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The Canucks will not exercise the contract option on Rick Tocchet for 2025-26 but hope to keep the veteran coach behind the bench in Vancouver.

President of hockey operations Jim Rutherford said Monday that the organization offered Tocchet a new long-term deal.

Expectations were high for a deep playoff run this season after the Canucks won the Pacific Division in 2023-24 and were eliminated by the Edmonton Oilers in Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals. Tocchet earned the league’s Jack Adams Award as the 2023-24 coach of the year.

The Canucks hired Tocchet midway through the 2022-23 and the team flourished in his first full campaign. They amassed 109 points and earned their first postseason berth since the 2019-20 season.

However, Vancouver slumped to fifth in the division this season with a mark of 38-30-14 (90 points).

The Canucks lost star goalkeeper Thatcher Demko for all but 23 games of this season due to injuries, and the organization traded star forward J.T. Miller to the New York Rangers after a strained relationship with forward Elias Pettersson became public.

Tocchet could be a prime candidate for open positions in Anaheim Ducks and New York Rangers, while the Chicago Blackhawks, Philadelphia Flyers and Boston Bruins finished the season with interim coaches.

“We don’t feel it’s right to have somebody here that may have his mind somewhere else,” Rutherford said. “I’d say that about anybody. This is not just about Toc. We believe that — and I believe that — Toc and his coaching staff did as good a job coaching this team this year as they did the year before when he was coach of the year.”

Tocchet had previous head-coaching stints in Tampa Bay (2008-09 to 2009-10) and Arizona (2017-18 to 2020-21). He replaced Bruce Boudreau behind the Canucks’ bench in January 2023.

–Field Level Media