Rick Tocchet
Richard "Rick" Tocchet ( born April 9, 1964 in Scarborough, Ontario ) is a retired Canadian professional ice hockey player who from 1984 to 2002 for the Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, Los Angeles Kings, Boston Bruins, Washington Capitals and Phoenix Coyotes of the National Hockey League played. Most recently, he was head coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
- 4.1 Personal Awards
Origin and Youth
Tocchets parents, Norma and Nat are from the Dolomites in northern Italy and emigrated in 1951 to Scarborough, a suburb of Toronto in the eastern Canadian province of Ontario, where Tocchets father found work as a car mechanic. According to Gene Hart 's family Tocchet traveled across Germany to Canada and led the original (probably Germanized ) family name " Toket ". Why parents again used the Italian spelling of her name in Canada is not known.
Tocchet has two older brothers, Andy and Dany, with whom he competed in his childhood at sports. His assertiveness leads Tocchet not least to those familiar starting point. Tocchets favorite club in the 1970s, not the Toronto Maple Leafs from his hometown, but the Montreal Canadiens. Their famous Right Wing and five-time Stanley Cup winner Guy Lafleur referred Tocchet as his great sporty model.
Career
Tocchets exemplary career as a professional hockey player, leading players and Stanley Cup winners spanned 18 years and was of great successes, but also featured some setbacks. Because of his leadership and his extraordinary perseverance, he is now considered one of the most successful 'power forwards ' in the recent history of the NHL, as he always managed to stand out for fun and physically.
Junior time in Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds
Tocchet played during his junior time three seasons for the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds in the Ontario Hockey League.
In the 1981/82 season, it was only seven goals and 15 assists in 59 games and Tocchet fell on mainly by his aggressive and use joyful game at the gang, which earned him 184 penalty minutes.
In the following season 1982/83 succeeded Tocchet, however, significantly increase his offensive skills, but without losing hardness and intensity. His door division he could increase to 32 goals in 66 games and also the improved interaction with team mates allowed Tocchet total of 34 assists, so he came up with the average rate of exactly one point scorer per application. This substantial increase in performance did not go unnoticed and so Tocchet was in the NHL Entry Draft in 1983 in the 6th round at 121st place selected by the Philadelphia Flyers.
Obviously inspired by the interest of the well-known NHL club, Tocchet screwed his goal tally for the Greyhounds in the 1983/84 season to 44 matches and made with now 64 Assists in 64 games his increasing playmaker skills to the test. This Tocchet had in a time that was dominated under the influence of Wayne Gretzky from the offensive thoughts, crossed the mark of more than 100 points scorer in a single season. Since he also with his physical and enthusiastic play that would not let him shy away from fist fights, the overall concept that sought to rejuvenate the aging squad Philadelphia fit Flyers, he succeeded before the season 1984/85 as Twenty Years' made it into the starting line- this NHL teams.
Philadelphia Flyers
In his rookie season in 1984/85 succeeded Tocchet immediately feeding with the strongly tapered Flyers in the Stanley Cup finals series, where, however, the Edmonton Oilers were beaten in seven games themselves. In the fifth game Tocchet managed the winning goal to 4:3, which forced a sixth game in Philadelphia. Over the years, the roughneck Tocchet also developed in the NHL to a productive striker, who went out of the way of any disputes.
In 1987, he won me the Team Canada the Canada Cup, at this time the unofficial world championship of professional hockey players, which was held in North America.
In the 1988/89 season Tocchet was first appointed to the NHL All-Star Game.
In the 1989/90 season Tocchet failed narrowly as the best scorer of the leaflet at the 100-point mark, reaching in the overall rating scorer in the NHL ranks 15th. Again Tocchet was therefore invited to the NHL All-Star Game. In April 1990, Tocchet was honored for his outstanding achievements in the past season with the Bobby Clarke Trophy, which is issued annually to the Most Valuable Player of the Flyers in the season just ended.
Its always best service and his growing offensive qualities meant that Tocchet was finally appointed in the NHL season 1990/91 as the successor to Ron Sutter captain of but increasingly unsuccessful teams. 1991 Tocchet was appointed for the second time Canada Cup winner and also for the third time in the NHL All-Star Game.
Pittsburgh Penguins and winning the Stanley Cup
He was discharged at his own request in exchange for Mark Recchi to the reigning and defending champion archrivals, the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1992. There he could do his part to defend their title and won the Stanley Cup. The next one was also his most successful season with 109 points.
Los Angeles Kings, Boston Bruins, Washington Capitals, Phoenix Coyotes and career at the end of the Philadelphia Flyers
It was followed by a busy time with the Los Angeles Kings, Boston Bruins, Washington Capitals and the Phoenix Coyotes, but in his old age returned Tocchet back to Philadelphia. In the 2001 /02 season, he ended his career after 14 games. Tocchet embodied as NHL players the almost perfect combination of hardness and scorer qualities. Only Pat Verbeek could score more goals in a comparable number of penalty minutes.
Coaching career
Tocchet hired after finishing his playing career, first at the Colorado Avalanche as an assistant coach at. From 2003 he was the assistant behind the band of the Phoenix Coyotes head coach Wayne Gretzky and represented than this at times was not available because he took care of his sick mother. From the summer of 2008, he was part of the coaching staff of the Tampa Bay Lightning and was until April 2010 served as their head coach. After a change of ownership Tocchet was released together with General Manager Brian Lawton.
Proceedings for illegal betting shops
On 6 February 2006, the allegation was made for illegal betting shops in football against Rick Tocchet. Also Janet Jones, the wife of Wayne Gretzky, should be involved in the betting shops. Tocchet and Jones announced on 8 May 2006 that they reserved the right to sue the state of New Jersey for defamation to 50 million U.S. dollars each.
NHL stats
Sporting successes
- Stanley Cup: 1992
Personal Awards
- Participate in the NHL All-Star Game: 1989, 1990, 1991 and 1993