Rick Tocchet's most accomplished season as a head coach was pretty recent.
On this day a year ago, his Canucks were preparing for a second-round Game 7 against the eventual Western Conference champion Oilers. Vancouver had won 50 games in the regular season, racking up 109 points and making the playoffs for just the second time in nine years. Tocchet, in his first full season with the Canucks, won the Jack Adams Award.
But that 2023-24 season wasn't what opened Danny Briere's eyes when the Flyers' general manager was deciding to hire Tocchet as his new head coach.
With our All Access Daily newsletter, stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Philadelphia sports teams!
SIGN UP HERE Instead, it was Tocchet's work with a small-market franchise that made the biggest impression on Briere.
"It's funny, most people would probably focus on the job that he did when he won the Jack Adams," the GM said last Friday at Tocchet's introductory press conference. "That was quite the turnaround in a short amount of time, what he did there, it was a really impressive year. For me, when I look at the track record, one of the most impressive parts that stood out — and it's from watching at the time — was his stint with the Coyotes."
Tocchet had just a .490 points percentage over four seasons in Arizona from 2017-18 to 2020-21. The Coyotes went 125-131-34 in that span. However, Arizona was considered one of the NHL's most challenging markets. And Tocchet did some low-key good things there.
The Coyotes prevented goals and had a top-three penalty kill. Tocchet led them to 39 wins in 2018-19, a total that remains the franchise's most since 2011-12. The next season, Arizona made the expanded playoff field and won a qualifying-round series over the Predators in the Western Conference bubble.
Philadelphia Flyers
Find the latest Philadelphia Flyers news, highlights, analysis and more with NBC Sports Philadelphia.
"I'm not trying to take it on the players, but he had a pretty depleted lineup at the time," Briere said. "I remember the experts were saying that the Coyotes would be last in the NHL and get the first overall pick. And he made them competitive. They did make the playoffs the one year and they were in the running, playing good games. That body of work for me was probably the most impressive part of his coaching."
Through Tocchet's tenure, Arizona picked up at least a point in five of six games against the Flyers (3-1-2). In those matchups, the Coyotes' power play went 6 for 20 (30 percent) and their penalty kill scored three shorthanded goals.
"They were always a difficult team to play against with limited resources," Flyers president of hockey operations Keith Jones said. "So I'm really excited to see what he can do here. I think that was one of the things that really was exciting to him. Thankfully, we have the infrastructure to attract a top coach. We have ownership that spends to the limit, to the maximum; I don't even know if there's a limit to make sure that things are great.
"You guys have been around our practice facility and see all the tools that are at Rick's disposal and our players' disposal, that are there to try to make us great one day. We're going to use everything we have and I think those things helped attract Rick and eventually had him choose us."
More: Tocchet deserves a shot before the former Flyer narrative is thrown around
The Flyers were intrigued by Tocchet's ability to connect with players, his blend of demanding but also lenient. Tocchet knows the coach-player relationship is different from when he laced up the game skates.
"Coaches told you, 'Hey, do this,' and you just did it, right?" Tocchet said. "You were scared to ask why. Now, this generation, they want to know why, they're smart guys. They want to know why. 'Hey, we're doing this forecheck because of this.' They want to know, 'Why are we doing it this way?'
"It's my job to make them buy into it obviously, but you have to accept that as a coach. And I enjoy that. I'm a partner with the players; it's not a dictatorship."