Big things are coming for the 2025–26 Vancouver Canucks. In the 2023–24 regular season, the team shattered expectations by taking the Edmonton Oilers to Game 7 of the Division Finals. In 2024–25, they were unable to build off of that success and ultimately deconstructed a good chunk of their team. Nobody knows what the 2025–26 season will look like for the Canucks, but former head coach Rick Tocchet knows that things will be different under new coach Adam Foote. 

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“This guy knows the game. Good communicator. Players love playing for him,” Tocchet said in an interview with John Shannon and Daren Millard of the 100% Hockey with Millard & Shannon podcast. “Now his decision making is going to be either criticized or glorified, but you’ve got to swing the bat. You can’t be afraid to make those decisions, and I think he’s got that character in him to do that.” 

Foote has served as one of Tocchet’s assistant coaches since January of 2023, when both of them joined the organization. Both have seen the ups and downs that the Canucks are often capable of. However, as Tocchet said in the interview, the 2024–25 season was certainly a strange one. 

“It was a trying year. There was a lot of stuff that happened,” he said. “It was one of the weirdest years that I’ve ever been involved with, and I’ve learned a lot over it too.” 

There wasn’t much that went right for the Canucks last season, but Tocchet insisted that the team’s effort throughout was commendable. “I really believe that the guys really tried hard to make everything work. I said it before, and I’ll say it again. I don’t think there’s really a bad guy. Are there certain things that we wished we could have realized? Yeah, not to use injuries as an excuse, but a lot of injuries. Obviously, the Miller/Pettersson thing was a big story. It affected some of our players, I could tell.” 

Rick Tocchet Reveals Reasons Why He Departed The Vancouver Canucks On April 29, the Vancouver Canucks announced that Rick Tocchet would not return as head coach for the 2025-26 season. At the time, the move was surprising, as during his year-end media availability, Tocchet spoke as if he was returning next season. In the end, Tocchet didn't need to wait long for another opportunity, as he signed a five-year deal to become the next head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers. 

Speaking on the rift between Miller and Pettersson, Tocchet emphasized that maybe he’d spent too much time focusing on that rather than some of the other players. “I think I made a little mistake, I spent too much time on it. There were some guys that needed me a little bit and I wasn’t there as much as I usually am for players.” 

It will be interesting to see what the 2025–26 season has in store for the Canucks. With the NHL Draft and free agency period around the corner, this team could look vastly different compared to the one from 2024–25. 

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