First-year Philadelphia Flyers coach Rick Tocchet is steering his team to surprising success. Is this the year Tocchet wins his second Jack Adams Award as the NHL's best bench boss?
In one of the more shocking developments of the 2025-26 regular season, the Philadelphia Flyers are currently the NHL’s eighth-best team with a 19-10-7 record.
That means the Flyers are better than the Edmonton Oilers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Washington Capitals and the defending back-to-back Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers.
That’s a terrific achievement by Philadelphia – and that’s all the evidence we need that first-year Flyers coach Rick Tocchet deserves to be in the running for the Jack Adams Award as the NHL’s top bench boss.
Now, the Flyers’ success can’t solely be chalked up to the arrival of Tocchet. Philadelphia GM Daniel Briere’s main acquisitions this past summer have all worked out as hoped: goalie Dan Vladar has a 13-5-3 record, a .910 save percentage and a 2.39 goals-against average, making him one of the best goalie additions in the league.
Forwards Trevor Zegras (15 goals, 37 points) and Christian Dvorak (16 assists, 24 points) have delivered as advertised. If Tocchet deserves to be in the running for the Jack Adams -- and he does -- Briere ought to be in the running for the Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year Award as well.
That said, Tocchet’s influence on this young Flyers team has been undeniable. The way he’s motivating this group of players to shut out the outside noise is very much the same way he did when he won the Jack Adams in 2023-24 as coach of the Vancouver Canucks.
Of course, Tocchet wasn’t able to keep the Canucks in playoff contention last season, so he has to own his role in that nosedive. But if you’re going to give Tocchet legitimate criticism for his failures, you have to acknowledge that he’s rather good at instilling his players with confidence.
Tocchet isn’t regarded as some sort of Xs-and-Os, technical genius who is thinking the game differently than his peers. No, Tocchet’s main talent is motivating his players. You can see it with the Flyers, who are playing like they’re more than the sum of their parts.
Philadelphia has struggled somewhat of late, with five losses in its past eight games – but even then, the Flyers went 3-1-4 in that span. And while earning 10 points out of a possible 16 isn't going to keep them in the top-10 in the league, it is the kind of pace that will keep Philly in the playoff race all season long.
As it stands, Tocchet has demonstrated that he can get his players to all pull on the rope together. The results this season mean he deserves Jack Adams votes. The Flyers might slip a bit in the standings, but so long as Tocchet can keep his team in the playoff mix, Jack Adams voters should be giving him his flowers.
Philadelphia fans have suffered through a lot in recent years, but in this season of great promise and renewal, Tocchet is delivering the results Flyers fans have been aching for. And if he wins his second Jack Adams, no one should feign surprise.
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