Quinn Hughes Forces New Vancouver Canucks Head Coach Adam Foote to Back Off and Shuts Down Communication
Vancouver Canucks captain Quinn Hughes recently told a hilarious story of asking the team's new Head Coach, Adam Foote, to stop calling him so much in the offseason.
The Vancouver Canucks will have a "new" face as their Head Coach this coming season, as the club promoted Adam Foote to that role in May following the departure of Rick Tocchet to the Philadelphia Flyers.
Foote has a big task at hand in his first year as the Canucks' bench boss and that's to get them back to the Stanley Cup Playoffs after a disastrous 2024-25 campaign, and in order to unite his team's leadership group a bit more he's spoken with them countless times including an in-person meeting in Detroit over the summer that featured Quinn Hughes, Elias Pettersson and Thatcher Demko.
Quinn Hughes tells hilarious story of asking Adam Foote to stop calling him so much
During an interview with Sportsnet reporter Iain MacIntyre, Vancouver Canucks captain Quinn Hughes opened up on a wide range of topics including his thoughts on trade rumors featuring his name, as well as his relationship with forward Elias Pettersson, who is coming off a tough year.
When speaking about the team's decision to promote Adam Foote to the role of Head Coach, Hughes was pretty happy, especially given that it was a familiar face to him, with the former NHL defenseman serving as an Assistant coach with the organization since January 2023.
The Canucks captain jokingly said that he wouldn't be answering his phone for a little while or else he'd be getting calls from Adam Foote four or five times a week, adding that it's clear the new Head Coach is excited about the opportunity to be a bench boss in the NHL.
"If I didn't tell him that, he'd have been on the phone with me every four or five days. He's really great at communicating and no one's more excited for the season than him." Hughes said.
He added, "He's trying to make us a better team. It's so hard to add pieces from the outside, so he's trying to empower everyone on the inside and make everyone inside better. He can teach us and bring us closer. Let's be honest: we're not going to be the most-skilled team, but we can have the hardest-working team. We can have a team. I mean, you look at Florida and they have a ton of talent, but they're a team. And that's something we can be."
He added, "He's trying to make us a better team. It's so hard to add pieces from the outside, so he's trying to empower everyone on the inside and make everyone inside better. He can teach us and bring us closer. Let's be honest: we're not going to be the most-skilled team, but we can have the hardest-working team. We can have a team. I mean, you look at Florida and they have a ton of talent, but they're a team. And that's something we can be."
Collectively, Hughes and Foote are hoping to both have a big impact on the Vancouver Canucks this season and if the club is going to achieve that goal of making it back to the Stanley Cup Playoffs, they're going to need have a strong start to the 2025-26 campaign, which might be tough with six of their first eight games on the road.
Source: Sportsnet/Iain MacIntyre
Quinn Hughes on Canucks future: 'I can handle the noise'
Quinn Hughes on Canucks future: 'I can handle the noise'
Previously on Vancouver Hockey Daily
| POLL | ||
SEPTEMBRE 4 | 1526 ANSWERS Quinn Hughes Forces New Vancouver Canucks Head Coach Adam Foote to Back Off and Shuts Down Communication What are your expectations for Adam Foote's first season as the Head Coach of the Vancouver Canucks? | ||
| Getting into the playoffs as a top-3 team | 545 | 35.7 % |
| Getting into the playoffs as a Wild Card team | 727 | 47.6 % |
| Just missing out on a wild card spot | 254 | 16.6 % |
| List of polls | ||