger of TSN reported that there were “strong indications” that Tocchet will land another coaching job, and listed the Flyers with Boston and Seattle as top candidates. Dreger added that “the Flyers want to be aggressive.”

So if Tocchet has his pick of the job he wants, and if Philadelphia is the job of choice, it sure appears that he could be named the next head coach of the Flyers very soon. If Tocchet were to decline an opportunity, the Flyers would have to adjust their search, whether that’s a pivot back to Ferschweiler or just sticking with Shaw or something else completely off the radar at the moment.

Kevin Durso is Flyers insider for 97.3 ESPN. Follow him on social media @Kevin_Durso.