Rick Tocchet knows the importance of playoff hockey in Philadelphia.

He knows what it means to the Flyers’ fan base, what it means to the history of the organization.

As a player for the Flyers, he went to the Stanley Cup Final twice and experienced 95 postseason games, eventually putting himself into the franchise’s Hall of Fame.

But as Tocchet takes over the Flyers with the team in a five-year playoff drought, the head coach really hasn’t talked publicly about the postseason being a goal. After all, ownership and management have embraced staying on course with this rebuild. There is a pressure to improve in 2025-26, but the vibe is not playoffs or bust.

So, in Year 1 of guiding the Flyers, how does Tocchet view expectations?

“It’s the development of players,” he said Monday. “We call it maximizing the player. Are players improving? That’s a big part of it. If players are improving, you’ve got a better chance at winning hockey games.

“I understand people want to talk playoffs and all these variables. I don’t know. But for me and my staff, we’re going to be judged, for me, on we’ve got to get guys to maximize their talent. I think that’s really what it comes down to. We have guys that I really believe we can make them really good hockey players.”

The Flyers kick off the regular season Thursday when they visit the two-time defending champion Panthers (7 p.m. ET/NBCSP). The club submitted its season-opening roster Monday, a group that has a different look up front compared to last season.

Over the summer, Danny Briere addressed the Flyers’ thin picture down the middle. The general manager traded for Trevor Zegras, a talented playmaker, and signed Christian Dvorak, a well-rounded piece who played 82 games for a playoff team last season.

The Flyers are hoping those acquisitions bolster a blend of young and established forwards. Tyson Foerster, Noah Cates and Bobby Brink, the Flyers’ most effective line last season, will be back together. Travis Konecny, Matvei Michkov, Sean Couturier and Owen Tippett were four of the team’s top five scorers and could have more help this season.

“The addition of Zegras brings us some creativity, the addition of Dvorak brings us flexibility, he can play a little bit of everywhere,” Briere said Monday. “It’s exciting that the Cates line still looks the same way that they finished the season last year. So if you have that line, then it gives you so many options to work in Michkov, Konecny, Tippett, Couturier, etc. I think it’s a great problem for the coaching staff.”

Here were the Flyers’ line combinations Monday, with Nikita Grebenkin and Jett Luchanko as the extras.

Christian Dvorak-Sean Couturier-Matvei Michkov
Owen Tippett-Trevor Zegras-Travis Konecny
Tyson Foerster-Noah Cates-Bobby Brink
Nicolas Deslauriers-Rodrigo Abols-Garnet Hathaway

Travis Konecny talked about unlocking the talent on the Flyers and taking on a bigger leadership role this season under new head coach Rick Tocchet.

The Flyers will keep a close eye on Luchanko, their 2024 first-round pick who made the team out of training camp for a second straight season.

Like last season, the Flyers will be able to play him up to nine games before burning the first year of his entry-level contract. The 19-year-old center got a four-game taste of the NHL last season before going back to his junior club.

Luchanko is not eligible to play for the Flyers’ AHL affiliate Lehigh Valley, so a return to the OHL’s Guelph Storm is on the table again. The Flyers will have to find him spots to play because they don’t want a young prospect sitting for too long.

“It can’t be a steady diet of it, not playing,” Tocchet said. “It’s too bad because it’s that rule, that sweet spot — a guy can’t play in the minors, you have to send him to junior. We’re stuck in that situation a little bit. It happened to Barrett Hayton with me in Arizona, you can’t have guys sitting around too much. We’ve got to figure that out, but the first couple of weeks, we’ll see how it goes down.”

That puts Luchanko in prove-it mode again, along with others competing for roles in the lineup.

“Nothing’s set in stone, nothing’s set in stone,” Briere said. “He has to keep earning it, he has to keep playing well. He’s not the only one; it applies with everyone. I know we make a big deal of the opening roster, but that doesn’t mean that you’re on the team forever. Every day, you’ve got to keep earning your ice time and your spot on the team.

“When we discuss Jett, the whole time, it’s about his development. He’s a big part of the future and we’re always keeping that in the back of our mind.”

When it comes to the future on the defensive side of things, the Flyers sent Emil Andrae to the Phantoms after he played in just two preseason games. It was a surprise considering the 23-year-old played 42 games for the Flyers last season and is one of the team’s better prospects on the back end.

But Andrae is 5-foot-9 and the Flyers already have a couple of smaller puck-movers under the age of 25. Could that hurt Andrae’s long-term opportunity with the Flyers?

“Emil is still young, Emil had some struggles in camp, but we still believe in him,” Briere said. “He’s still a very good prospect for us. I think the best thing for him is to play a lot of heavy minutes rather than sit on the sideline and watch at the moment, at his age.

“It’s better for him to go down and play hopefully 22, 24 minutes a night, find his game again, build off of that, get the confidence to make plays, carry the puck and become an everyday, serviceable defenseman.”