New coach, new teammates have Flyers looking to rebound this season

VOORHEES, N.J. – There’s only one direction to go.
And that’s up.
After finishing last in the Metropolitan Division at the conclusion of the 2024-25 season, the Flyers were ready for a change.
They had already parted ways with former coach John Tortorella with a few weeks left on the schedule and once the dust had settled, former star player Rick Tocchet was brought in as the new bench boss.
Now, with the 2025-26 season about to get underway in Florida on Thursday night, everyone gets a chance to see if a change at the top – and several personnel moves on the roster – can get this team back on a positive track.
General manager Daniel Briere, Tocchet and at least one player weighed in on what fans can expect to see after the first puck drops in Sunrise, Florida, home of the two-time defending Cup champs.
“The exciting part for me is the way our forward group is starting to look,” Briere said. “The addition of (Trevor) Zegras brings us some creativity. (Christian) Dvorak brings us flexibility – he can play a little bit of everywhere.
“And it’s exciting that the (Noah) Cates line (including Bobby Brink and Tyson Foerster) will look the same way it looked at the end of last year. If you have that line, then it gives you so many options to each line. The (Travis) Konencys, the (Owen) Tippetts, (Sean) Couturier, etc. It’s a great problem to have for the coaching staff.”
The only new injury has defenseman Cam York on injured reserve. He will be spelled by NHL vets Dennis Gilbert and Noah Juulsen. Also on long term injured is defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen.
“We’ve been talking since I started this job two-and-a-half years ago, one of the big issues we talked about was offensively, that creativity was lacking,” Briere said. “Now, slowly, to see that come into focus, it’s exciting. And we haven’t even included (Jett) Luchanko and (Jack) Nesbitt that are going to come in along the way.”
Tocchet doesn’t have any sort of mandate to get the Flyers back in the playoffs after a five-year interlude but he’s not counting anything out.
The top priority?
“It’s the development of players,” Tocchet said. “We call it maximizing the player, a player’s improvement. That’s a big part of it. If the players are improving, you have a better chance of winning hockey games.”
Just two years ago, Tocchet coached the Vancouver Canucks to the top of their division and for that he was named the Jack Adams Award winner for coach of the year.
“I understand people want to talk playoffs,” Tocchet said. “People talk about all these variables. I don’t know. For me and my staff, we’re going to be judged on getting these guys to play better, maximize their talent. We have guys we believe we can make really good hockey players.”
Tippett has been here a few years now. He’s seen where the team has faltered but he also believes there’s quite a bit of potential on the roster. It’s just a matter of getting the most out of it.
“Everyone is enthusiastic about it and coming to the rink ready to learn,” Tippett said. “One thing that hasn’t changed is we’re a tight group in here. There’s a lot of excitement in this room as we’re getting going here and the next game is for real.”
The Flyers finished the preseason 3-4 but were competitive in all but a loss to Washington at Hershey.
With a new coaching staff in place, everyone is basically starting from scratch. There are few pre-conceived notions about this bunch.
Plus there are six new players (Dvorak, Nikita Grebenkin, Zegras, Adam Ginning, Noah Juulsen, Dennis Gilbert) on the roster, so there should be plenty of energy.
“It’s exciting,” Tippett said. “Guys are ready to put that effort in and work together as a group to accomplish goals.”

>Opening night roster

Here’s the opening night roster for the Flyers:
Forwards
Bobby Brink (10), Travis Konecny (11), Sean Couturier (14), Jett Luchanko (17), Rodrigo Abols (18), Garnet Hathaway (19), Christian Dvorak (22), Noah Cates (27), Nikita Grebenkin (29), Matvei Michkov (39), Nicolas Deslauriers (44), Trevor Zegras (46), Tyson Foerster (71), Owen Tippett (74).
Defensemen
Egor Zamula (5), Travis Sanheim (6), Jamie Drysdale (9), Adam Ginning (13), Nick Seeler (24), Noah Juulsen (47), Dennis Gilbert (48).
Goaltenders
Samuel Ersson (33), Dan Vladar (80).