Canucks fire Boudreau; team on track to miss playoffs
Bruce Boudreau has been fired as coach of the Vancouver Canucks, who are again on track to miss the NHL playoffs with another underachieving season.
The team announced the change on Jan. 22, less than a week since president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford said “major surgery” was needed to fix the Canucks, who have made the playoffs once in the last eight years. Rick Tocchet was hired as replacement for a Vancouver team that had lost 28 of 46 games.
“This was not an easy decision to make but one that we felt was necessary for this franchise,” general manager Patrik Allvin said in a statement thanking
Boudreau for his contributions.
Boudreau waved to the crowd after the Canucks’ latest defeat Jan. 21, their third in four games. Chants of “Bruce, there it is!” to the tune of Tag Team’s “Whoomp! (There It Is)” echoed around the arena as a tribute to the wellrespected 68-year-old hockey lifer who ranks among the top regular-season coaches in NHL history.
He’s the second coach Vancouver has fired in under 14 months. Boudreau took over in December 2021 when coach Travis Green and GM Jim Benning were let go 25 games into last season.
Assistant Trent Cull was also relieved of his duties, the team said Jan. 22. Adam Foote was named as an assistant and Sergei Gonchar a defensive development coach on Tocchet’s staff.
Tocchet previously coached the Tampa Bay Lightning for parts of two seasons (2008-10) and the Arizona Coyotes for four years (2017-21). He won the Stanley Cup as a player with the Pittsburgh Penguins and then twice as an assistant for them.
“Rick Tocchet brings a wealth of knowledge to this team from both a coach and player perspective,” Allvin said. “He has had more than two decades of coaching experience, guiding teams of various styles.”
The Canucks have missed the playoffs the past two seasons since reaching the second round in the COVID-19 bubble in 2020.
Boudreau was with his fourth NHL organization after stints with Washington, Anaheim and Minnesota. He won the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year in 2007-08 when he was elevated from the minors to coach the Capitals on Thanksgiving and got them to the playoffs.
Teams coached by Boudreau for a full season have made the playoffs nine out of 10 times. His .626 points percentage ranks fourth among coaches with at least 500 games behind the bench, and his 617 wins are tied for 20th in league history.
But a Canucks team in disarray did not give him much of a chance to keep that success going.