Latest Talks Reveal the Vancouver Canucks Are Preparing Offers to Three Head Coaches to Replace Rick Tocchet

Rick Tocchet's future with the Vancouver Canucks is unclear at this point, with a club option for the 2025-26 season and contract talks put on hold until the time is right, with the club focused on their goal of making it back to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

With nine games remaining in the regular season and Vancouver sitting four points back of the final wild card spot in the Western Conference entering Saturday, many have been wonder what will happen to Rick Tocchet if they don't make it to the postseason.

While the Vancouver Canucks and Rick Tocchet would like to get a contract extension done to keep him with the club beyond the 2025-26 season, there's always a chance that a new opportunity could come up, such as the vacancy in Philadelphia, which could be intriguing for the former Flyer.

If Rick Tocchet were to leave the Canucks this summer, there wouldn't be a shortage of potential names for Patrik Allvin and Jim Rutherford to consider.

In an article on The Hockey News, Izzy Cheung took a look at some potential options for the Vancouver Canucks, should Rick Tocchet leave in the coming months.

Among the names mentioned by Cheung are Abbotsford Canucks head coach and former Vancouver Canucks forward Manny Malhotra, as well as Mike Sullivan of the Pittsburgh Penguins (if he's let go), who Allvin and Rutherford are very familiar with.

Malhotra was was hired by the Canucks to be Abbotsford's head coach back in May 2024, which is his first bench boss role after spending previous seven seasons as an assistant with Vancouver and Toronto.

As for Mike Sullivan, he spent parts of seven seasons in Pittsburgh with Patrik Allvin and Jim Rutherford and with the way things are going for the Penguins, who are set to miss the postseason for the third straight season, it looks like a change behind the bench will coming at some point.

It seems more likely than not that Rick Tocchet will be back behind the bench for the Vancouver Canucks in the fall, but on the off chance he's not, Malhotra and Sullivan could be two solid options for the organization to consider.

Source: The Hockey News/Izzy Cheung
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