Rick Tocchet? Again? Flyers should get Mike Sullivan on the phone instead

Hello Mike Sullivan – The moment Rick Tocchet “stepped away” from the Canucks, you could hear the Flyers speculation bubbling up like sewage in the Wells Fargo Center basement.

Flyers Twitter lit up. National insiders started floating his name. Multiple NHL sources told ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski they “don’t see how [Tocchet] doesn’t end up back in Philly.”

Cool. So we’re doing this again.

Listen, we all love nostalgia. Tocchet’s a Flyers legend. He bleeds orange and black. He leads the league in Gordie Howe Hat Tricks. But it’s 2025. The Flyers are rebuilding. The last thing they need is another emotional hire that leans more into “remember the ’80s?” than “here’s how we build a contender in the 2020s.”

Can we please stop with the “Broad Street Bullies” nonsense. This generation hates it because the old guard refuses to let it go. For the love of God, it’s time to move on.

If the Flyers want to make a real move, the answer is obvious.

Mike Sullivan's coaching tenure with Penguins 👀

-Back-to-Back Stanley Cup Champion (15-16, 16-17)
-Most coaching wins in Penguins History
-Only American HC with multiple Stanley Cup wins
-8 playoff appearances pic.twitter.com/VeQwWQB3UC

— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) April 28, 2025

Hey Flyers, Mike Sullivan Just Became Available. Don’t Screw This Up.

Go hire Mike Sullivan. In case you missed it, Sullivan was fired Monday by the Pittsburgh Penguins after a disappointing 34–36 campaign. That ends a decade-long tenure that included:

• 2 Stanley Cups
• 409 wins (most in Penguins history)
• A .602 career winning percentage
• Playoffs in his first seven seasons

Sullivan isn’t just a retread name. He’s a champion. A tactician. A guy who managed a locker room full of future Hall of Famers, kept the Penguins relevant post-dynasty, and still squeezed competitive seasons out of a fading core.

The Flyers, meanwhile, are still trying to get out of the NHL’s purgatory middle ground. You want to change that? Hire a guy who actually knows how to win in this league. Hire a coach who can grow with a young core and set a championship standard in the locker room.

Rick Tocchet vs. Mike Sullivan: One’s a Sentimental Pick. One’s a Smart One.

Rick Tocchet is fine. He’s an intense, defensive-minded coach who will probably get you 90 points and an 8-seed. But he’s also 60 years old, and we’ve seen this movie before—tough guy, short leash, team overperforms early, burns out, rinse, repeat. He did well in Vancouver, sure, but that Canucks team was loaded with talent already. The Flyers are not.

Mike Sullivan is a builder. He elevated a Penguins team that was spiraling in 2015 and immediately turned it into a juggernaut. He’s a detail guy. A systems guy. He maximizes stars and gets buy-in from the bottom six. That’s exactly what a team like Philly needs.

Briere and Jones, This Is the Fork in the Road

You can feel the Flyers standing at a crossroads again. One path leads to another round of recycled hires, another nostalgia trip with “grit,” “bullies,” and a coach who’s going to scream about effort while the team drafts 12th overall for the next three years.

The other path? It leads to credibility. Real coaching chops. A chance to build an identity that isn’t just based on what happened at the Spectrum 40 years ago.

Hiring Mike Sullivan is the bold, grown-up move. He’s not a Flyer lifer. He’s not a fan service hire. He’s just… a really damn good coach.

And that’s exactly what this team needs. Let’s not mess it up. Again.

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