2 weeks Ago By Patrick Johnston
The Vancouver Canucks ’ season is over. Players are meeting with the media on Saturday. Management will face the media sometime after that.
Until they speak, here are five questions to keep your mind occupied. As everyone knows, the Canucks’ head coach needs a new contract. The Canucks hold an option on his deal for next season, but it’s hard to fathom him wanting to come back in such a situation.
The Canucks are understood to have made him an offer on an extension but given his solid reputation around the league plus his 2024 Jack Adams award, he’s got strong bargaining power, even in a league where there are only so many coaching openings. He’s after a wage that he thinks is fair, but he’s also surely interested in what the plan going forward is going to be. He and his bosses got a glimpse at some young players, players they hope will be part of the future.
Did Tocchet like what he saw? Is there enough there? The Canucks’ No. 1 centre had an awful season. It started badly and only got worse, save for a late-season surge before an injury ultimately ended his year.
Management signed him to a massive contract believing he was a player to invest the team’s future in. They must still think that was the correct decision, right? But what if they don’t? Can they find a team to trade him to? Can they find a replacement for him to play big hard minutes? Replacing J.T.
Miller is essential. Filip Chytil is a talented player but he’s not an out-and-out No. 2.
And there’s forever going to be concussion worries around him. They need to find a guy who has the engine to be a dependable No. 2, night in, night out.
Pius Suter is close to that guy, but did he show enough in his two seasons here for the Canucks to make a bet on him being that guy again? Or, do they want a centre who plays a stiffer game? In 2023-24 the Canucks certainly had some puck luck but they also controlled play in such a way that they were one of the NHL’s strongest offensive squads. But with Pettersson and Miller struggling, the Canucks were a defensive black hole on too many nights. They can’t afford a repeat of that next season.
It’s why Pettersson rediscovering his game and finding a high-quality replacement for Miller is also essential. Tocchet’s offensive game plan demands on the centres be active and moving, leading attacks through the middle of the ice. Pettersson at his best is a master of this.
Chytil has also proven to be good at this. And the team was better to close the season, especially after the defence corps was re-set. In the end it all comes back to having centres who can play.
Rutherford is 76. He still clearly loves the job. But he’s talked repeatedly about how he knows he won’t do this forever.
How frustrating was this season for him? Surely very — but other than a pre-deadline chat with the Globe and Mail’s Gary Mason, he’s kept a low public profile. And if he leaves, what’s the succession plan? Would Allvin, who isn’t exactly keen on being in the public eye, get a promotion? Would ownership chase after another veteran hockey man? Happy pondering. pjohnston@postmedia.
com.
