PHILADELPHIA – Because both Keith Jones and Daniel Briere had been teammates of Rick Tocchet and vouched for his coaching ability, Flyers governor Dan Hilfirty didn’t need much time to give his stamp of approval for a new head coach.

Jones and Tocchet had been together with the Flyers’ 1999-2000 Eastern Conference finalist team and Briere and Tocchet once competed together for the Coyotes in Arizona.

When Briere and Jones told Hilfirty Tocchet was the right man for the job, Hilfirty signed off almost right away.

“Just like every decision that’s made here, I’m in the room,” Hilfirty said after Friday’s press conference at the Wells Fargo Center. “If I feel I have something to add, I add. My one request was that we make sure we do a series of interviews.”

That was only fair. Most companies go through a number of interviews before making a new hire.

“Throughout the process, on my own I just started studying this guy,” Hilfirty said. “Did my own research, watched him coach and then when I met him with Danny and Jonesy, I thought, ‘he fits.’

“I loved that dynamic conversation. When a name would come up, there were some good discussions along the way. So it didn’t take much convincing. I realized this was the right guy.”

Former Flyer teammate Chris Therien believes Tocchet is the perfect man for the job. Of course, he’s a bit biased since the two were part of that tight-knit 1999-2000 locker room which included Craig Berube, Tocchet, Jones, Therien and Keith Primeau among others.

“When he came in (for a second time in the late ‘90s), he was kind of the ultra-figurehead for a lot of the guys,” Therien recalled. “We knew how fierce a player he was (from his first tenure, 1984-92). I knew he was a great goal-scorer but I didn’t know was what a great guy he was.

“I have nothing but great things to say about him. He has a coaching lineage. He’s taken over teams that were in a rebuild (like the Flyers are in now). Now it’s about figuring out what this Flyers team needs.”

Is Tocchet the right guy to push the right buttons?

“Yes, he gets the immediate respect from being a former player,” Therien pointed out. “The game has changed. There are no more Rick Tocchets in the NHL anymore. His legacy is being a great, hard, competitive, tough, fair, good guy off the ice. That’s what will make him a successful coach.”

President of hockey operations Keith Jones was all smiles as he fielded questions about Tocchet’s qualifications.

He believes Tocchet will be a perfect fit here simply because he knows so much about Flyers hockey and his heart will be in his work.

“The Flyers are an attractive place to play,” Jones said. “Not just for how much money they spend, because you can’t beat teams like you did back in the day by overspending. But when money is available, this team is going to be a place where (free-agent) players want to play.”

Right now, it appears the Flyers have a talented free-agent (or trade possibility) center at the top of their shopping list.

“We had to make some moves (such as the Morgan Frost, Joel Farabee, Scott Laughton trades) to ensure we have some (salary) cap space available when that right player or players are available for us to get,” Jones said. “We will spend to the maximum in order to find a way to make us better.”