The Vancouver Canucks head coach and players held their end of season media availability last week, just two days after the team as eliminated. However, the Canucks’ upper management took the weekend to decompress and met with the media first thing Monday morning.
There were certainly a lot of interesting statements made. Whether it was updates on Rick Tocchet or Tom Willander’s contract situation, keeping their options open regarding trading star centreman Elias Pettersson, or the potential acquisition of Quinn Hughes’ brothers, there was a lot that we can take away from the availability.
Here are four of the takeaways from earlier today:
Management wants Tocchet to stay, but will not exercise team option
The Canucks’ head coach enters next season without a contract. The team does have a team option and could retain him, but they’ve decided not to exercise their option and will trust in their strong communication they’ve had with Tocchet all season:
“I believe that communication’s been good this year, and it’s even been better since the season’s ended, because I’ve actually sat in a couple of those meetings, and it’s been a really good dialogue,” Rutherford said. “We will not exercise the team option for him to stay. We don’t feel it’s right to have somebody here that may have his mind somewhere else. And I’d say that about anybody; this is not just about Tocc.
“As for his contract, we’ve gone through a process where we’ve negotiated; I would suspect sometime this week, he’ll have a decision. We have gone a long ways from where coaches have been compensated with the Canucks for years, forever, actually, and we’re hoping that he takes that contract and stays.”
Rutherford had high praise for the work his bench boss did this year, comparing the job he did this season, given all the off-ice issues and drama, to his coaching efforts last season when Tocchet won the Jack Adams Award for the best coach in the NHL.
“I believe that Tocc and his coaching staff did as good a job coaching this team this year as they did the year before, when he was coach of the year. Now he was dealt a totally different hand this year. When the team won the division, it was a lot of good work by him, a lot of good work by the players, but everything went right. This year, we’ve talked enough about, you know, the incident that happened and affected the chemistry of the room and affected the play of the team in the first half and forced a trade. But with all that going on, how he handled the situation and how he handled the team was really good. So I give him and his staff kudos for the job they did this year.”
Now that we know a contract is on the table for Tocchet, it’s just a matter of whether he will accept it and remain in Vancouver or not. Recent reports would indicate that if the Canucks wanted to bring him back, they would have to make him the highest paid coach in franchise history. And that looks to be the case now with a tabled offer.
The decision could be coming within the upcoming week, so we won’t have to wait long. But we wonder how important it is for Quinn Hughes and his looming decision that they retain Tocchet. Hughes gave his coach a massive vote of confidence, saying that he is the best coach he’s ever had. So if Tocchet does move on, does that make Hughes’ decision to leave when he’s a free agent in the Summer of 2027?
Management still believes in Pettersson, but they need him to buy in
Much of the dialogue at today’s media availability centred on centreman Elias Pettersson and what the management group wants to see out of him heading into the offseason.
“This is not something that [Pettersson’s] going to be able to snap his fingers and change. Everybody’s aware that, because of injuries or for whatever reason, Petey wasn’t as prepared for the start of training camp and the start of the season. I think that became one of the issues here that started to get things firing up. Before he got hurt and didn’t play the remaining games, there were signs of him going in the right direction.
“He’s a guy that’s always going to be able to get his points, but can you be a contending team with your top player just getting points? And I can answer that question. The answer is, No, you can’t. So he’s going to have to buy into being a complete player. He’s going to have to buy into working hard. I can give you some good news. It’s a small step, but he’s been in here working every day now for the last few days, and that’s what we like to see, and we know that he’s working hard. He’s not just stopping in for a cup of coffee. So that’s a good sign, but he’s going to have to do that all summer. He’s going to have to buy into what the coach wants him to do, and part of buying in is being a complete player if you want to have a contending team.”
This was interesting to hear for two reasons.
It’s no secret that Pettersson did not have the proper offseason training to be fully ready for the NHL season upon entering training camp. However, what we didn’t know was that it became one of the issues that reignited the feud between Miller and Pettersson. All that losing at the start of the season probably didn’t help either.
Also, Pettersson has consistently posted impressive underlying defensive metrics throughout his career and has performed well in the defensive zone. So, what could Rutherford mean? Well, another media member made sure to follow this up, to which we got this response from Rutherford:
“He just has to buy into it. I mean, you can go through the league with different players. Lots of people around hockey know the story when Scotty Bowman went to Detroit and talked to Steve Yzerman about what was more important: his points or winning cups? And that’s when Yzerman’s game changed, and he bought into that. Sidney Crosby can play the game whatever way he wants. He’s one of the greatest players of all time. He did the same thing when Mike Sullivan came in as a coach, and then Pittsburgh won two Stanley Cups back-to-back.
“So, there’s examples out there, great examples out there for these young guys that say they want to win a cup, but do you want to put the work in? And just look at those two examples I gave. Petey can do it. He’s got the ability to do it. He’s just got to buy into it and prepare properly in the off-season.”
Clearly, this management group still believes in the player, but they need to see more of a buy-in from him. Can he be the player who can tip you over the edge? Does he possess that extra work ethic and commitment to not just be good, but to be great? That’s what Allvin and Rutherford are looking for.
There were some rumours of the Canucks trading Pettersson, even after JT Miller was traded. Could that be back on the table? Pettersson has a full no-move clause that kicks in on July 1 and will be able to dictate where or if he goes anywhere after that point.
Allvin had this to say about potentially trading Pettersson:
“As we’re sitting here today, I will keep all my options open. I do believe that the last three years, Elias had one down here, which was this year. And, as Jim alluded to before, it’s not about individual points; it’s about playing the right way to win. We still believe Elias is more than capable of coming back, as he has shown in the past year in Vancouver. I think this is about taking his game to the next level.”
Throughout most of their availability, Allvin and Rutherford were talking as if he was going to be around for next season. And considering what the centre free agent market looks like, it would be pretty tough to trade Pettersson and improve your centre depth.
We will continue to monitor the Pettersson situation. But if he has good offseason training and is still with the Canucks through July 1, he will likely remain in Vancouver for the next seven seasons.
Management outlines offseason plans
Rutherford started by sharing some of his offseason plans, stating that the organization is very happy with their goaltending and defence, but that they need to improve the forward corps. More specifically, the centre ice position. That will be the main focus this offseason, which could mean they lose out on both of their unrestricted free agents, Brock Boeser and Pius Suter:
“Well, we could lose those players. We might not. It’s one of the reasons that we didn’t trade them at the deadline. So we had a longer runway to make that decision. I think the biggest thing for us is to strengthen our centre ice. I give our players credit. I mean, they give all they had in most of the games, and then in the second half and got eliminated from the playoffs in the fourth last game or something and that was without our top two centres. So getting that centre ice strengthened, then you can do a lot of different things with your wingers. So that will be Patrik’s priority. And if we can do that, it’s going to make it easier to make our forwards better.”
He would then mention the plan he came to Vancouver with: to build around and with younger players. But we found it hard not to wonder what the actual message Rutherford was trying to send. Was this him foreshadowing what the real plans are? Like, “Hey, we haven’t traded any of our young players yet. But we’re going to have to this offseason to fix up the centre depth. So be ready,” kind of scenario.
“When I came here, you asked about a plan, and the plan we had was to build with younger players. And one of the things that we fortunately have not done is traded away our younger players. We’re starting to build. Patrik and his group has done a good job of building up young players. You can see the young players in the pipeline. You can see the young players that come up here and played this year. You can see what Abbotsford is doing with one of the youngest teams in the American Hockey League. So that’s an advantage we have.
“We have to have some good, hard work by Patrik and his staff this off-season. Have some good luck. Maybe we get a good free agent to come here. I think it’s more likely that we’re going to have to trade for the players that we’re going to need, and if we have a good off-season, we can jump back up pretty good again.”
At the end of the availability, Rutherford shared that he knows acquiring a top-six centre is going to be expensive, but that’s a price they need to pay:
“It’ll be expensive, but it’ll also be very expensive not to get one. So we’re going to be open to do whatever it takes and probably on the trade market to get that player. It depends what level the player is at.”
The “it will be expensive” part probably makes everybody quiver a bit. However, if the team’s priority is to acquire another top-six centre not only to compete but also to convince Hughes to extend, the front office will be desperate and shouldn’t shy away from paying that premium price. Tom Willander? Jonathan Lekkerimäki? Dare I say, Elias Pettersson (D)?
Mutual interest for an extension between Canucks and Demko
Earlier this week, we heard Thatcher Demko in his media availability mention how he’s “always wanted to be a Canuck” and despite the Kevin Lankinen signing, that doesn’t affect his stance on wanting to remain in Vancouver with the Canucks. And now just a few days later, the Canucks President of Hockey Operations wants the same thing:
“It’s a tricky one, and there’s risk to it. There will be risk on both sides if there’s an extension. The thing that I really feel comfortable with is leading up to him returning to play, he had a different approach to his training, which is more of a preventive training for injuries.
“So I like what he’s found here, and what he’s done; he’s 100% healthy now. He’s in a great frame of mind, and we would like to extend him. Now the question is – and it’s a fool’s game to negotiate publicly, so I won’t get into that too much – going to be a matter of how much risk the team is willing to take. And then, how much risk is he willing to take?”
With the back-to-back knee injuries to Demko, Vancouver runs the risk of him not being available if he suffers further injuries during the length of the contract. However, Rutherford doesn’t seem scared by that. He compared it to a story of when he traded for Gary Roberts in Carolina after he suffered a rare neck injury.
If Rutherford wasn’t afraid to trade for somebody in a similar situation to Demko’s, then he might be just as keen to extend Demko and bet on the talent over the injury.
You can watch the entire media availability here:
