VANCOUVER — It’s not where they were expecting to be, but the Vancouver Canucks will hit the ice without Jack Adams Award-winning coach Rick Tocchet behind the bench next season.
“I’m surprised,” said Canucks president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford at a media conference on Tuesday afternoon, shortly after Tocchet’s decision not to return was announced.
“All our talks were about what happened during the season, what Tocc wants to do different, what he’s going to do with each player, going to go over to Sweden to check on (Elias Pettersson) in the summertime — all stuff like that.
“But it did get to a point, I would say, probably a week ago, where I started thinking, ‘Well, we keep talking about what’s going to go on, but we don’t have the commitment yet.’”
“Family is a priority, and with my contract lapsing, this becomes the opportune time,” said Tocchet in a statement released by the Canucks. “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 name has been linked to other job openings, particularly the Philadelphia Flyers, where he was beloved as a player and was inducted into the Flyers Hall of Fame in 2021. Before joining the Canucks, he spent 1 1/2 years on the studio panel for the NHL on TNT, which is based in Atlanta.
Rutherford said the Canucks’ stressful season had worn out everyone in the organization, as they dealt with injuries and off-ice drama for much of last season.
Centres J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson both performed below expectations as rumours circulated about an ongoing feud between them. The Canucks attempted to remedy the issue by dealing Miller to the New York Rangers at the end of January, but Pettersson failed to regain his offensive prowess following the move.
Star defenceman Quinn Hughes missed 14 games with a series of ailments, and a knee injury kept starting goalie Thatcher Demko out of the lineup until Dec. 10. The star netminder had trouble staying healthy following his return.
Rutherford didn’t get into specifics on the reasoning behind Tocchet’s decision, but shared one detail from their phone conversation on Tuesday morning.
“He just said, ‘For personal reasons, I will have a very tough time doing the job you need me to do,’” said Rutherford, who indicated that for family reasons Tocchet was looking to relocate further east.
After taking over the Vancouver bench on Jan. 22, 2023, Tocchet amassed a record of 108-65-27 record. In 2023-24, the 61-year-old former NHL winger earned coach of the year honours for guiding the team to a 26-point improvement in the regular season and their first playoff appearance in four seasons last year before Vancouver was eliminated by the Edmonton Oilers in a gritty seven-game series in the second round.
This year, he served as an assistant coach for Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament in February. But the Canucks struggled through the 2024-25 campaign, finishing with a 38-30-14 record and missing the post-season by six points.
Asked at Vancouver’s end-of-season press conference whether he’d like to return, Tocchet said he needed time to work through “a process” before making a decision.
“All year I’ve barely breathed,” he said. “During the time off, I was at 4 Nations, you’re trying to get this team into the playoffs, dealing with a lot of stuff. So I haven’t really thought of myself. … I do have to take a breath and go through it. With respect to both sides, you do have to go through the process. You have to.”
Tocchet played 18 seasons in the NHL as a power forward with the Flyers, Penguins, Kings, Bruins, Capitals and Coyotes, and won a Stanley Cup with Pittsburgh in 1992.
He later moved into coaching, serving as bench boss with the Tampa Bay Lightning and Arizona Coyotes, and won back-to-back Stanley Cups as an assistant coach for the Penguins in 2016 and 2017.
Rutherford said he hadn’t started to assemble a list of potential replacement candidates, but he would start to do so immediately.
Two coaches that Rutherford won Stanley Cups with in previous markets are currently available: Mike Sullivan was let go by the Penguins on Monday, and former Carolina Hurricanes boss Peter Laviolette was dismissed by the Rangers on April 19.
While Rutherford said that “having someone you’re familiar with helps,” he acknowledged that GM Patrik Allvin is the day-to-day point of contact for the head coach. Allvin did not work with Laviolette, and Rutherford said that Sullivan, who served as an assistant in Vancouver in the 2013-14 season, would prefer to stay out east.
Allvin was not as Tuesday’s presser, as he is scouting draft-eligible players at this week’s Under-18 men’s world championship in Texas. The Canucks will be part of the NHL’s Draft Lottery, which takes place May 5, but have only a 2.1 per cent chance of moving out of their current No. 15 draft position.
Rutherford did cite Manny Malhotra’s strong work as the first-year coach of the AHL Abbotsford Canucks and his past experience as a player and NHL assistant as strong assets that will make him a candidate. The Abbotsford Canucks have advanced to the second round of the AHL playoffs.
He was unable to provide clarity on the status of Tocchet’s assistants or the rest of Vancouver’s coaching staff.
“The organization respects the other guys, and they will be guys that we will want to keep,” Rutherford said. “At the same time, if you bring in a (new) coach, he may want to bring in one or two of his own guys.”
Tocchet’s departure further stokes the fires of concern about the long-term future of the Canucks’ Norris Trophy-winning captain, Quinn Hughes.
The 25-year-old Hughes is eligible to become an unrestricted free agent in 2027 and last week, Rutherford didn’t shy away from the notion that the Canuck star might want to play with his brothers Jack and Luke when he gets the opportunity to pick his landing spot. Both are currently members of the New Jersey Devils.
Hughes was a strong supporter of Tocchet and his assistant coach, Adam Foote.
“If we get Rick back and add a piece or two, we can be very successful,” Hughes told Sportsnet’s Iain MacIntyre in early April.
Rutherford said Tuesday that he had not yet spoken with Hughes about the news.
“I hope he’s playing golf, because he usually returns my calls right away,” Rutherford said. “I called him within half an hour after I talked to Rick, and he hasn’t called me back.
“Knowing how he feels about the coach and that he’s a sensitive guy, I would suspect that he feels like I do. We’re disappointed, but knowing the maturity of Quinn, he will make the adjustments necessary.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 29, 2026.
Carol Schram, The Canadian Press
