The Canucks will not exercise their club option to keep head coach Rick Tocchet on his current contract for 2025-26, president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford told reporters today (including Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet). Vancouver continues to work on a new deal to keep Tocchet behind their bench, Rutherford said, and the organization remains hopeful he’ll stay. They expect a decision on Tocchet’s future later this week, Friedman relays.
Tocchet is the only coach in the NHL on an expiring contract this offseason, and even then the Canucks could have opted to keep him in Vancouver under the terms of his current deal. Thomas Drance of The Athletic indicated last month the Canucks were operating under the assumption Tocchet would continue as their head coach next year and would exercise their option if extension talks weren’t progressing. While that didn’t end up being the case, they continue to indicate a willingness to retain Tocchet and make him the highest-paid coach in franchise history. Whether he accepts the offer or opts to explore some of the other vacancies around the league remains to be seen.
The 61-year-old just completed his second full season and third overall as Vancouver’s head coach. Last season, he won the Jack Adams Award for Coach of the Year after guiding them to their first playoff appearance since 2020 and first division title since 2013. When he took over midway through the 2022-23 campaign, he was the Canucks’ third coach in two years. The club fired Travis Green and replaced him with Bruce Boudreau during the 2021-22 season, only to fire Boudreau for Tocchet one year later.
At present, there are five openings for Tocchet to explore. The Ducks and Rangers’ positions are completely vacant after firing Greg Cronin and Peter Laviolette over the weekend, while three teams, the Blackhawks, Bruins, and Flyers, ended the season with interim head coaches. There’s a clear speculative fit in Philadelphia, where Tocchet spent the bulk of his 18-year playing career, but interim coach Brad Shaw remains a legitimate contender for a full-time role after ending the year with a 5-3-1 record.
In nine years as a coach with the Lightning, Coyotes, and Canucks, Tocchet has a 286-265-87 (.516) record in 638 regular-season games. He’s only made the postseason twice (Arizona, 2020; Vancouver, 2024) and has an 11-11 (.500) record there. Since Tocchet took over in Vancouver on Jan. 22, 2023, the Canucks’ .608 points percentage ranks 11th in the league.
So he’s gonna be a Flyer and on a very large contract right?
Or a Ranger on even bigger contract.
For fun, he should agree to sign with both and then let the league arbitrate who gets him.
Tocchet will end up as the head coach with Philadelphia.
NHL coaching problem. recycle, recycle, recycle
Paul Maurice, Bruce Cassidy, Barry Trotz, Mike Sullivan, Joel Quenneville, Randy Carlyle, Peter LaViolette? In common? Stanley Cup winners in the past 20 years that would not have had a job if your amusingly uninformed theory about recycled coaches kept them from getting hired. For a simple exercise, let’s see your theory in action: please tell us how the past two Cup winners, the Panthers and Knights, are part of the recycling problem by hiring Paul Maurice and Bruce Cassidy. Some new guys work. Some don’t. Some previously fired guys work. Some don’t. Your blanket statement is lazy.
Stupid Briere will hire this hot head idiot and Flyers get three more years of out of touch old man coach and no playoffs. This is so sad.
Yea they should just go ahead and hire the chick from Seattle, that surely will get them into the playoffs.
Was the press release signed, “Emperor Pettersson”? (Asking for a friend)
I hope Verbeek and his front office have enough sense to leave this alone.
The same Flyers roster played better under Brad Shaw to finish out the season than they did with Tortorella. Shaw stood expressionless behind the bench while Torts was always going through his emotional gyrations, which got old quick. As much as I’d like to see the Tocchet Rocket return to Philly, I hope Briere rehires Shaw as the new permanent head coach. If he can work well with younger players, that’s a plus because that’s what the Flyers are now and will continue to be with all their draft picks.