This adorable pup joined the Philadelphia Flyers. Here's why
'Take another step': What new head coach Rick Tocchet will mean to Philadelphia Flyers
Longtime play-by-play voice of the Philadelphia Flyers Jim Jackson sits down with NBC10's Keith Jones and Erin Coleman to talk about what the hiring of legendary Flyer Rick Tocchet to lead the Orange and Black will mean to the rebuilding team.'Take another step': What new head coach Rick Tocchet will mean to Philadelphia Flyers originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Flyers 2026 Stanley Cup Odds: Better Than the Canadiens?
The Flyers had the worst cumulative save percentage in the NHL this season. (Photo: Russell LaBounty, Imagn Images) The Philadelphia Flyers do not have the best early odds of winning the Stanley Cup in 2026, but how their odds rank compared to some other teams around the NHL might come as a shock. The Flyers, who finished with the fourth-worst record in the NHL this season at 33-39-10, are not projected to win the Stanley Cup next year by any means, but oddsmakers are clearly expecting Philadelphia, led by new head coach Rick Tocchet and star sophomore forward Matvei Michkov, to take a step forward in 2025-26. Advertisement According to FanDuel, the Flyers have +8000 odds to win the 2026 Stanley Cup, which are notably only the 13th-lowest odds and ahead of Metropolitan Division rival Columbus Blue Jackets (+8500), the Anaheim Ducks (+10000), the Montreal Canadiens (+10000), Boston Bruins (+11000), and Buffalo Sabres (+14000). In the case of the Flyers, this is an implied probability of roughly 1.23%. Fans of the Pittsburgh Penguins (+28000), Seattle Kraken (+31000), Chicago Blackhawks, and San Jose Sharks (+50000) can safely flush next season down the toilet if the opinions of oddsmakers mean anything. The Flyers placing ahead of both the Canadiens and the Blue Jackets is a considerable surprise, given that the Canadiens made the playoffs with a 40-31-11 record and 91 points and the Blue Jackets narrowly missed out at 40-33-9 and 89 points. Advertisement Meanwhile, the Flyers finished dead-last in the Eastern Conference with a measly 76 points and just 21 regulation wins. Flyers 2025 Draft Picks Officially Set with Help from Sergei Bobrovsky Flyers 2025 Draft Picks Officially Set with Help from Sergei Bobrovsky With help from old friend Sergei Bobrovsky, all of the Philadelphia Flyers draft picks in the 2025 NHL Draft are now set in stone, including their three coveted first-round picks. Sure, the Canadiens could use some work up front to help ease the burden on captain Nick Suzuki and Calder Trophy winner Lane Hutson, but they're about to have a full offseason and regular season of Ivan Demidov. As for the Blue Jackets, they have an outstanding young core of forwards like Kirill Marchenko, Dmitry Voronkov, Yegor Chinakhov, Adam Fantilli, Kent Johnson, Cole Sillinger, and Gavin Brindley in addition to superstar defenseman Zach Werenski and prospects like Jet Greaves, Corson Ceulemans, Cayden Lindstrom, Denton Mateychuk, and Stanislav Svozil. Advertisement Even a slight step forward from these young guns, combined with some additions in free agency to smooth over the edges, should easily spell a playoff berth for Columbus. The Flyers, on the other hand, don't have the No. 1 centers the Canadiens and the Blue Jackets have, and they don't seem to be optimistic about the prospects of landing one via trade this summer, either. After all, GM Danny Briere has already said that teams are not giving away centers outside of fourth-line guys, and some of those same teams are also jockeying with the Flyers to move up in the 2025 NHL Draft order. So long as Briere and the Flyers remain stagnant, they have no chance of making good on these odds, as dismal as they may already be.
New York Times
2 days ago
- New York Times
Flyers GM Daniel Briere keeps mentioning the ‘plan.' What exactly is it?
VOORHEES, N. J. — Philadelphia Flyers general manager Daniel Briere has repeated a variation of the same phrase three times in recent months: in the aftermath of John Tortorella's firing on March 27; at the formal introduction of coach Rick Tocchet on May 16; and again this week in his annual pre-draft media conference. Advertisement 'One thing I want to make sure, and let our fans know, is that our plan hasn't changed,' Briere said on Tuesday. Briere was responding to a query regarding how aggressive he intends to be this offseason. It's a valid question. Briere has already expressed a desire for the club to turn the corner. He wants the Flyers to be better, perhaps more resembling the 2023-24 club, when they surprisingly stayed in the playoff mix before a confluence of events — some of which were under his control, and some not — saw them fritter it away. There is reason to believe they could improve in 2025-26, too. Matvei Michkov may very well be on the cusp of stardom. Tyson Foerster, Noah Cates, Bobby Brink, Cam York and Jamie Drysdale are all still young and improving. Some intriguing prospects are turning pro. Travis Sanheim and Travis Konecny are two players who any team would love to have. Further, there seems to be a strong internal culture that's been built on hard work and sacrifice, which will be nurtured by having an experienced coach like Tocchet now overseeing the club. But to expect the Flyers to meaningfully take steps forward without a significant addition or two by Briere — particularly after two years of roster subtraction — is, to be blunt, ludicrous. And, considering some of his comments on Tuesday, it's fair to wonder — what exactly is the plan now, after they've reached what Briere has already said he hopes is rock bottom? What we do know, and that Briere has made clear both in his words and his actions, is that he's going to remain patient. It's perhaps his greatest virtue. There is extreme cautiousness to not jeopardize the future for any quick fixes, while ensuring that the players he signs to long-term extensions, and targets in free agency and trades, make sense from both a hockey and cultural standpoint. Advertisement In that sense, it's difficult to argue with much of anything he's done so far. Other than the eight-year extension for Owen Tippett, which could still go either way, Briere has brought in solid veterans and signed current players to reasonable contract extensions only after they've been earned. But something else Briere has done with so many of these moves is hasten the timeline for them to try and become truly competitive again. Konecny and Noah Cates could have easily been moved for futures. Garnet Hathaway and Nick Seeler, had they not been signed to their respective extensions last year, would have brought back more draft picks and/or prospects from playoff contenders looking to bulk up. On top of that, Sanheim, 29, and Konecny, 28 — two established pillars of the rebuild who are now in the primes of their careers — aren't getting any younger. While that all jibes with another part of the plan that Briere has been upfront about — that the Flyers have put a premium on remaining competitive throughout their rebuild — it also reflects that they're planning on getting back to the playoffs sooner rather than later. And now, what is typically the most eventful part of the offseason — the approximate two-week stretch from the end of the Stanley Cup Final to the opening of free agency on July 1 — is here. It's the most opportune time for Briere to try to improve the roster. But, will he? Because judging from what he said on Tuesday, it sure doesn't seem like he's in much of a hurry. The Flyers have three first-round picks and four second-round picks in the upcoming draft, which, you would think, might be available in the right deal for a young player or two who could help now and in the future. The Flyers could conceivably use some of those picks in trades, while also keeping enough of them to bolster what looks like a middle-of-the-road farm system. Advertisement They don't have nearly as much to play with a year from now, with just a total of six picks — one in each round, except the fifth. So, shouldn't there be some urgency to finally take one of those proverbial big swings? Not in Briere's view, if you believe his comments. He suggested that the players the Flyers could select with their bevy of 2025 picks will eventually have more value than the picks themselves. And, in theory, could net a bigger return. 'Right now, the picks are just numbers, when you look at them. But, eventually there's a name to it,' he said. 'The one thing I've realized is (that) when you talk to teams, is that those names become very powerful, (after) you start developing them. It's really tough to acquire the value that teams put on names (that) become stronger and stronger.' Flahr interjected: 'You know what we're trying to do here. … We're not going to be throwing away (assets) for rental, older players. But if there's a younger player that fits in our age group that helps us now, or is worth a pick or certain picks, yeah, certainly.' Of course, there may not be any young, elite players out there to pursue. Briere strongly suggested as much when touching on the club's well-known need for another high-end center. 'Calling around the league and finding centers is almost impossible,' he said. 'And you're not going to find a first-line or second-line center. A lot of teams will be willing to entertain moving a fourth-line guy, but they will want a second-line winger in return. They're hard to find.' They are hard to find. But this is the path that Briere and president of hockey operations Keith Jones chose two years ago. They must have anticipated that this moment was coming. Briere expressed hope that some of the prospect centers already in the system (or that they could select next week) could eventually develop into high-end players, but that could be three or four years away — and the organizational plan, as he's made clear, is to be a competitive team sooner than that. Unless they find more talent before then, the Flyers are at risk of being stuck in that so-called mushy-middle for the foreseeable future. Advertisement Perhaps it's all a smokescreen. Briere said he doesn't expect trade discussions to really ramp up until the start of next week. He may already have something up his sleeve that he's trying not to give away. But if the Flyers are going to achieve their plan of improving next season — and, therefore, making themselves a more desirable organization for free agents in the 2026 offseason, when they have tens of millions of dollars in cap space — the time to do something substantial may have arrived. We'll find out soon enough if the general manager agrees. For now, at least publicly, he's tamping down that expectation. 'We're not going to pay crazy assets just to do something crazy,' Briere said. 'It has to make sense. If it doesn't, it doesn't, we'll select our players (in the draft). It might be all the picks, and there might be nothing that changes, but at the same time, if we have a chance to improve the team and it makes sense for the long term, we are going to look into it. So, it's on the table, but aggressive is probably the wrong word.' (Top photo of Daniel Briere: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
New York Times
2 days ago
- New York Times
Canucks offseason primer 2025: Cap space, trade chips, UFA targets and more
The Stanley Cup has been awarded, and the starting gun that signals 'Go!' has sounded to mark the official start of the NHL offseason. For the Vancouver Canucks, a team coming off a disappointing 2024-25 season, this is a critical offseason, one that has started in an unsettled fashion given the departure of head coach Rick Tocchet and the seemingly endless local speculation about the franchise's future and the future of its star player. Advertisement The Canucks have significant needs to fill, significant departures that are widely expected to occur and a lot of questions to answer with the moves that Vancouver's hockey operations leadership team executes in the weeks and months ahead. For those of you that haven't been obsessively following our work to this point in the offseason, let's get caught up ahead of the traditional silly season with a Canucks 2025 offseason primer. While the big picture questions surrounding the long-term future of Quinn Hughes will be the largest factor shaping this already unsettled offseason, the Canucks' priorities and actions will be guided, as always, by who stays and who goes in unrestricted free agency. The Canucks have seven key pending unrestricted free agents. At this point, it's anticipated that the two biggest names among them, Brock Boeser and Pius Suter, are more likely to test the open market on July 1 than they are to sign an extension in Vancouver at the 11th hour. Now these things can always change with one phone call, but it's certainly trending toward Vancouver, which was already short-handed in terms of quality forward depth, losing even more talent up front at the outset of this offseason. The Canucks will need to identify and acquire replacements and upgrades, as the potential departure of Boeser and Suter will fundamentally alter the depth chart. Suter and Boeser walking on July 1 would also surely harm this team's special teams effectiveness without savvy reinforcement. There are no easy answers on the open market this offseason. The pool of top unrestricted free agent centres is relatively shallow, and the top players in pending unrestricted free agency seem unlikely to even make it to July 1 in the first place. Among full-time centres still poised to be unsigned on July 1, for example, Conn Smythe winner Sam Bennett is the only pivot who recorded more than 50 points this past season and is under 30. It's a similar story on the wings, where the level of talent falls off precipitously after Mitch Marner and Nikolaj Ehlers. Advertisement The Canucks have long felt that the trade market is the more fruitful route this offseason to address their need for offensive pop. They will still explore their options and look for value in unrestricted free agency, though. Perhaps Vancouver will roll the dice on a gifted older player like Matt Duchene, who can fill in at both centre and wing and managed 82 points this past season (though he struggled at the pointy end of the Stanley Cup playoffs). When you scan the options in unrestricted free agency, however, it's no surprise that Canucks hockey operations leadership intends to be aggressive on the trade market in seeking to find answers to their significant top-six forward questions. The Canucks' offseason to-do list has already shifted significantly over the course of the past few months. From Tocchet's departure, to the delay in getting Tom Willander under contract and up-and-running in the AHL during this Calder Cup playoff run (not that his absence has prevented the Abbotsford Canucks from going on an astonishing run to the Calder Cup Final), this offseason has already been something of a novel for the organization. Vancouver has a lot of road to run if it's going to close the gap with the NHL's bona fide contenders. The contemporary NHL is no longer a league driven by parity. Only four Western Conference teams have made it to the conference final since the 2019-20 season (plus Montreal from the North Division season). Only five Eastern Conference teams have made it to the conference final in that span, with only the two Florida teams actually advancing to contest the Stanley Cup Final in the last six years. It's not enough to be good, get in and 'anything can happen' anymore. If the Canucks are going to compete with the best teams in the league, there are significant needs to fill. Advertisement 1. An elite forward: In the wake of J.T. Miller's departure (and Elias Lindholm's departure, and Bo Horvat's departure before that), it's tempting to suggest that the Canucks' biggest need is another top-six centre. However, Vancouver's most pressing need is elite talent, or young players with the potential to become elite. This need is position agnostic. If the Canucks are going to find a way into the mix with the teams like Edmonton, Dallas and Florida, they're going to need to find another elite forward (in addition to having Elias Pettersson bounce back). 2. A top-line calibre forward: The Canucks' forward group is short more than just one star-level contributor. They're also going to need at least one more top-of-the-lineup calibre contributor if they hope to measure up with the NHL's best teams. This is, again, somewhat position agnostic, which isn't to ignore the pressing need for centre depth. Ideally, one of Vancouver's two sorely needed big-ticket forward additions this summer will be a centre, but the need for high-end talent is greater than any positional need on the roster. The Canucks have maybe three top-line calibre forwards locked up for next season (Jake DeBrusk, Elias Pettersson and Conor Garland), and even that evaluation is debatable. Arguably, all three of those players would be more devastating if slotted on a second or third line. A difference-making top-line calibre forward, in addition to another star-level player, is what it's going to take for the Canucks to hang with the best teams. Realistically, it will be challenging for Vancouver to achieve all of this in one offseason, but these are the most significant needs that it should focus on addressing. 3. Two top-six calibre forwards: Now that we've covered Vancouver's pressing need to add high-end talent into the mix, we can finally get to replacing Suter and Boeser's contributions if they walk on July 1. The Canucks are aware of the need to bring in at least three new forwards to freshen up their offensive attack this summer. Without question, the task at hand is a monumental one. Given the severity of Vancouver's needs up front, the available salary cap resources are unlikely to be sufficient. Vancouver has some meaningful cap flexibility going into this offseason, with just a hair over $12 million in available cap space to spend and a roster that's more or less filled out with NHL-level talent and only Aatu Räty to sign among key restricted free agents. Despite having more dead money on the books than the average NHL team, as a result of the Oliver Ekman-Larsson buyout and the Ilya Mikheyev retained salary transaction, Vancouver will be able to add to its roster with due flexibility as a result of this summer's NHL record salary cap growth (which will accelerate at a fixed rate over the next two seasons). There is no crunch that the Canucks are going to be working through, no urgency to cut salary this summer. (Image courtesy The real cap problem that Vancouver is facing isn't an overall lack of space; it's a relative lack of space. There are several teams, including younger sides that finished close to where the Canucks did in the standings like Utah, Anaheim and Columbus, that will head into this summer with nearly $30 million or more in available cap space. Advertisement Vancouver has the space to make significant changes, but it doesn't have the sort of purchasing power that other teams will be able to wield over the course of what promises to be a wild NHL offseason. Under the stewardship of president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford and general manager Patrik Allvin, the Canucks have generally been an aggressive team on the trade market. They look to trade at high volume and view their ability to get deals done and willingness to make significant trades as a competitive advantage. The Canucks are motivated to make deals this summer, and here are some of the trade chips that we'll be focused on as the offseason unfolds. • Teddy Blueger: Blueger has been quality during his two Vancouver seasons, but he's a movable player with a nearly $2 million cap hit and the Canucks may look to open up space for Räty to step into the middle six next season. That makes him a player to watch on the trade market this summer, even though the Canucks regard his penalty killing and defensive acumen highly. • Thatcher Demko or Artūrs Šilovs: In the wake of the in-season Kevin Lankinen extension, the Canucks are currently poised to have three goaltenders on one-way NHL contracts, all of whom will require waivers next fall. The Canucks seem to be keen to try to extend Demko, who endured a nightmare campaign injury-wise and becomes extension-eligible on July 1. The player, likewise, appears open to extending in Vancouver. Any deal they do with their oft-injured star netminder, however, will have to involve some level of shared risk. If there's no progress made on a potential contract, could Demko become a trade chip this offseason, given the marvellous form that Artūrs Šilovs demonstrated in the Calder Cup playoffs? Alternatively, could Šilovs be part of one of the packages that Vancouver puts on the table this summer as they search for top-end forward talent? • Pick No. 15 in the 2025 NHL Draft: It will be something of a surprise if the Canucks actually use their 2025 first-round pick. There are players in this draft class that Vancouver is high on, but the short-term needs are pressing, and even though this draft class is widely viewed as below average from a depth of talent perspective, the pick could have some meaningful value as a trade chip. • Victor Mancini: The Canucks have emergency-level needs up front, but some surplus of talent on the back end. Acquired as part of the Miller trade with the Rangers in late January, Mancini has a ton of desirable traits — quality skating ability, a big frame and he's a right-handed shooter — and could be a marketable trade asset as Vancouver hunts for forward talent this summer. The Canucks are very high on him and would prefer to keep Mancini (and other organizational depth pieces like Sawyer Mynio, too, for that matter), but there's an understanding internally that they won't be able to accomplish what they need to without some level of pain. Advertisement After another tough bounce in the NHL Draft lottery, which has always been cruel to the franchise, Vancouver sits in the middle of the first round at the 2025 NHL Draft. We don't expect the franchise to utilize that pick to actually select a player, but this does promise to be an especially unpredictable NHL offseason and stranger things have happened. Even stranger still: Vancouver has a pick in each round of the 2025 draft, which is somewhat unusual for a franchise that has only selected in the second round on five occasions in the previous decade. Presumably some of those draft picks will be burning a hole in the Canucks' pockets over the next week or so. Despite an industry perception that the 2025 draft isn't the most loaded class, there are some interesting names to track. Seattle Thunderbirds centre Braeden Cootes is said to have piqued Vancouver's interest, according to reports from The Athletic and CHEK TV's Rick Dhaliwal. Big, WHL goal-scoring centre Roger McQueen is an interesting, volatile name to track as the draft unfolds, given his unique upside and concerning recent injury history. Beyond the draft, Vancouver has a handful of young organizational depth players who have performed at an extraordinary level in the AHL playoffs this spring. Some of those players look ready to make an impact on Vancouver's NHL roster next fall. (Photo of Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes: Jeff Vinnick / NHLI via Getty Images)
