VANCOUVER — The Vancouver Canucks want to extend Rick Tocchet’s contract “sooner rather than later,” but the head coach is going to make them wait.
The National Hockey League’s reigning coach-of-the-year explained to Sportsnet after the Canucks’ morning skate on Tuesday that he needs to focus entirely on the team’s ongoing drive for a playoff spot, and that his choice to hold off on negotiations over a new contract should not be viewed as a sign he is unsure about staying in Vancouver.
“No, it’s got nothing to do with that,” he said. “I’m not trying to (create negotiating) leverage or trying to cause issues or looking at other stuff. Really and sincerely, for me mentally, right now I have to think of this season. It’s the way I’m built and wired.”
In an earlier interview to promote the annual Canucks-For-Kids Telethon, conducted in conjunction with Vancouver’s game Tuesday night against the Winnipeg Jets, Tocchet told Sportsnet 650 radio that he has an “unreal relationship” with managing owner Francesco Aquilini, hockey-operations president Jim Rutherford and general manager Patrik Allvin.
“For me, I’m an all-in guy,” Tocchet told the station. “I’m all-in on trying to get this team in, trying to (maintain) the energy level. I think it’s better to wait for me so we can really sit down and talk. I have no time to talk about my contract. . . what I want to do and stuff because I’m all-in with this team right now. I can’t really concentrate on that (other) stuff. I’m very comfortable — and I think they will be, too — that when it’s an appropriate time, we can spend some time and really dive in, you know, where we’re going, what we’re going to do and things like that.”
Later, Tocchet told us: “Jim and Patrik have been very upfront, and they’ve been very positive. It’s more on me in the sense that I want to spend some time with them and do it properly. I know it’s a chicken—- answer, but I really am so dialled in on (making the playoffs) that I really don’t want to make it about me right now. That’s just the way it is for me, mentally.”
With familiarity from their time working together for the Pittsburgh Penguins, Rutherford and Allvin hired Tocchet 26 months ago to take over the reeling Canucks. Among other changes, Tocchet brought in assistant coaches Adam Foote and Sergei Gonchar.
Since then, the team has gone 185-101-60. Tocchet’s winning percentage of .611 is second in franchise history to Alain Vigneault’s .632.
Tocchet, 60, won the Jack Adams Award last season for orchestrating a 109-point regular season and a 13-game playoff run that represented the Canucks’ most successful campaign since it won the Presidents’ Trophy but lost the Stanley Cup Final in 2011.
This season, however, the Canucks are 31-25-11 and mired in a four-team battle for the Western Conference’s final wild-card playoff spot. MoneyPuck.com gives Vancouver only a 29.3 per cent chance of winning the wild-card race.
But given the mountain of injuries, absences and upheaval the Canucks have endured this winter, Tocchet’s coaching this season, honestly, has been at least as valuable as it was last year.
The contract Tocchet signed a little more than two years ago includes a club option for next season, but neither he nor management want him coaching next fall on an expiring deal. In several interviews throughout the season, Allvin has lauded Tocchet and his staff for their work during a difficult and unexpected season.
At the NHL GM meetings in Florida this week, Allvin told Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic: “I think Rick Tocchet has done an impressive job under the circumstances here. He’s well-liked by the players. He’s a great communicator and also (has the) ability to hold guys accountable. We have a club option, but I sure hope that he’s going to be part of this organization moving forward. That’s a conversation that I hope we’ll get to the finish line here sooner rather than later.”
Later is subjective. But it’s not now and, for Tocchet, probably won’t be until however this Canucks season ends.
