What does the future look like for Canucks coach Rick Tocchet?
Rick Tocchet’s status with the Vancouver Canucks remains up in the air.
With one season remaining on his contract – an option year held by the Canucks – there is no shortage of uncertain of whether Tocchet will return to Vancouver for a fourth season.
On Friday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Colby Cohen and Jeff Paterson of Canucks Army discussed Tocchet’s contract status and what the future could hold for the reigning Jack Adams Award winner.
Colby Cohen: I want to circle back to Tocchet. The Philadelphia Flyers‘ coaching job is going to be open. Everybody has already connected those dots. I was just talking about Pat Ferschweiler to Philadelphia before you came on, but the quotes and the sentiment from Vancouver is, ‘We want to lock this guy up. He’s our coach.’ Why hasn’t that gotten done yet if there is this big-time interest? Why hasn’t Vancouver put an offer in front of him that he obviously can’t say no to?
Jeff Paterson: I think that’s something the Canucks will have to answer here. We’ll get our chance to talk to Patrik Allvin probably as early as next Thursday when they clean out their lockers, and I would think that that is going to be top of mind. The sense out here is that Tocchet has a self belief. He’s the reigning Jack Adams winner, for a few more months at least. It sounds like he has a dollar figure in mind that perhaps he has put in front of the Canucks and they haven’t matched it because if they wanted to lock this thing up and have Tocchet under contract moving forward, you’re right, it should have been done by now. Clearly there has been a holdup. To his credit, Tocchet has said his sole focus has been on trying to make the playoffs, so he has sort of skirted around any questions about his future here. That’s understandable, and I think we in the media and the fanbase have respected that, that his job is to try to get the most out of this hockey club. But now that they have the little ‘E’ next to their name when you look at the standings, this becomes the frontburner issue for the Canucks. I’m not expecting that he’ll get an extension before the season is through, but if gets two weeks or a month beyond the season then something is up, clearly. Where does it go from here? How much are the Canucks willing to pay for a coach? Tocchet probably deserves a bump, and it was a little surprising he didn’t get the extension coming off the Jack Adams season. But he has coached this year. A year ago, everything went right, and this year, obviously things have gone sideways for him. He has belief. If he was out of work, I think he’d have options. So, if he has put a number in front of the Canucks and they don’t like it then is this just negotiation or does this thing ultimately, like the season itself, go sideways? There was never a shortage of drama in-season, and it looks like the drama is going to carry over once the games come to an end here in a week’s time.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here: