Confirming a report from last week, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman writes that the Vancouver Canucks are firmly committed to Rick Tocchet for the 2025-26 NHL season and beyond. Friedman asserts that Vancouver will extend Tocchet this off-season or utilize their team option for another year.
Tocchet wants to keep his upcoming extension negotiations private, stating, “I am so focused on making the playoffs that I really don’t want to make it about me right now.” In a similar vein, Sportsnet’s Brendan Batchelor prodded Tocchet about his situation with the Canucks, and he articulated that his only focus was beating the Seattle Kraken tomorrow night. Unless something drastically changes over the next few weeks, it’s all but a guarantee that Tocchet will be back behind the bench for Vancouver next season.
Despite winning the Jack Adams Award last season, Tocchet will have a difficult time guiding the Canucks back into the postseason for a second consecutive season. Vancouver is six points removed from the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference and has significant injury concerns mounting.
According to Harman Dayal of The Athletic, Tocchet shared that Elias Pettersson has skated ’once or twice’ since succumbing to an upper-body injury against the New York Rangers on March 22nd, and there’s no guarantee he’ll return for the regular season. Tocchet appeared hopeful regarding Pettersson’s injury status, but they’ll find it increasingly difficult to catch the St. Louis Blues without their top center and third-highest scorer.
Pettersson isn’t the only center the Canucks won’t have either. Batchelor reported earlier that Tocchett believes the “odds are against” Filip Chytil returning this season due to having little consistency in his concussion recovery process. Chytil, who was limited to 10 games last season due to a concussion, hasn’t played for Vancouver since March 15th after receiving a dangerous hit from behind by Chicago Blackhawks’ Jason Dickinson.
Per Tocchet’s suggestion, it’s likely Chytil will finish the 2024-25 campaign with 13 goals and 26 points in 56 games, with six of the points coming as a Canuck. He’s signed through the 2026-27 season with a $4.4375MM cap hit.
Still, it’s not all bad news on the injury front in Vancouver. Circling back to the report from Dayal, Tocchet believes Nils Höglander is the closest of the trio to returning. Höglander has been an effective secondary scorer for the Canucks this season, posting six goals and 21 points in 66 games. Höglander similarly exited Vancouver’s recent game against the Rangers in the second period due to an undisclosed injury.
Vancouver has much better options than Tocchet, And Allvin.
keeps the flyers from hiring the vastly overrated tocchet