Canucks fire Bruce Boudreau as head coach, name Rick Tocchet as replacement

The Vancouver Canucks on Sunday fired head coach Bruce Boudreau more than halfway into the 2022-23 season.

The Canucks were 18-25-3 at the start of the day. The team had lost seven out of their last eight games and their only win came in a shootout against the Carolina Hurricanes last weekend. Vancouver lost to the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday.

Canucks assistant coach Trent Cull was also relieved of his duties.

“We would like to extend our sincere thanks to Bruce and Trent for their contributions to this organization,” Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin said in a statement. “We appreciate their dedication and wish them nothing but the best moving forward. This was not an easy decision to make, but one that we felt was necessary for this franchise.”

Vancouver hired Rick Tocchet to replace Boudreau. Adam Foote was named the assistant coach and Sergei Gonchar was hired as the defensive development coach.

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“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. As a player, he displayed a high level of character, grit and intensity, while recording impressive offensive numbers.

“We are also excited about the additions of Adam Foote and Sergei Gonchar to our coaching staff. Both individuals enjoyed long, successful playing careers as NHL defencemen and together provide a wide range of expertise on both sides of the puck. Tocchet, Foote and Gonchar all bring a championship pedigree to the organization and we look forward to welcoming them to Vancouver.”

Boudreau was hired in the middle of last season. He led the Canucks to a 32-15-10 record in 57 games and stayed on into the first 46 games of this season.

Tocchet last coached in the NHL during the 2020-21 season with the Arizona Coyotes. He has a career record of 125-131-34.