Rick Tocchet Vaults To Top Of One Team's List for Coaching Vacancy

A new report suggests that Rick Tocchet has emerged a top target for the Boston Bruins to fill its coaching vacancy.

After a tumultuous season in Vancouver, it was thought that head coach Rick Tocchet, upon stepping down from the Canucks' job, would very likely land with his former team from his playing days, the Philadelphia Flyers.

But a new report suggests that Tocchet has emerged a top target for the Boston Bruins to fill its coaching vacancy.

Tocchet has been appearing on TNT's playoff coverage, but insider Rick Dhaliwal said on the Donnie & Dhali podcast that "this (TV work) is not full-time. The goal is to coach in the NHL." And with that, he says that the Bruins are a team to watch.

Boston is a club… keep an eye on the Bruins... I will be surprised if the Bruins don’t contact Tocchet. He’s a really Boston-type guy. Cam Neely, Rick Tocchet played the same game the same way... Boston is a place that just reeks of Rick Tocchet.

Source: Tocchet fits the 'Big Bad Bruins' mold

Another source, quoted by insider Marco D'Amico of rg.org, agrees that the Bruins are a primary landing spot for the former Canucks head coach:

“Rick [Dhaliwal] is 100 percent right with what he said about Tocchet fitting the Neely and Big Bad Bruins mold. I think they should be more about the long-term, but if they really think they can turn this around fast, Tocchet is their guy, and I think he’d be interested.”

Tocchet and Bruins president Cam Neely actually played together in Boston for four games—the last four games of Neely's career, in 1996.

As many as 7 teams could be in the mix for Tocchet, but one stands out

Dhaliwal admits that plenty of other teams are in the mix for Tocchet as well, like the Flyers, the Seattle Kraken, the Pittsburgh Penguins and the LA Kings—if they make a coaching change.

D'Amico's other source added that if the NY Islanders make a coaching change, with a new incoming general manager eventually, and if the newly-named Utah Mammoth decide to do something different behind the bench, that those two teams would also move into the Tocchet bidding war.

But from these insider sources, it sounds like the Bruins could be standing out above the rest.