Rumour roundup: Canucks’ coaching search filled with question marks

The NHL coaching carousel is about to go for another spin, with eight franchises searching for a new bench boss after declaring themselves ready for a change.

Eight teams, and eight very different situations.

Some clubs, like the Anaheim Ducks and Chicago Blackhawks, for example, are looking for the right candidate to lead them out of rebuilds and take meaningful steps towards contending.

Others, the Pittsburgh Penguins likely among them, appear to be eyeing a rebuild of their own. The New York Rangers, meanwhile, are about as complete a roster as you’ll find — they just need the right voice behind the bench (and it seems clear who that voice will be, more on that later).

And then there are the Canucks. One day after parting ways with Rick Tocchet, who in two and a half years at the helm led Vancouver through two very different campaigns, it’s unclear where on that spectrum of contention they are.

The drama-filled 2024-25 season told a very different story than the 2023-24 campaign, which saw the Canucks sprint to the playoffs and through the first round before taking the Edmonton Oilers all the way to Game 7 of the second round.

“I don’t think this was what the Canucks wanted, but I just think at the end of the day, it was time for Rick Tocchet and I think that’s what happened. I think when the season was over, and he really had time to think and process, it was just time,” Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman explained during Wednesday’s edition of 32 Thoughts: The Podcast.

Friedman notes that it wasn’t about the contract.

“I do think the offer was very, very fair and very, very market-honest for Tocchet,” he explained.

“I think he had enough and wanted something fresh. Something new,” said Friedman. “I think he hit his limit, and it was time.”

So, what comes next? Vancouver’s coaching search is a giant question mark right now, mostly because of all the other uncertainties floating around that locker room when it comes to who this club is and how ready it is to contend.

“A lot of the obvious No. 1s out there aren’t gonna be on their list,” Friedman said, referring to Mike Sullivan, Joel Quenneville (who was reinstated by the NHL last July), and of course Tocchet.

“So, where do they see their list going, and where do they see their roster?”

Friedman does raise one interesting name to watch: Manny Malhotra. The former Canuck served as an assistant coach in Vancouver from 2016 to 2020 before moving on to the Maple Leafs’ bench. He returned to the Canucks last year as head coach of Vancouver’s AHL affiliate in Abbotsford.

“I think Malhotra’s a really honest, really blunt guy. I’m curious to see if they think he’s ready for this. I think he would have credibility among players,” Friedman said.

Rangers’ coaching search focused on Sullivan

While there is plenty of debate about how to rank the markets in terms of desirability, there’s really no debating who the top candidate on the coaching market is. It’s Mike Sullivan, full stop.

As Friedman explained during the podcast, at least part of the decision to part ways came down to differing opinions about the Penguins’ current trajectory and readiness to contend after a third straight year of missing the playoffs. Kyle Dubas and the Penguins are most likely staring down a rebuild and that kind of timeline didn’t match Sullivan’s own expectations.

“To me, that’s what it came down to, was the runway. How long is the runway?” said Friedman.

And while his agent is surely fielding a lot of calls — including, potentially, from teams not technically in the market for a new head coach right now — Friedman believes the New York Rangers are the front-runner to land him.

“I just don’t know how, if you are the New York Rangers, you are allowing anyone to snatch Sullivan from your clutches,” Friedman said. The organization’s interest in Sullivan — who spent four years as an assistant coach there from 2009 to 2013 — has been well-established long before Monday, when he officially landed on the market.

Rangers general manager Chris Drury has coveted Sullivan for the New York job since he landed in the front office. (Friedman noted that even in 2021, after Drury took the GM job, he waited until he was certain Sullivan would not be available before he hired Gerard Gallant.)

The Rangers’ bench has been a bit of a revolving door of late, going from three seasons of David Quinn (2018-21) to two each under the guidance of Gallant and Peter Laviolette. The team is under a lot of pressure to get this decision right.

“Unless Sullivan didn’t want to go there for some reason, I can’t see how the Rangers get beaten out to it,” said Friedman.

Friedman said he doesn’t see the Canucks as a fit for Sullivan, but did highlight the Boston Bruins as an intriguing option. Sullivan hails from the area and started his pro coaching career there in the early 2000s.

Yzerman sends message to Larkin

The Detroit Red Wings were quiet at the trade deadline and down the stretch of the season, but considering how openly both captain Dylan Larkin and general manager Steve Yzerman spoke at their respective off-season media availabilities, this could be a club that makes a little noise this summer. It sounds like they already are.

After Larkin opened up about his disappointment that Detroit’s front office didn’t bring in any big pieces at the deadline to help the club and raise morale, Yzerman had a pointed remark of his own that seemed to comment on his expectations around Larkin and the rest of the cornerstone players stepping up themselves.

“I would point out two teams, in Montreal and St. Louis, who at the trade deadline were sitting outside of a playoff spot. Neither team did anything,” Yzerman said Tuesday during his end-of-season availability. “They both ended up making the playoffs, and are playing very well at this time, led by their best players.”

Yzerman told reporters he had talked to Larkin privately and did not share details of that conversation. But it seemed like he had a public message for his captain on Tuesday.

Here’s Friedman on the subject:

“One of the things that happened in Montreal was — and Kent Hughes has talked about this a bit — about how he met with Nick Suzuki about what they were gonna do around the deadline and Kent Hughes basically said to Suzuki, ‘Hey, you can help make this decision for us and make life easier on us if you become even better and take over games even more.’ Which Suzuki, to his credit, did,” explained Friedman.

“This press conference yesterday with MacLellan and Yzerman was a message not only to Larkin but all the other players, saying that, ‘We don’t think anyone we trade for is gonna matter if the core we’ve identified here isn’t better.’

“I think we got some real interesting behind-the-scenes thinking in Detroit, presented publicly to everyone.”

As for Yzerman himself?

“I kind of wondered a couple weeks ago if maybe he’d had enough,” said Friedman. “I think we got the answer on Tuesday: He’s not done yet.”

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