Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports/ Eric Hartline-Imagn Images
Philadelphia Flyers fan with a bag over their head next to head coach Rick Tocchet
The Philadelphia Flyers have not gotten off to a great start since the NHL season kicked off last month, and they’re currently sitting in the basement of the Eastern Conference through their first 19 games. Many fans are calling for the head of head coach Rick Tocchet, and some of them have helped raise money for an admirable cause after flocking to a GoFundMe devoted to getting him fired.
The 2020s have been a pretty rough decade for fans of the Philadelphia Flyers, who had to endure a five-year playoff drought that began when the team missed the postseason in 2021.
That skid led to the dismissal of Alain Vigneault, who was fired as their head coach midway through the 2021-22 campaign. He was ultimately replaced by John Tortorella, who was unable to turn things around during the three seasons he spent at the helm before being shown the door in 2025.
The Flyers found a full-time replacement in Rick Tocchet, who’d headed to the City of Brotherly Love in the wake of a three-year stint with the Canucks. He was able to lead them to the playoffs last season, and they dispatched the Penguins in the first round before falling to the Hurricanes, who went on to win the Stanley Cup.
Fans were obviously hoping that momentum would carry into the current season, and they’ve raised thousands of dollars to push for the team to kick Tocchet to the curb after that did not turn out to be the case.
A children’s hospital and youth hockey organization will benefit after Flyers fans flooded a GoFundMe targeting Rick Tocchet with donations
Prior to the start of the season, MoneyPuck estimated the Flyers had a 43.1% chance to return to the playoffs.
Hockey is back! https://t.co/RbnckCLHNP https://t.co/1eSRMmDw6d
— MoneyPuck.com (@MoneyPuckdotcom) September 27, 2026
However, as of Monday morning, that number sits at just 1.4%, as the Flyers are currently sitting at 4-10-5 after kicking off the season with nine straight losses and occupy the last slot in the Eastern Conference with just 13 points in 19 games (only the Canucks and the Blackhawks have gotten off to a more dismal start).
There’s plenty of blame to go around, and much of it has fallen on the shoulders of Tocchet, who has found himself on a hot seat that’s gotten warmer with every loss.
Last week, some fed-up fans decided to launch a GoFundMe in the hopes of raising $2,000 to commission a plane to fly a “FIRE TOCCHET” banner over Xfinity Mobile Arena when the team hosts the Canucks in a Black Friday matchup made for NHL Sickos.
It generated plenty of traction, and the goal was updated to $4,000 to add a billboard with a similar message along I-95 in the vicinity of the team’s barn. It fetched that and them some, as the total currently sits at $6,330 as of this writing.
Organizers have promised to donate every dollar over the $4,000 mark to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Snider Hockey, which is devoted to serving “under-resourced youth” in the Philly area.
The GoFundMe states that “funds will either be refunded or used toward another Flyers-related cause” if Tocchet is canned before the game in question while pledging to donate the extra if he still has a job on November 27th, so we’ll have to wait and see how the chips fall.