There’s a new name in the coaching mix for the Bruins
The Bruins are currently conducting their first head coaching search since 2022.
Mar 7, 2025; Vancouver, British Columbia, CAN; Vancouver Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet talks with forward Kiefer Sherwood (44) on the bench against the Minnesota Wild in the third period at Rogers Arena. Mandatory Credit: Bob Frid-Imagn Images
What Bruins general manager Don Sweeney said about the Black and Gold's search for a new head coach earlier this week is probably the last on-the-record update we're going to get from the club before they inevitably make their next hire. But the speculation and rumblings will continue, with the newest reports both local and from afar linking the Bruins to current free agent head coach Rick Tocchet.
Allowed to leave Vancouver when the Canucks opted not to exercise their team option on Tocchet for the 2025-26 season, the Ontario native Tocchet is rumored to be interested in coming back East.
That rumor, for what it's worth, was started by Canucks front office boss Jim Rutherford, giving it legitimate legs given his connection to Tocchet. That's led to natural connections to both Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, but Boston remains a potential option, according to Rick Dhaliwal.
“Boston is a club that I’ve been saying keep an eye on the Bruins. I will be surprised if the Bruins don’t contact Tocchet. He’s a really Boston-type guy," Dhaliwal, citing talks with a well-placed source, said on a recent episode of Donnie & Dhali. "Boston is a place where it just reeks of Rick Tocchet. Cam Neely’s running the show there. I would be shocked if Boston isn’t a team that looks at Rick Tocchet.”
The potential Tocchet-in-Boston talk was then corroborated by RG confirming the Bruins' interest assuming they can get an interview, as well as another Vancouver-based reporter.
Hired by Vancouver in Jan. 2023, Tocchet compiled a 108-65-27 record (.608 points percentage) during his 200-game run in Vancouver, with a second-round appearance in 2024 standing out as his best run behind the Canucks bench. Tocchet's greatest success behind an NHL bench came during his three-season run as an assistant in Pittsburgh, with Tocchet on Mike Sullivan's staff during their back-to-back Stanley Cup runs in 2016 and 2017.
Tocchet is also familiar with both Boston and the Black and Gold's front office Neely-Sweeney braintrust, with Tocchet teammates with both having played for the Bruins from 1995-97.
But the 61-year-old Tocchet could have even stronger connections to some other franchises still looking for a head coach as previously noted, with both the Flyers and Penguins still looking for head coaches. Tocchet spent 11 seasons of his NHL career with the Flyers, and the veteran of 1,144 NHL games spent three seasons with Pittsburgh and won a Stanley Cup as a Penguin in 1992.
Overall, Tocchet has been involved in coaching off and on since 2002 as both an assistant and head coach, and has compiled a 286-285-87 record in nine seasons of head coaching experience between Tampa Bay, Arizona, and Vancouver.
