The Vancouver Canucks are hoping to have an answer sometime this week on the future of head coach Rick Tocchet.
Speaking at an end-of-season press conference on Monday, club management said they would not exercise a club option to bring Tocchet back next year. But they said they do want him back, and are still working to try and sign a new deal.
“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,” said Jim Rutherford, Canucks president of hockey operations.
Rutherford said communication with Tocchet’s camp had been good all year and even better since the end of the season. He added that management was pleased with Jack Adams’ trophy-winning coach’s work this year, despite the team’s regression from last season and amid locker room drama that ultimately ended with J.T. Miller being traded to the New York Rangers.
“With all that going on, how he handled the situation and how he handled the team was really good,” he said. “So I give him and his staff kudos for the job they did this year.”
Rutherford also addressed fan complaints about rising ticket prices after a disappointing year, with some season ticket holders seeing their packages go up by 20 to 30 per cent.
Rutherford said part of the reason for the increase was to pay for upgrades to an aging Rogers Arena. The rising salary cap, along with the weak Canadian dollar, are also part of the equation, he said.
“I understand the frustration. I don’t like to pay more for anything, either. None of us do,” he said.
“Not being in the playoffs after having a price increase is hard for people to understand.”
On the heels of a 2023-2024 campaign that saw the Canucks win the Pacific Division and come within a game of the Western Conference Final, Rutherford acknowledged fans got a “disappointing season” this year.
He said the J.T. Miller-Elias Petterson rift was a big part of that, stemming from an “unfortunate incident” early in the season that “hurt the chemistry of the team,” resulting in a trade that the club “didn’t expect to make and didn’t want to make.”
The club had hoped the issue could be resolved internally, but ultimately realized it couldn’t and went to Miller to pitch a trade, he said.
General manager Patrick Allvin said Pettersson, meanwhile, has proven he is more than capable of being a first-line centre, but that his off-season last year played into his weaker performance this year.
He also had some tough words for the star, whose play began to drop off late last season amid what he said was knee tendonitis.
“What I will say is there is a lot of players in the National Hockey League that play through different injuries, different parts of the year,” he said.
“Part of being a pro player is that you have resources to handle different things. As of now, Elias is healthy and is back.”
Pettersson was trending back in the right direction before getting hurt again near the end of the season, Rutherford added, but still has work to do beyond scoring.
“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 gonna have to buy into being a complete player. He’s going to have to buy into working hard,” he said.
“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.”
Allvin also refused to rule out the possibility of trading Pettersson before his no-trade clause kicks in on July 1.
“We still believe in him. But I would be, I guess, stupid not to keep my options open, because we’re sitting here,” he said.
On the prospect of trades, management also let one comment slip towards the end of the presser sure to raise eyebrows — this time about team captain and all-star defenceman Quinn Hughes.
Hughes still has two years left on his contract and is eligible for extension at the end of next year. Rutherford said the club is prepared to offer him the “kind of contract he deserves” to keep him in Vancouver.
“That’s the one thing we can prepare for. And it may not boil down to money with him. He said before he wants to play with his brothers. And that would be partly out of our control. In our control if we brought those brothers here,” Rutherford said, before acknowledging he had to “be careful with (trade) tampering” and “probably crossed the line” with the comment.
“This franchise cannot afford to lose a guy like Quinn Hughes and we will do everything we can to keep him here, but at the end of the day, it’ll be his decision.”