“Sell the team” – Fans react as Rick Tocchet STEPS DOWN as head coach of Vancouver Canucks after 3 seasons

After 3 seasons in charge, Rick Tocchet stepped down as the head coach of the Vancouver Canucks and finished with a 108-65-27 record.

“Sell the team” – Fans react as Rick Tocchet STEPS DOWN as head coach of Vancouver Canucks after 3 seasons

Rick Tocchet (Image via ESPN)

The Vancouver Canucks will have a new coach behind the benches in the next season. Coach Rick Tocchet on Tuesday announced that he is stepping down from his position and will not return to the team in the 2025-26 season.

Tocchet, the former assistant coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins, was hired by the Canucks in January 2023. He went to replace Bruce Boudreau and saw off 36 games in the 2022-23 season, where the Canadian outfit finished 6th in the Pacific Division standings.

Last season, the Canucks won the Pacific Division with a record of 50-23-9 and 109 points from 82 games. They ended up losing Game 7 of the second-round series against the Edmonton Oilers. Tocchet would later win the Jack Adams Award, an honor given to the NHL’s best coach of the year.

Things though did not go as he and the Canucks would have planned this season. They finished with a 38-30-14 record and finished with 90 points, 6 behind the St. Louis Blues for the second wild card from the Western Conference.

There had been some rumors regarding his future with the Canucks. His contract had a team option remaining on his final year of contract.

However, he will now not return to the team and leaves the Canucks with an overall record of 108-65-27 in 200 regular-season games after 3 seasons.

Fans react to Rick Tocchet stepping down as Canucks coach

In 2 days, there have been 2 major coaching changes in the NHL. A day after the Pittsburgh Penguins parted ways with Mike Sullivan, the Vancouver Canucks announced that Rick Tocchet has stepped down as the head coach of the team.

Rick Tocchet
Rick Tocchet (Image via The Province)

Some fans on social media were left stunned to hear about this development regarding Tocchet. Some others bashed the team management once again. Several users on X took a wild shot at team chairman Francesco Aquilini and urged him to “sell the team.”

Check out that and some other reactions from X below:

The Canucks have not named a replacement regarding him as of yet. Canucks president of hockey operations, Jim Rutherford would decline the possibility of signing Sullivan as the new head coach, as he was someone with whom he had worked before. Manny Malhotra, the head coach of Canucks’ American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate in Abbotsford, is a candidate for the coaching position.

Rick Tocchet makes feelings known regarding decision to leave Canucks

While there had been rumors of him contemplating his future, Rick Tocchet stepping down as the head coach of Vancouver Canucks came as a surprise to some. He would later make his feelings known regarding this massive decision.

Rick Tocchet
Rick Tocchet (Image via NHL)

As per reports from NHL.com, the 61-year-old wanted to return to the United States and stay close to his family. While admitting this, the now former head coach of the Canucks expressed that family was his priority at the moment.

I’m choosing to move on from the Vancouver Canucks. Family is a priority, and with my contract lapsing, this becomes the opportune time. 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.

Rick Tocchet said

Before joining the Canucks as the head coach, Tocchet coached the Arizona Coyotes and the Tampa Bay Lightning. He is 286-265-87 in 638 regular-season games.

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