Vancouver Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet on the bench against the Calgary Flames. Bob Frid-Imagn Images

Canucks Put Ball in Rick Tocchet's Court

Originally posted on Breakaway on SI | By Jon Alfano | Last updated Apr 21, 2025 2:30 PM ET

Vancouver Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet officially has a decision to make this offseason.

On Monday, president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford announced that Vancouver will not exercise the club option on Tocchet's contract for next season. Rutherford reportedly said he "didn’t think it would be fair to force Tocchet to work next season if he wasn’t happy to be here," per The Province.

However, Rutherford still hopes to have Tocchet back on a new extension, and praised his work during a rough season. The president added that he hopes to hear back from Tocchet in the coming days.

“I would suspect sometime this week, he’ll have a decision,” Rutherford told reporters.

Rutherford says the #Canucks will not exercise the club option on Rick Tocchet, says they’d like to work out an extension.

He strongly endorsed Tocchet’s work this season: “I would suspect sometime this week, he’ll have a decision”
— Harman Dayal (@harmandayal2) April 21, 2025

Tocchet, the former coach of both the Tampa Bay Lightning and Arizona Coyotes, joined the Canucks in January of 2023, replacing the fired Bruce Boudreau as head coach. In 2023-24, his first full season at the helm, the 61-year-old led the Canucks to the Pacific Division title before falling to the Edmonton Oilers in Game 7 of the second round. He won the Jack Adams Award as the best coach in the league that season.

This season, though, Tocchet and the Canucks dealt with plenty of struggles on and off the ice. The highly-publicized feud between forwards J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson reached a breaking point, leading to Vancouver trading the former in late January. The team also dealt with a ton of injuries throughout the year, with Pettersson and Quinn Hughes missing 18 and 14 games, respectively.

Luckily, the Canucks still have a good deal of talent across their roster, so a quick return to form is possible. If Tocchet returns, perhaps he could capture that magic from last season once again.

If he leaves, though, Tocchet could have interest from several other teams around the league.

This article first appeared on Breakaway on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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