Rick Tocchet Wins 2024 Jack Adams Award
While Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet is still understandably down after Vancouver was eliminated earlier this week, he did get some good news on Thursday. The league announced that he has won this year’s Jack Adams Award, given to “the NHL coach adjudged to have contributed the most to his team’s success,” as selected by the NHL Broadcasters’ Association. Tocchet released the following statement on the team’s website:
This really is a team award, and I couldn’t have done any of this without the support of our staff and complete buy-in from the players. I am truly honoured and humbled by this achievement and look forward to getting back to work this summer as we continue to work on improving our hockey team. Vancouver is a passionate hockey market and our fans were a huge part of our success this season.
Tocchet had his first full season behind the Vancouver bench this season after taking over for Bruce Boudreau partway through the 2022-23 campaign. It was certainly a successful season on the ice for the Canucks as they took home the Pacific Division total with the third-most points (109) in franchise history, following a 50-23-9 effort. They became one of the stingier teams defensively, going from allowing 3.61 to 2.70 goals per game, good for a tie for fifth-fewest league-wide.
Vancouver also had a fairly successful showing in the playoffs. In their first playoff appearance since 2019-20 (and second since 2014-15), the Canucks overcame an opening-game injury to Thatcher Demko to get past Nashville in six games in the opening round. They then took Edmonton to a seventh and deciding contest, ultimately falling 3-2 back on Monday. Nevertheless, the Canucks winning the division and going two rounds into the playoffs wasn’t necessarily an outcome that many were expecting.
That thought held true in voting as Tocchet took home 82 of 114 first-place votes while landing in the top three on 109 ballots. That gave him a decisive victory over Nashville’s Andrew Brunette and Winnipeg’s Rick Bowness who finished second and third respectively.
Tocchet becomes the third coach in Canucks history to take home the Jack Adams Award. The others were Pat Quinn in 1992 and Alain Vigneault back in 2007.
It will be the better part of a week before the next end-of-season award is announced. The King Clancy Memorial Trophy is next on the list with the winner of that one being revealed on Tuesday.
Snapshots: Demko, Nelson, Pesce
The Canucks have managed a split through the first four games of their series against Edmonton despite being without their starting goalie. However, it appears that there’s a chance that Thatcher Demko will hit the ice at some point this round. Speaking with reporters today (video link), head coach Rick Tocchet stated that his netminder has “improved immensely the last 72 hours” although he didn’t go as far as confirming that Demko would suit up in the coming days. However, Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK and The Athletic adds (Twitter link) that a return in Game Six or Seven is a possibility for Demko. The 28-year-old posted a career-best .918 SV% in 51 starts during the regular season and was expected to be a big part of their playoff run before suffering a knee injury in the first game of the first round versus Nashville.
More from around the NHL:
- The Jets are among the teams looking for a new head coach following the retirement of Rick Bowness. In the latest 32 Thoughts podcast (audio link), Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman suggested that some believe Todd Nelson could be a viable candidate to take over behind the bench in Winnipeg. Nelson doesn’t have much experience as a head coach in the NHL (just 51 games with Edmonton in 2014-15) but is a very experienced coach. He has been an assistant at the top level with Atlanta and Dallas (spanning six years combined) and is in his tenth season as an AHL head coach; he currently is with Hershey who led the league with 111 points during the regular season.
- Hurricanes defenseman Brett Pesce returned to practice today as he works his way back from a lower-body injury, notes team reporter Walt Ruff. The 29-year-old has been out since being injured in the second game of the playoffs and consistently logs big minutes for Carolina while helping to anchor their penalty kill. While Pesce skated today, head coach Rod Brind’Amour indicated that they’re still operating under the expectation that he won’t be back this round but would consider putting him in if he was cleared to return in this series.
NHL Announces Finalists For 2024 Jack Adams Award
The Jets’ Rick Bowness, the Predators’ Andrew Brunette and the Canucks’ Rick Tocchet are this year’s finalists for the Jack Adams Award, the league announced Friday. The honor is given to the head coach who “contributed the most to his team’s success.”
We’ll have a first-time winner for the fifth year in a row. Last year’s recipient was Bruins bench boss Jim Montgomery, who led Boston to the best regular season in league history (.823 points percentage) since the Canadiens’ 60-8-12 (.825 points percentage) run in 1976-77.
Bowness, 69, is by far the most veteran option among the finalists. A good portion of his 30-plus years behind an NHL bench has been spent as an assistant, but he’s still managed 310 wins and 803 regular-season games coached as a head coach. After guiding Winnipeg to only its second 100-point season in franchise history with a 52-24-6 record, Bowness is the first Jets/Thrashers coach to be nominated for the Jack Adams in franchise history.
Brunette is also gunning for his first Coach of the Year honor despite holding less than two full seasons as a head coach. Both have yielded great results, though, guiding the Panthers to the 2022 Presidents’ Trophy after taking over for John Quenneville early in the season. He was back in a head coaching role this year, taking over behind the Predators’ bench and guiding what many viewed to be a fringe team to a 99-point season, including a franchise-record 18-game point streak from Feb. 17 to March 26. Nashville’s 47-30-5 record placed them in the first wild-card spot in the Western Conference, returning to postseason play after missing out in 2023.
The 60-year-old Tocchet rightfully gets a nod here in his first full season as head coach of the Canucks. Vancouver was arguably the league’s most surprising team this season, especially considering their level of dominance. They weren’t just a playoff team like some had hoped for at the beginning of the year – they were one of the best in the league for long stretches, finishing with a 50-23-9 record and their first division title in 11 years. The Canucks’ 109 points were their most since hitting 111 in the 2011-12 campaign.