Elliotte Friedman Confirms Rick Tocchet Has Rejected a Contract Offer from the Vancouver Canucks & It's Big

The contract status of Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet is going to be a hot topic in Vancouver in the coming weeks and months as the team's playoff hopes continue to dwindle.

Tocchet told reporters recently that regarding his contract, something will get done when the time is right and on Monday, there's been a pretty big update on that front.

During Monday's edition of the 32 Thoughts podcast, Sportsnet insider Elliotte Friedman revealed that the Vancouver Canucks have made a new contract offer to Rick Tocchet.

Friedman added that the contract offer wasn't enough to get it done and that as of right now, he's uncertain if the team will hold onto Rick Tocchet to the option year (2025-26) if the two sides agree that it's not the right path forward.

If Rick Tocchet and the Vancouver Canucks end up parting ways this summer and forego that option for 2025-26 in his current contract, it could lead to a pretty interesting coaching search for Patrik Allvin and the management group.

Among the options suggested by Izzy Cheung of The Hockey News are Manny Malhotra, who's coaching down in Abbotsford and if let go, Mike Sullivan of the Pittsburgh Penguins, someone that Allvin and Rutherford are very familiar with.

For now, Tocchet's focus is on the Canucks' remaining nine games of the 2024-25 campaign and doing all he can to push this team towards a second straight appearance in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, which, unfortunately, looks nearly impossible at this point.