Tocchet won't return as Canucks coach

VANCOUVER -- Rick Tocchet will not return as coach of the Vancouver Canucks next season.

No replacement was named by the Canucks, who went 38-30-14 and finished six points behind the St. Louis Blues for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.

The 61-year-old's decision comes one season after he helped the Canucks win the Pacific Division (50-23-9, 109 points) and advance to the second round of the playoffs, where they were eliminated in seven games by the Edmonton Oilers. After the season, Tocchet won the Jack Adams Award as the NHL's coach of the year.

“I'm choosing to move on from the Vancouver Canucks,” Tocchet said. “Family is a priority, and with my contract lapsing, this becomes the opportune time. While I don't know where I'm headed, or exactly how this will play out for me over the near term, I feel like this is the right time for me to explore other opportunities in and around hockey."

Tocchet's decision caught Canucks president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford by surprise. Rutherford said he got the call on Tuesday morning, first from Tocchet’s agent and then from Tocchet himself explaining the decision.

“He felt he needed a change, and part of that for personal reasons," he said. "He wanted to move back to the eastern part of the United States and be closer to his family, and that's pretty much where it is at this point. But obviously we're very disappointed.”

Rutherford added that Vancouver's coaching search will start with a short list in part because he didn’t expect to be making a change. That feeling was based on discussions he had with Tocchet after the season which focused on plans for the future, including training camps, assistant coaching hires, and even visiting forward Elias Pettersson in Sweden.

“It did get to a point, I would say probably a week ago, where I started thinking we keep talking about what's going to go on but we don't have the commitment yet, and at that point I started thinking, 'You know, he's not quite sure,'” Rutherford said. “I wasn't sure why because of how positive everything was going, but when he talked to me today, and I'm not going to get into that, that's really his business, but with him and I being friends for as long as we have, he talked to me about some of the things he's dealing with, and he just said, ‘For personal reasons, I will have a very tough time doing the job I need to do.’”

Tocchet, who was hired to replace Bruce Boudreau on Jan. 22, 2023, had a team option remaining for the final season of his contract, but Rutherford said on April 21 they would not use it, adding he didn't “feel it’s right to have somebody here that may have his mind somewhere else.”

In three seasons with the Canucks, Tocchet went 108-65-27 in 200 regular-season games, and 7-6 in 13 Stanley Cup Playoff games. In nine NHL seasons with the Canucks, Arizona Coyotes (2017-21) and Tampa Bay Lightning (2008-10), Tocchet is 286-265-87 in 638 regular-season games, and 11-11 in 22 playoff games.

He also helped the Pittsburgh Penguins win the Stanley Cup as an assistant coach in 2016 and 2017.

Tocchet's departure creates questions about the future for captain Quinn Hughes, who won the Norris Trophy as the League’s top defenseman last season and was named a finalist again this season on Tuesday. He has openly praised Tocchet as an “amazing coach.”

“I hope he's playing golf because he usually returns my calls right away, and I called him within half an hour after I talked to Rick, so he hasn't called me back yet,” Rutherford said. “Knowing how he feels about the coach and that he's a sensitive guy, I would suspect that he's feels like I do, that we're disappointed. Knowing the maturity of Quinn, he will make the adjustment necessary, but they did have a very strong relationship, a very good one, and Quinn had a lot of respect for him, and [Tocchet] had a lot of respect for Quinn. So, there will definitely be an adjustment.”

Vancouver also dealt with internal issues this season, chief among them the locker room discord between Pettersson and forward J.T. Miller that led to the latter being traded to the New York Rangers on Jan. 31.

Tocchet said the rift got "uncomfortable" this season on April 21.

“It wore really hard on everybody, players, coaches, managers,” Rutherford said. "It was tough."

Tocchet is the 10th NHL coach to leave his team this season, joining Jim Montgomery (Boston Bruins on Nov. 19), Drew Bannister (St. Louis Blues on Nov. 24), Luke Richardson (Chicago Blackhawks on Dec. 5), Derek Lalonde (Detroit Red Wings on Dec. 26), John Tortorella (Philadelphia Flyers on March 27), Greg Cronin (Anaheim Ducks on April 19), Peter Laviolette (New York Rangers on April 19), Dan Bylsma (Seattle Kraken on April 21) and Mike Sullivan (Pittsburgh Penguins on April 28).

The Blues hired Montgomery to replace Bannister, and the Red Wings hired Todd McLellan to replace Lalonde. Meanwhile, the Blackhawks (Anders Sorensen), Bruins (Joe Sacco) and Flyers (Brad Shaw) each finished the season with an interim coach.

Sullivan was quickly linked to the Canucks because, like Tocchet, he worked with Rutherford and general manager Patrik Allvin during his time with the Penguins, who he led to two Stanley Cup championships (2016, 2017).

However, Rutherford quickly dismissed the possibility, saying he’d talked to Sullivan already.

“I know my good friend, Mike Sullivan, does not want to leave the East,” Rutherford said. “He's a real good family man. I talked to him yesterday, not about coming here, but talked to him when he left Pittsburgh, and I know he wants to stay in the East.”

Rutherford also won the Stanley Cup as general manager of the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006, when Laviolette was his coach.

“We had some success together. I like him as a person and a coach. Haven't got that far yet, but certainly having someone you're familiar with helps,” Rutherford said, adding that Allvin has not worked with Laviolette and deals with the coach on a more day-to-day basis. “But I wouldn't want to take him off the list at this point. He's had a lot of success in the League.”

Rutherford said Manny Malhotra, who is in his first season as coach of the Canucks' American Hockey League affiliate in Abbotsford, is also a candidate. Prior to coaching Abbotsford, Malhotra spent four seasons as an assistant coach with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He also was a development coach with Vancouver in 2016-17 and an assistant coach from 2017-20.

“Based on the job he did (in Abbotsford), the experience he has in the League, he will certainly be on the short list,” Rutherford said.