Rick Tocchet met with the media after the Vancouver Canucks’ third day of training camp in Penticton, B.C., providing an overarching look at the state of the team and some of its more notable recent developments.
The reigning Jack Adams Award winner started by providing some insight on how he plans to deploy his goaltenders and veterans in the preseason, which is often used as a testing ground to try new line combinations and provide unproven players with opportunities.
“We have to make sure we get our veterans in certain games,” Tocchet said. “I haven’t really decided, but the Millsy group, Petey and those guys. I assume they’ll probably play three games. But it’s not set in stone. Guys like Räty, Lekkerimäki, Bains, those types of guys, I want to see them in exhibition. So they will probably play at least three, four games.”
And as for the goalies?
“I still have to talk to Marko [Torenius, the Canucks’ goaltending coach],” Tocchet said. “I don’t like goalies splitting games, but we’ll figure that out.”
Tocchet also singled out defenceman Filip Hronek, coming off a career year and signing a new eight-year contract extension, for his exemplary performance and consistency early in camp.
“To be honest with you, he’s been excellent,” Tocchet said. “I don’t want to single everybody out because I could name a lot, but if you could pick a guy for three solid training camp days, he’s just been tremendous. There’s no drop-off.
“[You] see some guys sucking wind and he’s just like, ‘What’s the next drill?’ He worked really hard this summer and he’s talking a lot out there. You can tell he’s just a different guy in the sense that he wants to be more vocal, so I’m really proud of him.”
Hronek began training camp skating away from Quinn Hughes, the Canucks’ captain with whom he spent most of the 2023-24 season. Hughes has been vocal about his desire to remain with Hronek in 2024-25, but Tocchet downplayed the notion that he intends to keep them separated for long.
“Well I think he knows there’s going to be sometimes they’ll be together, and sometimes they might not,” Tocchet said. “We might be playing a different team, or a different situation where he has to drive his own pair, and I think he doesn’t care. He’ll play with anybody. Obviously, him and Huggy, we’ve got to definitely get them on the ice together for sure.”
Tocchet also had plenty of positive things to say about Nils Höglander, who has skated with Conor Garland and Aatu Räty early in camp.
“I thought [it] was tremendous how he grew,” Tocchet said, referring to Höglander’s 2023-24 season. “I think it’s another level of higher expectations. We expect not to make some of the mistakes he made last year. Now listen, he’s going to make mistakes but listen, he came in great shape. I think him, Garland, and Räty, they’ve been pushing the pace. They’re probably the best line out there in the sense of sustainability. So, I give him a lot of credit.”
The Canucks are slated to kick off their 2024 preseason slate of games at Rogers Arena on Tuesday when they take on the Seattle Kraken at 7:00 p.m. PT.
