There will be a head coaching change for the Vancouver Canucks. According to Iain MacIntyre of Rogers Sportsnet, Rick Tocchet of Toronto, Ontario has decided to leave the franchise, even though management wanted him to stay.
The last two seasons in Vancouver have been as topsy turvy as they could possibly come. Let’s start with the great. In 2023-24, the Canucks exceeded expectations during the regular season by a significant margin. No one expected the Canucks to win the Pacific Division, but they had a glorious start, posted 109 points and gave the Edmonton Oilers a scare in the Western Conference semifinals.
Things seemed to go downhill however this season. With expectations significantly higher compared to a year before, the Canucks had a 19 point drop. As a result, 90 points was not good enough to get into the postseason. There also seemed to be tension within the organization. That is a reason why one of their star players, J.T. Miller of East Palestine, Ohio, was traded to the New York Rangers. There were also injuries throughout the year to star defenseman Quinn Hughes of Orlando, Florida, centre Elias Pettersson of Sundsvall, Sweden, and goaltender Thatcher Demko of San Diego, California.
The Canucks had a couple of hard losses to begin the year. They included a 6-0 loss to the New Jersey Devils on October 30 and a 7-3 Canucks loss to the Oilers on November 9. The Canucks also won only three of 12 games during a very difficult stretch from December 18 to January 10.
Now the big question for Tocchet is will he put his name into the ring for the juicy coaching spots currently available. There are current vacancies in Anaheim, Pittsburgh, New York (the Rangers) and Seattle. One may think Pittsburgh may be a spot Tocchet ends up as he was part of the Penguins Stanley Cup winning team in 1992 as a player.
