Rick Tocchet has been named the NHL Jack Adams Award Winner
Rick Tocchet, the former Arizona Coyotes' head coach and player (now known as Utah), has won the 2024 Jack Adams Award.
The Jack Adams Award is given to the coach who is "adjudged to have contributed the most to his team's success.".
Tocchet took over for Bruce Boudreau as the Vancouver Canucks head coach in early 2023 and right away made a big difference to the Canucks' lineup.
Their time under Boudreau was a love-hate relationship. Under his guidance, the team had some highs and some lows. It all came to a head the night that Boudreau was fired and left the bench in tears to a standing ovation.
When Tocchet took over, it was back to business. He is a hard-nosed, no-nonsense head coach, and that is the way that Vancouver plays. He got all of his players to buy into his structure and systems, and it looks to have worked for the team right away.
Unfortunately, they fell short and didn't make the playoffs. But in the 2023–24 season, they came out with their hair on fire and ended up winning the Pacific Division with 109 points.
They would end up beating the Nashville Predators in the first round of the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs before losing a very entertaining seven-game series at the hands of the Edmonton Oilers.
The future looks bright in Vancouver, especially under the command of Tocchet. It truly wouldn't be a surprise if he found his name in the race to win another Jack Adams Award in the 2024–25 season.