Flyers Notes: Tocchet Leaves Vancouver, Could Philly Be Next?

Last Monday, the Vancouver Canucks closed out a disappointing season with the news that they had declined the club option on head coach Rick Tocchet's contract for the 2025-26 season. But that wasn't the end of his time in Vancouver in their book. An offer was made for Tocchet to be the long-term coach of the Canucks. The ball was in his court.

On Tuesday, Tocchet made his decision. He will not be returning to the Canucks.

"I'm choosing to move on from the Vancouver Canucks,” Tocchet said in a statement. “Family is a priority, and with my contract lapsing, this becomes the opportune time. While I don't know where I'm headed, or exactly how this will play out for me over the near term, I feel like this is the right time for me to explore other opportunities in and around hockey."

So let the speculation roll on further. Tocchet noted that the time was right for him to explore other opportunities in and around hockey. Canucks President of Hockey Operations Jim Rutherford also added this nugget.

"He felt he needed a change, and part of that for personal reasons," Rutherford said. "He wanted to move back to the eastern part of the United States and be closer to his family, and that's pretty much where it is at this point. But obviously we're very disappointed.”

Exploring opportunities in and around hockey? Moving back to the East coast? Sounds like a former team of Tocchet's might be calling.

But which one?

Tocchet was drafted by the Flyers in 1983. He made his NHL debut in the 1984-85 season and was with the Flyers for 531 games until the 1991-92 season, when he was traded. Tocchet returned to the Flyers in 2000 in another trade and played the final 90 games of his career in Orange and Black.

The team he was traded to in 1992? That would be the Pittsburgh Penguins, who on Monday announced that they were parting ways with Mike Sullivan as head coach.

Until there was an opening in Pittsburgh, all eyes were on Philadelphia if Tocchet hit the market, and rightfully so. Tocchet had interviewed for the Flyers head coaching job in the past, and played 11 seasons with the Flyers, the final portion of his career alongside Flyers President of Hockey Operations Keith Jones.

But Tocchet has already been on the Pittsburgh bench once before, serving as an assistant coach from 2014-2017. Following the Penguins second of back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2017, both won as part of Sullivan's staff, Tocchet was hired as the head coach in Arizona.

It may still be inevitable that the Flyers were waiting on Tocchet, and now that he's available, the choice is inevitable. Or maybe, there's more than one opportunity out there that Tocchet has to consider, the opportunity to go back on the bench with the team that he won three Stanley Cups with – one as a player and two as an assistant coach.

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