Come For The Banter - Stay For The Disappointment
Nucks Fan Rebuild & Retool Center - Come For The Banter - Stay For The Disappointment
It’s only been two weeks since the Sedin twins and Ryan Johnson took the helm of the Canucks, and something’s changed - you just haven't heard about it, which is the point.
Ponder this: was anyone surprised at the announcement where Francesco Aquilini installed Henrik and Daniel as co-presidents and Johnson as GM? Heck no. The first gurglings of that move came a week and a half earlier, with professional hockey rumourmonger Eliotte Friedman being one of the first to state what eventually became fact.
For years, the Canucks have leaked what should be guarded secrets and internal-only communications at a colander-porous rate. Everybody and their pooch knew about the feud between Elias Pettersson (the forward who falls down a lot) and ever-toxic J. T. Miller, despite how many denials there were. The first media whisperings of the breakdown came to the forefront four-plus months, if not more, before Miller was shuffled out of town. Remember the utterly contemptuous mistreatment of Bruce Boudreau? The media reports suggesting the Canucks were talking to Rick Tocchet surfaced weeks before management finally made the switch. The whole thing stunk like a Granville Street back alley in mid-summer, and reflected poorly (but accurately) on the franchise.
In my former career as a media geek, I had sources and contacts. Good journalists foster those contacts. I basically got my start in the media business because hockey officials I knew well told me they were going to withdraw from games in protest over the fact nothing had been done after parents at an Atom hockey game locked a teenage referee in a dressing room. They didn't tell anyone else, so I published what became a national story before it actually happened. (Thirty-odd years later, not much has changed as far as official abuse goes.) Some of my best work came after people within an organization told me something I wasn't otherwise going to know. In that, I recognize a fundamental reality about rumours that later turn out to be factual: the information almost always comes from within the organization.
The relationship between a source and a journalist is usually symbiotic: both source and journalist benefit from the information becoming public. An example might be a municipal councillor whose constituents have been clamouring for a derelict house to be torn down quietly saying, “you normally take Thursdays off, but maybe you want to work Thursday morning…. By the way, when you come into work, do you take Main Street? Maybe you should.” Said journalist now can capture images of the demolition, and conduct at-the-moment-interviews of delighted neighbours watching as the excavators do their thing, and when all that is done, doesn't it make sense to call the councillor for Ward 3 for a few quotes?
But there’s a massive difference between the councillor for Ward 3 tipping a journalist to show up for the demolition of a derelict eyesore and someone feeding media the news that Rick Tocchet is in line for Bruce Boudreau’s job. How did the bungled Boudreau firing benefit anyone in the organization? If anything, that mess should have warned us the Jim Rutherford/Patrick Allvin duo were not going to be good for the franchise.
It’s important to strike a contrast between leaks. For example, trade rumours that eventually turn out to be true can, in some cases, have a benefit to the team doing the leaking. Consider the night Tyler Myers showed up for pre-game skate but didn’t play. It didn’t take long for news to hit the circuit that Myers might be traded, as turned out to be the fact. It was in some ways beneficial for either Myers, his agent, or the Canucks to have that accidentally-but-not information become public. Maybe it helped Myers find a more desired destination. Maybe the Canucks found a better trade deal.
Other leaks are more difficult to evaluate. It is known now the Vegas Golden Knights refused to give the Edmonton Oilers permission to speak to former Knights coach Bruce Cassidy. Nobody is going to believe that Edmonton was the source of the leak: it had to have been Vegas. But what did Vegas gain from it? Simple: they sowed chaos in Edmonton, forcing a rival hockey team in the same division to fire Kris Knoblauch, assume the remainder of a lengthy contract, and all the while look utterly stupid and unprofessional. There is a cost-benefit calculus here, because there is a risk that other teams will now consider Vegas to be untrustworthy, incapable of the kind of suitable secrecy that should take place when teams are engaged in discussions with each other. (Hold onto that thought, says the retired journalist, who will return to this point shortly.)
So not all leaks are bad: it depends on who benefits, and how. But if there’s no benefit …. there should be no leak. And that lands us splat-dab back at the Canucks.
With all of the above laid out, I can’t figure out any advantage or benefit gained to most of the leaks that have sprung from the Canucks the last five-odd years. Oh, sure, the “insiders” received lots of content, but tell me how the Vancouver Canucks as an organization benefited from having the sports media know that Miller and Pettersson were squabbling like two kids in elementary school?
I really respect Kevin Woodley as a media figure. The former webmaster for the Peninsula Panthers of the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League and frequent talk-show guest has said for a long time there are problems with the Canucks culture, and in so doing showed more courage than most. He has more recently stated the fire-hose of unfettered rumours and garbage coming from the team was a key part of the degrading culture. It was likely a key factor in the team being so poorly graded by NHL agents (as per an anonymous poll published by the Athletic last month.)
Asked to address this topic on one of the talk shows recently, Woodley used a phrase on one of the talk shows that struck me as insightful: “the call is coming from inside the house.” Does it not seem the rumour river stopped the moment former president Jim Rutherford was no longer part of the team?
In that Athletic story, agents said the Vancouver Canucks were a difficult management to deal with, and that communications were problematic. It's easy to see why, and it goes beyond the "do I speak to Allvin or Rutherford, because we all know who is in charge" conundrum of the previous regime. Ponder this – if you’re the general manager of another team interested in trading a key player, will you start conversations with Detroit, which is known as a black hole for communications because they’re essentially so damn tight that not a whisper squeaks through, or risk a discussion with Vancouver knowing that doing so will result in your player learning he's on the trade block from a sports pundit who was given an inside secret and is now blathering said secret to the masses? I can't help but think the piss-poor information control exhibited by Vancouver has been a key part of the difficulties in trading for meaningful assets or securing free agents. It is certain that players and agents are well aware Vancouver has for a long time been a broken organization with a constant churning river of rumours and toxic sludge.
You can’t be respected unless you act like you should be, and the Canucks have not acted like they want to be respected. I’ll relate it to my current job as a building official: if I show up unannounced on a construction site and see everyone in safety gear, with floors swept, plans readily available in a defined location, and a site supervisor who can answer all my questions, I’m likely going to have far more confidence than if I arrive for a scheduled inspection to find the place in total shambles, with nobody in charge, and the drywall crew hotboxing the plans room.
I'll let the dear reader (if there are any) figure out which of the above two situations the Canucks most resembled the last five years, and I suspect the answer carries a certain Pepe Le Pew odour.
Five days after the change in leadership, the new trio in charge of the Vancouver Canucks surprised the hockey world by axing woefully incompetent coach Adam Foote, as well as all of the support staff (except for, interestingly, goaltender coach Marko Torenius). It's not that announcement was unexpected in and of itself, the collective hockey media just had no clue it would happen when it did. This is one of those instances where a subtle shift in the English language carries a world of meaning.
The difference here is not the negation, but the preposition. As a consumer of way too many hockey podcasts while I drive from construction site to construction site on the taxpayer dime, I can assure you the hockey pundits were caught off guard by the announcement Foote had been relieved of duties. Not a one had a clue.
Likewise, there hasn’t been a single whisper – not one – about the search for a replacement coach. Sure, everybody and their pooch is speculating that Manny Malhotra will be promoted from the baby ‘nucks to the big club. But even the professional rumourmongers are speculating. In absence of any real intelligence, the poor sports jocks at Sportsnet 650 are left regurgitating the concerns they don't know what's going on. The angst is palpable. (Are there interviews? Are they negotiating? Why haven't they scheduled a press conference? Who will the assistants be? Will they wait for the draft to ensure there aren't two Malhotras on the team? Next up, a special segment with special guest Don Taylor, who will spend 20 minutes telling us he has also heard nothing. Then we'll discuss if the nothing means something, and if so, what that something is.)
Well, wait a second here. Why should we know about the deliberations on the next hiring? Is it not better – for the franchise, not the sports jocks – if we don’t know a damn thing?
The Sedins and Johnson will ultimately be judged on a far greater body of work, but as the old saying goes, you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Two weeks into their new gig, the Sedin/Johnson triumvirate seem to have stopped leaks that crippled this organization’s reputation. It almost makes me believe the new management might be running the hockey team in a manner one would expect of a professionally run, multimillion-dollar business.
Vern Faulkner is a former journalist, photographer and editor, whose works appeared eons ago in various things the oldsters call "newspapers" and "magazines." (He also assumed responsibility for the Peninsula Panthers website after Woodley got a gig with Associated Press.) While he now resides in New Brunswick, Faulkner retains sufficient connections to the Wet Coast to correctly use the term "hotbox" in context, while intentionally mis-spelling West Coast in a tagline for humour.
"That guy doesn't deserve to wear the crest."
-One of the Sedins, according to Rachel Kryshak, when she appeared on Sekeres & Price earlier today
Now, Ms. Kryshak deliberately didn't say which Sedin it was, but does that distinction matter? It's not just splitting hairs; it's arguing the difference between orange juice and the juice you get from oranges.
If we're talking about coaches, why am I bringing up the twins being annoyed about a current player? Because of some criticism the team has received about hiring them. Specifically, the belief that hiring someone already close to the team doesn't change enough of the management level of the team. It's not a bad criticism, frankly. The team still needs to flesh out the administration and will bring in "outside people" anyway, so it's not as bad as people think.
But the biggest advantage that the trio of Daniel Sedin, Henrik Sedin, and Ryan Johnson bring is pride. They don't WANT the team to be a comfort zone for aging players. They don't want people with weak character anywhere near their room. And now they are empowered to do something about it. Whatever frustration, irritation, or even anger they've felt about their team, they can now act on.
Just imagine how satisfying that must be. Ask anyone in Vancouver what they would do if they were running the Canucks, and odds are you'll get an answer. Or six, depending on how long they've been a fan.
Can we just cut to the chase and stick Manny Malhotra behind the bench, already? No? Okay, he could say no to the offer and see who else is interested out there. Despite the season Abbotsford had last year, he's still highly thought of around the league. He probably wouldn't be interested in taking an NHL assistant's job again. Doing that twice starts managers thinking of you as a perpetual assistant, not a head coach.
If he doesn't outright refuse the job, he's a solid bet to be there next season. It was hilarious hearing Johnson say they haven't hired Malhotra, but if you want to know what they're looking for in a coach, it's Malhotra. They aren't even calling it a "search" but a "process" to find their next coach.
The coach - whoever it is, wink wink - will need to work well with young players. Development of players, wherever they've been drafted, is arguably the most important factor in returning to relevance. Everyone needs to be coached, the young players the most. So, a coach who has worked with players trying to break into the league, who has given them a chance to find their game, would be best.
They're also going to need the patience of Job. Young players make mistakes, and this team won't have the talent to cover up for them. Yes, there will be some veterans, but that's not the point of having a young team. The coach needs to be ready to put those players back on the ice. Too many mistakes and it could mean a scratch later, but that's a conversation for after the game.
Speaking of mistakes: one of the maxims now-former coach Adam Foote liked was not compounding mistakes. If you make a mistake on a play, fine, those happen. But you'd better do the right thing next. That's the right idea, but too often the players would make a mistake, then not know what the "right thing next" was.
The systems the next coach brings will have to be communicated clearly and cleanly, so those skills are vital. They should be quickly explained to newcomers who are, say, filling in for players who have suddenly left the team.
And finally, it wouldn't hurt if the coach they bring in has experience with the city. They don't need playing experience specifically, but some idea of what happens in a town of two million coach/GMs. Now, if he does just happen to have a thousand NHL games under his belt, building a 16-year career despite a severe injury, and has seen the best and worst in the league? That's probably a mark in his favour, too. And if other players described him as a general on the ice, directing players when he was out there, that's not bad, either.
Folks, it's Manny. Just hire him already. There's a LOT more to do this offseason, even after the draft. Get this easy one out of the way and move on to the rest while you're on a roll.
The tone around the Vancouver Canucks has been changing.
Go back to the end of the season, and the news was that general manager Patrik Allvin had been removed. It was...odd, given that the coaching staff remained in place. The excuse at the time was that the new general manager, whoever that might be, should make their own decision. Rational enough. So, presumably, the GM would be named quickly to see who is where and what plans need to be made. Right?
Eh, not exactly, but close enough.
The thing about figing Allvin is that we aren't completely sure what decisions he may or may not have made with the team. The weird, two-headed ettin at the top of the Canucks' administrative food chain left those who observed it a little confused. And those who had to interact with it more so. There are reports of other teams not knowing who they were dealing with for trade proposals. That broke containment when Jim Rutherford announced he had taken the Quinn Hughes trade "off Allvin's plate," as if that were a favour to him rather than an elbowing aside.
Vern put up a post about how this particular group has treated its employees, and it's hard not to agree. It'll come up again when we get around to talking about Elias Pettersson the Forward*, but it's correct to point to Ryan Johnson getting jerked around recently. He was recently given a new contract with Vancouver because of the job he's done in Abbotsford. He has been the heir apparent for a few years now. And yet.
Johnson was not only given an expensive new deal, but was also stopped from interviewing with the Nashville Predators. They are apparently living up to their mascot's image by waiting patiently for the right moment to pounce. It's been literal months without any apparent movement down there. Most likely guess is they have someone in mind, but that person is still involved in league play. Or they're still under contract...
Johnson brought the Canucks their only league-wide trophy of any kind, winning the AHL's Calder Cup in 2025. The team has been generally competitive, though all minor teams rely heavily on their parent clubs getting the draft right, signing good free agents, and not needing 50 skaters and five goalies in any given season. For many, the assumption was that Johnson and coach Manny Malhotra would step up to the NHL level at the next opportunity. That hasn't happened yet, and why not is a bit of a mystery.
There is one rival remaining for the position, and that's Evan Gold. Currently with the Boston Bruins, Gold is known as a "power behind the throne" kind of guy. Not that he's a potential assassin or any such, of course. I think. I'm not going to pretend I know a lot about him, so perhaps murder is a pastime of his. But probably not. He is very well thought of by other people in the business, though. By all accounts, he would be a fine choice.
Rutherford likes Ryan Johnson for the job. But Rutherford has also said he is essentially leaving the club while holding a nominal position with a full paycheque. Moving back to Carolina is quite the work-from-home power move, but how much influence will he have? If the team only hires one replacement, it probably won't be the one the guy they just ghosted likes.
As an added bit of weirdness, it sounds like the Sedins might be getting a... promotion? Henrik and Daniel Sedin have been around the team in various positions, most recently in player development. If you've watched any practices, you've likely seen them working with young players, with veterans, with anyone who wanted to take advantage of their experience.
They were hired five years ago, and made one thing clear: they wanted to learn everything about the team. This isn't going to be a Mats Sundin situation, where he has lived in Sweden for several years and will likely need to get brought up to speed in Toronto. What power Sundin will have with the Leafs is unclear, as he and John Chayka were announced at the same time.
The Sedins have planned their move into the Canucks organization very carefully and deliberately. They control everything about how they get promoted, and both have made it clear they will quite happily walk away if they have to. If they feel like they are ready to assume a new job, they will.
Funny story: apparently, they also like Ryan Johnson for the next general manager. So that's something to consider.
Neither of the Sedins will be named general manager, and they probably don't want that job just yet. Wherever they do end up, it's hard to picture them away from the ice and the players asking for their advice. It certainly wouldn't hurt for them to have better-defined duties among the white-collars, though. Who knows what that will be, though.
With Rutherford fading out, Allvin gone(?), the Sedins ambiguously promoted, and the coaching staff on tenterhooks, getting some answers would be handy. The draft is coming up, and the team needs to have a plan in place soon. Either Johnson or Gold can head the team up, but they need to know who the team is, first.
Oh, did you notice that question mark? Patrik Allvin has been offered a new spot with the Canucks, according to Donnie and Dhali recently. He has a tremendous amount of scouting experience, and let's face it, another general manager position is unlikely for a few years yet. No one knows how much credit/blame to give him for his tenure with Vancouver. And the paycheque is great. It would be weird, but maybe he will still be in the "About Us" section of the Canucks website.
Rumours are circulating of a complete overhaul of the scouting department, so maybe he'll end up there. Assuming he even wants to be with the team, being on the road for most of the year can soften the blow of losing his previous job. And add to the unending weirdness that is the Vancouver Canucks.
But why the heck are we hearing that Dax Aquilini is sitting in on the GM interviews...?
*Oooo, foreshadowing!
It's probably not going to be an enjoyable day for Canucks fans (to be fair, is it ever?), but don't worry. We're here, and you can join us in laughing at all the other teams also screwing up their rosters.
Alright, a little bit of housekeeping before we get started. If you haven't already seen it, we've welcomed a new writer to our staff. Thursday's been a part of the readership of NM for a long time, and we're thrilled to have her come aboard and provide a fresh perspective to the coverage. Also, there's no possible way that she's as angry and bitter as the rest of us, so that's really nice for all of you. Good to have you on the team, Thursday. Sorry we swear so much. It's Francesco's fault.
Anyway, she broke down the Canucks draft experience, so if you haven't read it, please do. Overall, I think that was a decent job by JR & PA. I mean, we were expecting that 1st rounder to get traded away, so to get what looks like a solid prospect at 15 is good, as well as a goaltender that Ian Clark raves about with their second pick. If Clark likes him, there's something there, and that bodes well for the future.
So far, the Canucks have been re-upping some of the Abbotsford crew, including a number of key pieces from their Championship run. The most notable is a one year, one way deal for Max Sasson, with a $775k AAV. This is a chance for Sasson, who performed well during his call ups and was a rock throughout the playoffs for Abbotsford, to earn a multi year deal, and I'm here for it. Also re-signed were Aatu Raty, Arshdeep Bains, and Guillaume Brisebois.
The full NMC on Elias Pettersson's contract has kicked in, and we should hear the announcement of a new deal for Thatcher Demko as early as today, as well as the official announcement of Conor Garland's deal, but the stark reality of the Canucks losing the production of Brock Boeser and Pius Suter is a little sobering to say the least. For a team that struggled to score this past season, it's gonna take a hell of a day from Patrik Allvin to give Canucks fans hope heading forward.
There's also word that Arturs Silovs is being shopped around, and I get this. It's a valuable asset that could help bring in an improvement that we need, and while it would be awesome if there was room for him, the Canucks are likely to go with Demko and Kevin Lankinen, because it's trade Silovs, or trade one of those two, and I don't think they'd be eager to part with either.
The phones are being worked, the data is being crunched, and good ideas are no doubt being vetoed. God, it's tiring being a Canucks fan. Well, let's get this over with.
The first round of the annual NHL entry draft is tonight in Los Angeles, and it's still unclear if the Canucks plan to move their 15th overall pick. With the possible departure of Brock Boeser looming, the Canucks could end up looking a lot different next season. We've seen Thatcher Demko, Arturs Silovs, and even Elias Pettersson being mentioned, and the Canucks rumored to be looking at Marco Rossi and Mat Barzal, this could be a very interesting few days. Please note, I said interesting, not joyful.
One thing that did happen today was an announcement from the league and the NHLPA of a new Collective Bargaining Agreement.
We'll need someone a little more savvy to dissect this, but if you think that the last line is going to stop the rampant juicing of the LTIR rules, you're kidding yourself. The Vegas Golden Knights are probably on the phone with Mark Stone right now, explaining how they're going to do it.
So while we wait to see what they'll do, let's say they do keep the pick. Who's going to be available that meets their needs? There's a couple nice options at C in the WHL in Victoria's Cole Reschny, and Brandon's Roger McQueen. Reschny was outstanding at the World Under 18's for Canada, and McQueen, while missing a large chunk of time this season, is 6'5" with a total skills package that could make him worth the risk if he's still available.
We'll have an additional thread for the rest of the draft tomorrow, and try and get you info on the Canucks picks, as well as any deals that go down.
He was one of the heart and soul guys for this team the last couple years, and his efforts have paid off with a nice new contract. Let's focus on this instead of whatever the hell that trade with Edmonton was, please?
With the draft kicking off tonight, and free agency starting on Tuesday, we're going to get a glimpse of what the braintrust is going to be able to put together to bring the Vancouver Canucks back into playoff contention in the upcoming season. Yesterday they nailed down a pretty important piece, as they gave Conor Garland a 6 year/6 Million dollar contract extension.
While Garland's play the first couple seasons in Vancouver was very hit and miss, he has developed into a fantastic two player who generates a lot of offensive push for the Canucks. He's been remarkably consistent over that time (52, 46,47, and 50 points), while fine tuning a lot of the non-scoreboard aspects of his game.
It might seem like a lot for a guy like Garland, but honestly, I hate to think where the Canucks would have been without him last season. One of the few guys who showed up night after night and gave a shit, especially during some of the most dreary parts of the last season.
*Sighs heavily*
Evander Kane? Really? Forget helping the Oilers out of a big time cap crunch. Why on earth, after all of the internal turmoil from last season, would you bring in the universally recognized worst guy in ANY NHL dressing room to be part of this team? He is 34 years old, at a cost of $5 Million per, and missed the entire regular season due to injury. Sure, there's the local connection, but you know what? I want a team that's going to win, and I just cannot see that happening when the focus inevitably turns on strife in the room again next season. This deal absolutely reeks of Francesco Aqualini's meddling in hockey operations, more proof that this team will never succeed as long as he and his family are the owners.
Anyway, looking ahead to tonight... Round one of the draft goes tonight from the LA Live Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. The Canucks have the 15th pick overall, and have two picks in the top 50 this year, but with the need to bring in a top 6 centre as well as defensive help (still), don't be shocked if they try to move it. We'll be monitoring the draft to let you know about the Canucks picks as well as any deals they make.
The Canucks organization and its fans need a mental reset. It feels like we have been on a rollercoaster since the firing of Alain Vigneault and Mike Gillis. The twilight of the Sedins career added to the lack of identity of this team. Having to live through the Benning years and the plethora of coaches, there was a hope that Jim Rutherford and Patrik Allvin could get the team moving forward and map out a future with some of the players that were drafted under Benning.
Two coaches later I am left to wonder if there the map was made of water-soluble crayon, and the rainy winter destroyed it. We all knew Bruce was not the answer, as his teams could score and then get scored upon more often. There were doubts in my mind about the hiring Tocchet in 2023, just due to his average coaching record before, but he was a fresh breath of air, when it came to defensive responsibility and holding players accountable. His actions were seen as he benched stars at the start and players accepted that there was a team they needed to all players to do their job. This team building worked and led to a surprising 2023-24 season and hope was back with this organization and its core group of players.
If you take a closer look at the 2023-24, you could argue that this year’s Canucks were a continuation of last year’s team, starting in February. The Canucks went 17-12-4 from Feb until the end of the year. Injuries to Petey (who kept playing) and Demko during this time led to fundamental changes to the Canucks 5 vs 5 structure. Some would say that the Canucks started to play a playoff structure earlier and this led to a less aggressive offence. The Canucks score 4+ goals only 8 times in those 33 games. The Nucks had scored 4+ goals 26 times in the previous 49 games.
One of the knocks against Tocchet when he was hired was that he had his system preferences and knew how to coach those. The downside was he would stick to those systems no matter the outcome. His belief that the system would bring the results if played properly was a wall he was able to climb over. Some would argue he is right. A properly played system would get positive results. That mantra ignores a couple of key factors though. First off, expecting players to be able to stick to a system perfectly ignores the ebb and flow of situations and there is no way to plan for every situation. Secondly, when you play a system, other coaches study your system and come up with ways to break it. It seems that Tocchet ignored those two things. Add in the fact that the team he had in 2023-24 was not the same team this year. Tocchet believed that the system could have almost any player slide into a role after learning it. The Canucks were noticeably weaker at the start of the year on defense and the new guys didn’t have the same skill and didn’t fit right into the system.
I will give Tocchet his props when it came to the powerplay as he let players work things out, along with his suggestions on how to get shots. But I would argue that coaches who succeed have teams that play a strong 5 vs 5 game. Tocchet’s team this year was average at best.
As you can tell, I am not sad to see Tocchet go. His hiring was due to his relationship with Rutherford and it was understandable given the situation at the time with the team. The team was able to make some changes at the end of the 2022-23 year that led to success last year. But was Tocchet the type of coach for the core of players Vancouver had? No.
The shitshow of a dressing room and conflict between two star players, is an indication of Tocchet’s mentality. He let the players try to solve this and it blew up in the team’s face and led to one leaving. I don’t know about you, but I would think a coach would try and intervene in something that affects the whole team. I never heard a reporter ask the question, “What are you doing as a coach to get these players to work things out?”. The reporters all knew there was an issue and didn’t press the coach.
Will the Canucks be a better team next year without Tocchet? Who the fuck knows. That question might be easier to answer once the big decisions are made, like who will the Canucks hire before the draft? What will management do about Brock and Suter? Can they get rid of OEL’s dead weight contract? Will they choose Demko or Lankinen? Is Petey on his way out as well? What can management do to keep Quinn?
I don’t blame Tocchet for all of this, but better coaching this year could have got this team into the playoffs and made some these issues easier to deal with.
I won’t bring in Tocchet’s personal opinions outside of hockey because I judge him on the job he did with this team. But if I was a betting man, he will end coaching in the US….probably with a team he played for.
If this is true, this will make 4 coaches in 4 years for the Canucks. Ouch.
It had seemed like the Canucks and Tocchet were working towards an agreement, though the news of the team having a bit of an issue with making him one of the league's highest paid coaches appears to have been a bigger issue than first thought.
We're currently waiting to see if there's an announcement forthcoming from the team, it does send out some warning bells in terms of the impact this decision could have. There was the endorsement from the Captain a few days ago, where Quinn Hughes raved about how much he loved playing for Tocchet. It's already going to be hard enough to get the best player this team's ever had to re-sign to a long term deal, and letting the coach he wanted to play for isn't going to help.
As far as potential replacements, there are a number of coaches out there right now that are looking for work. Mike Sullivan is one, and has a history both with the Canucks as well as Jim Rutherford and Patrik Allvin. It makes one wonder if this news has anything to do with Sullivan becoming available this week, though perhaps it's coincidence. Sullivan was an assistant for John Tortorella in that one cursed season Torts was inflicted upon us.
Another potential move for the Canucks, would be to keep things in house and move Manny Malhotra up from the Abbotsford Canucks of the AHL. Malhotra's garnered praise for the season the Canucks put together in the wake of endless recalls to deal with the parent club's constant parade of injuries, and currently has them in the Second Round of the AHL Playoffs. I think there's a real chance Malhotra is brought in sometime, but this seems too soon, and I would prefer he got a little more experience before leading this team.
Was the Canucks unwillingness (read: the Aqualini family) to build a permanent practice facility a factor in Tocchet not re-signing? If so, this is another strike against an ownership that was ranked 31st in a poll of players in the Athletic not too long ago.
It's shocking that just over a year ago they were a game away from the Western Conference Finals, and now they're (back) in disarray, and could again be a very different looking team come training camp. As far as Tocchet goes, if he doesn't end up in Pittsburgh, expect him to sign in Philadelphia.
Is this the right move for the Canucks? Time will tell, but coming off a disappointing season where a number of the Canucks best players were far from their best, and the team repeatedly churned out lifeless, uninspiring performances, it certainly didn't make sense to give him a massive raise. Bringing him back, fine. But it's clear he wants to move on, and if this means a new coaching staff that can work with players and re-energize them (Elias Pettersson, for example), then let's get this done.
I also should mention that Westy was advocating for this, and I did mention more than once that the systems the Canucks were using were a big part of their lack of success this season. Maybe we're gonna get what we want for a change? It's weird, because as Canucks fans, this isn't a thing that happens.
UPDATE: No Return For Taco Confirmed
