VANCOUVER – In the one-and-a-half seasons that Rick Tocchet was behind a television studio desk instead of a players’ bench, he turned down three assistant coaching positions and two offers to be a head coach again in the National Hockey League.
The 59-year-old had already had two of those top jobs and both were largely doomed. A stint of just under two seasons in Tampa (2008-10) and a four-year run in Arizona (2017-21), where he actually made the playoffs once, could have been played in circus tents instead of arenas due to the clowns he encountered and instability he endured.
He was fired after the Lightning was purchased in 2010 by Jeffrey Vinik from feuding partners Oren Koules and Len Barrie, famously called the “cowboys” by former coach John Tortorella. Tocchet says he told the new owner that he did the right thing because “you need to take a blowtorch to this and start over.”
In 2021, Tocchet and thrifty Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo mutually agreed to part after four seasons of organizational turmoil, arena uncertainty and franchise embarrassment.
Having spent three seasons between those thankless postings as an assistant coach with the Pittsburgh Penguins, winning Stanley Cups in 2016 and 2017, Tocchet knew what a model franchise looked like.
But he joined the Vancouver Canucks anyway last January because it was president Jim Rutherford and general manager Patrik Allvin, Penguins alumni, who offered him a bench instead of the TNT studio desk.
“Listen, you’re judged by your record, so whatever my record is, it is,” Tocchet says, referring to the 178-200-60 coaching mark he lugged from Tampa and Arizona. “But saying that, the one thing I was walking into for the first time in my career as a head coach was stable ownership. Like, you’re coming in with an established owner. No offence to Tampa, but before Jeffrey Vinik took over, it was very unstable. Then obviously the Coyotes, you know their situation.
“Right away, players on the ice hear the outside noise. Coming in here, they don’t have to worry about a lot of things. There’s stability. There’s other things to worry about. . . but there were some pretty damn good players here to work with.”
Five of them are going to the NHL All-Star Game in Toronto, and so is their coach. In his 53 weeks in charge of the Canucks, Tocchet is 53-23-9. Vancouver leads the overall standings and Tocchet is the mid-season favourite for the Jack Adams Award.
“As a coaching staff, did we expect to be first overall? No,” he says. “But I felt with the staff we put together and with the chemistry I have with Patrik and Jim — the way we look at the game is similar — and with the coaches. . . and some of the pieces we had, I knew if we did the right things, I felt comfortable that we’d improve. To this level? Probably not so much. But I think at the end of the day, I felt confident that I could somewhat turn it around.”
If this is somewhat turned around, Canucks Nation can’t wait for the full transformation.
Allvin and Rutherford talked to eight candidates, formally interviewed five of them, and Tocchet was their first choice to replace Bruce Boudreau.
“He saw first-hand for a number of years how we work, and how we support each other,” Rutherford says of convincing Tocchet to come to Vancouver. “There’s lots of ups and downs in our game, as you know. And you need that support. I would suspect that was a key thing. We were going to support him.”
The Canucks have lost twice in regulation since Dec. 5. The Edmonton Oilers are on an epic 16-game winning streak and have clawed back only seven points on first-place Vancouver, which leads the Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights by seven in the Pacific Division.
With the Canucks surfing a 9-0-2 points streak into the break, and fresh off a three-goal third-period comeback Saturday against the Columbus Blue Jackets, nothing feels impossible for Rick Tocchet’s team.
He says he wouldn’t have taken the job were it not for Rutherford and Allvin — and assistant coach Adam Foote agreeing to join the staff.
“I think our vision, how to build a team, is the same,” Tocchet says. “How I like to do things, the autonomy they give me. . . don’t get me wrong, they’re my boss, but it’s under my watch and they give me a lot of say when it comes to that. I like that.
“And I think just overall the round table; Jim knows my personality, and I know his. And I know Patrik’s personality and how we work. That gave me a head start coming here. But I knew this was a tough market. Like, I’m not sure I would have wanted to come in blind. That’s why I brought Adam Foote. If I had to come here by myself, I’m probably not taking the job.”
Rutherford and Allvin have talked about the Canucks’ new alignment, from owner Francesco Aquilini down through management and hockey operations, to scouting and player development, as paramount to the organization’s success this season and beyond.
But the relationships driving the wins on the ice the most are between Tocchet and his players.
Tocchet’s observations last week that star centre Elias Pettersson needed to be better — “I haven’t liked his game the last three or four games. We’ve got to get him going” — made headlines. Rightly or wrongly, that’s the market.
But the coach has been equally honest in assessing players at the bottom of his lineup. Everyone on the Canucks is held to the same standards, and Tocchet’s accountability and egalitarianism are what connect him to players.
“I’ve had some good coaches in the past where they were good coaches, demanding coaches, but the players weren’t connecting with them,” defenceman Nikita Zadorov says. “And it didn’t work out. You’ve got to build a relationship with the players. Mutual respect is a big part of it. When you see the coach respecting you, he’s working his ass off and he’s respecting the game. He’s putting you out there when you’re at your best and not putting you out there when you’re not at your best.”
“His door is always open to go in and talk about hockey,” veteran Ian Cole says. “But just personally. . . he’ll talk to you like a person. I think sometimes coaches miss that. It’s almost like a two-caste system, but he’s able to kind of blend that.
“Now, he’s also the coach and he’ll call you out and he’ll say, ‘That was shit.’ He’ll do all that. But he’s also really good at hearing what you say, taking it in and having a conversation about a play. I think that is great because I think it puts you and your coach on the same page.”
Cole says Tocchet and the coaching staff were “definitely a factor” when he signed with Vancouver as a free agent last summer.
Players rarely say anything bad about a coach until he’s fired or they move on. They kind of like ice time. But it’s clear inside the Canucks dressing room that there is genuine respect for Tocchet, who logged 1,144 NHL games as a player, amassing 952 points and 2,972 penalty minutes and winning a Stanley Cup with the Penguins in 1992.
Tocchet has built a coaching staff that includes Stanley Cup winners Adam Foote and Sergei Gonchar, former Minnesota and St. Louis head coach Mike Yeo, and leans heavily on Hall-of-Famers Henrik and Daniel Sedin from the Canucks’ player-development department.
“The authenticity thing, you just know he’s for real,” says winger Conor Garland, who played for Tocchet in Arizona. “He’s genuine and he wants you to improve and he also wants us to win. It’s easy to get buy-in when you have that. I think probably our best thing is we have so many guys bought in. He’s a good person. When I’ve had stuff off the ice or whatever, he’s always there for you. That’s why guys love playing for him. That’s why we’re having success this year and why he’s in the All-Star Game.”
“We said we were trying to build a standard, and we’ve set a standard now,” winger Brock Boeser says. “And I think it’s more just continuing to play to that standard consistently. You’ve got to learn these lessons now because in the playoffs, you don’t want to be regretting things.”
Boeser and Pettersson will be joined in Toronto by J.T. Miller, defenceman Quinn Hughes and goalie Thatcher Demko. All-Star Game this weekend, playoffs in April. Of course, there is no comparing the importance of the two.
“I’ll be honest with you,” Tocchet says. “When I got named (to the All-Star Game), that was for Footy and Yeosy. I’m an extension (of the staff). I know it sounds cheesy, but it is — I’m an extension. We talked about the crest when I first got here. The Vancouver Canucks’ crest should mean something. How do we play? Now we’re at the All-Star Game with five guys and a coach and we have that crest shining. It’s like, ‘Hey, man, this is a good franchise. This is a team that plays hard.’”
A team that found its coach and its identity, and looks capable of great things.
