The Philadelphia Flyers introduced Rick Tocchet as the 25th head coach in franchise history on Friday, bringing home a fan favorite and one of the NHL’s most respected hockey minds to guide the team through its critical next phase.

Sanheim’s excitement is reflective of the broader sentiment around the team: Tocchet represents both a fresh voice and a familiar tone. He’s known for his candor, his willingness to meet players where they are, and his unique ability to balance the demands of the modern NHL with the grit and intensity Flyers fans so often crave.

It’s an established pattern in the NHL — teams rotating through the same inventory of coaches over and over, in the hopes that the experience they have gained in their previous stops will help them to immediately get off on the right foot in their new locales.