How could the Flyers shake things up amid a historic skid? Here are some of the possible moves.

Standing in the visitors’ locker room after the game and speaking to a small contingent of media, Rick Tocchet looked and sounded more dejected than at any point this season.

Nine games in, the Flyers have not won a game. Nine games have equaled nine losses, with the sixth in regulation coming on a late goal by an open Andrew Copp in a 2-1 defeat to the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday night.

» READ MORE: Flyers winless streak reaches nine games with 2-1 loss to the Red Wings

After weeks of sounding angry, perplexed, or questioning his team’s commitment and hunger as losses piled up, the Flyers’ coach was officially at a complete loss too.

“I liked our start, then they came on a bit, and then it came about moments,” he said. “And it’s one of the things we’ve been having a tough time [with]; there’s just moments in the game you’ve got to come through somehow.

“Whether it’s scoring a goal or making a defensive stop — we’re getting great goaltending — for example, is that goal just like three or four mistakes. We’ve got to see some big moments here, and we’re not getting them.”

If facing a Red Wings team that had one victory in six games, started backup goalie Daniil Tarasov, and was missing one of their best defenseman in the still-unsigned restricted free agent Simon Edvinsson, could not cure what ails the Flyers, can anything?

Whether questions should have or could have been raised after the game about deployment, strategy — like playing defensemen Simon Benoit and David Jiříček, who have struggled in their own end, and a fourth line that finished with three shot attempts to Detroit’s 10 in the last five minutes of a tie game where the opponent is picking up the pace — consistency or urgency, it doesn’t matter.

The response does not matter.

Words have become hollow.

Action is all that must happen.

“We took a big step forward last year, and there’s a chance, a good chance, that we take a little bit of a step back this year. We’re ready for that,” Flyers general manager Danny Brière said in July.

He clarified in September: “The part that keeps me up at night is having some of your players feel complacent, feel like they’ve made it.”

» READ MORE: Rookie Oliver Bonk’s ability to bounce back has impressed his coach: ‘I love that about a young guy’

Is that the answer? Is complacency why this team has scored 11 goals in nine games? Is complacency why they have allowed 30 or more shots in seven games? Or why, according to Natural Stat Trick, they are tied for the third-fewest high-danger chances (47), have allowed the second-most (97), and are getting outscored 10-3 from prime areas. To be clear, none of this is on the goalies.

Complacency cannot be why players try to make a pass to someone covered, or why they flub the puck, send a weak attempt, or even put it on the tape of the opposition.

It cannot be why the power play is still dreadful for the third head coach.

Or why Matvei Michkov, who will still make mistakes but has put in the work to be in shape and has shown an ability to create chances, is not getting appropriate ice time at five-on-five or the power play.

And it cannot be why players who are not up to snuff are seeing the ice often and in prime spots.

Maybe Game 1. Not Game 9.

“I don’t have an answer for you, to be honest with you. It just has to be,” Jamie Drysdale said on Thursday when asked why they cannot sustain good hockey over a full 60 minutes. “The first win we get is going to have to be greasy. It’s not going to go from zero to 100, and it’s just going to have to be work.”

That’s fair, but are the right people here?

Right now, it feels like management is watching not only the Titanic sink for almost three hours, but they aren’t even rearranging the deck chairs. No one is even trying to put lipstick on a pig.

“I can’t get frustrated. They see me frustrated and get upset; what’s that going to do?” Tocchet said on Wednesday in Voorhees.

A lot? Sure, watching John Tortorella freak out over every little thing was tiresome. But at this point, get angry. Make them skate up and down the rink again and again as Herb Brooks did to Team USA in 1980. Maybe a practice without pucks? Although the Flyers really need to work on passing.

Something has to give from the top down because if Brière or president Keith Jones or even the Flyers governor Dan Hilferty want to keep this season from becoming not just an absolute disaster but one of historic proportions, changes need to happen at several levels.

» READ MORE: Nick Sirianni and Rick Tocchet share the same coaching strength. It might be hurting the Eagles and Flyers.

Yes, veterans Travis Konecny, Rasmus Ristolainen, and Cam York are injured, and the Flyers have mentioned the shortened preseason as a factor. But that’s just an excuse now because every team went through it, and while 13 teams are at .500 or below, only the Flyers and Los Angeles Kings have not been able to steal even a win. LA has played four fewer games.

And like most teams, the Flyers went into camp thinking their roster was set. That was a mistake.

Despite saying they were in a rebuild when the trio took over, outside of Michkov, the Flyers never fully embraced the youth until maybe last season, when Denver Barkey was recalled due to injury in December, and Alex Bump came up in March.

The youth movement must be developed now because the veterans — we’re counting anyone who has played over 82 NHL games — are not getting it done, whether by taking bad penalties, not moving their feet, not putting pressure on opponents or finishing checks or driving to the net, or being unable to make a short pass.

It should have been clear last season and in his preseason play that Oliver Bonk was ready. The rookie defenseman has a good head on his shoulders, isn’t too big for any moment, and plays with the confidence and grit of a grizzled veteran. And at just 21, he is doing it while slotted into the top pair. Bonk should never suit up for another game in the American Hockey League, and he should never play down in the lineup.

Cole Knuble was a sparkplug in the preseason, showing a high motor and a drive to put pressure on opponents, whether in the offensive zone or skating up the ice. Wanting kids to get big minutes in the minors sometimes makes sense, but putting him even on the fourth line would have sent the message that this is not just a young team but one ready to embrace the youth.

» READ MORE: How does the Flyers' franchise-worst winless start compare to some of the city's other pro sports teams?

He deserved the opportunity, as did Ty Murchison, who impressed during his short stint last year and would be an upgrade to the third pair. Bump should be back from the AHL as he’s lighting it up with three goals in three games.

Sure, guys in the NHL would have to be put on waivers to make room, but it’s worth the risk of losing them at this point to shake up a roster which appears to be more flawed than previously thought.

In the end, coaches are easier to move than players, with dance partners needed for the latter. And NHL coaches, whether assistants or bench bosses, are hired to be fired. Long tenures like those of Jon Cooper in Tampa Bay, Jared Bednar in Colorado, and Rod Brind’Amour in Carolina are rare. They are the only coaches who have been around with the same team since before the COVID-19 pandemic, in part because they have won Stanley Cups.

Tocchet has the 20th-longest tenure in the NHL currently. No one expected that when he was hired in May 2025, his time at the helm would be called into question a year-and-a-half into his five-year deal.

But the Flyers are not winning games. Tocchet’s decisions right now are questionable. Whether it’s him or an assistant or two, coaches have been fired for way less.

That is where the Flyers are.