It feels like Adam Foote is putting his stamp on these Vancouver Canucks. Just don’t expect Foote to bite on that suggestion.
“Critics and peers decide that. It’s not how I think,” said Foote, who officially begins his first season as an NHL head coach when he leads the Canucks up against the Calgary Flames Thursday in the home opener at Rogers Arena.
“I really just try to stay now, stay present. There are so many different variables. You can just do the work at that moment.”
At that moment in May when the Canucks announced that they were promoting Foote from assistant coach to bench boss — replacing Rick Tocchet, who had announced he wasn’t returning to the club two weeks earlier and later signed on to be coach of the Philadelphia Flyers — the easy analysis was that Vancouver was going to focus on low-event, defensive hockey.
They had played that way under Tocchet for most of last season, and Tocchet and Foote are closely aligned. It was Tocchet who brought Foote on board when he took over the bench in January 2023.
Foote, 54, was also a rugged, shutdown defender for 19 seasons in the NHL.
Foote’s plan for this season doesn’t mesh with those past three paragraphs. With these Canucks, Foote wants to play fast and be willing to push offensively. He wants his defencemen to activate and join the rush. We’ve seen all that in the pre-season games.
They’re not about to be risky their own zone, Foote points out. “We are going to be defensive.” He said a good defence can push good offence and vice versa. He talks about having “numbers,” about outmanning opponents all over the ice.
Adam Foote instructs Tyler Myers last season.
He has benefits that Tocchet didn’t have. Foote has a healthy Thatcher Demko in goal to start the season. That allows you to play bolder. Foote has a better group of blue liners to kick of the campaign, too. He’s set to get a full season out of Marcus Pettersson and Elias Pettersson, for example.
Questions remain about how much offensive firepower the forward group packs.
Front and centre with the forward play is centre Elias Pettersson. His 2024-25 was very messy and very public, and Tocchet, along with president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford and general manager Patrik Allvin, were repeatedly critical of Pettersson in the media along the way.
Foote’s tact feels different. He’s taken a more positive slant. He’s been talking up Pettersson, saying things like “what I’ve seen right now is he’s taken a real hard leadership role, which is very noticeable.”
Credit Pettersson for taking steps obviously, but also credit Foote for leaning into highlighting them.
Last season was a tire fire for the hockey club. The soap opera made everything often feel dire and dark and gloomy. This season was bound to start more upbeat, but it feels like Foote is helping give an extra boost.
“I just like the work. We’re putting in the effort,” Foote said of his charges. “There’s a good energy with the group.”
His top head coaching experience before this spot with Vancouver was a season and a half with the WHL’s Kelowna Rockets. He was fired with 14 regular season games left in the regular season. Kelowna was supposed to host the Memorial Cup national championship that spring, but the tournament was kiboshed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
He admits that he wasn’t sure if he ever wanted to be a head coach at the NHL level when he signed on to be a Tocchet assistant. That eventually changed, and he’s clearly appreciative of what Tocchet has taught him.
“Now being the head coach, I’ll call him and go ‘OK … now I get it,’” Foote said. “He’s professional. He’s the hardest worker. He’s passionate. He’s a great communicator. I learned tonnes from him.”
He does come into this with a knowledge of the personalities of the team’s core players. That’s a clear plus. It appears he studied hard to get better this summer. Foote talked to a “many, many coaches,” leaning on “anyone I could get advice from.”
He mentioned Marc Crawford specifically. Crawford was Colorado’s bench boss during part of Foote’s time there. Crawford’s also the second winningest coach in Canucks history, his 246 victories leaving him behind only the 313 put forth by Alain Vigneault.
Foote has also said that it was New York Rangers assistant Joe Sacco, who was Colorado’s coach for Foote’s final three seasons, that was among those talking up Kevin Dean, the new Vancouver assistant who worked with Sacco with the Boston Bruins. And Foote has said that current Columbus Blue Jackets head coach Dean Evason was one of people who suggested hiring Brett McLean, another of Vancouver’s incoming assistants this year. Evason and McLean had worked together in the Minnesota Wild organization.
“What I liked about looking for assistant coaches was that I spoke to people who I probably wouldn’t have spoken to. Some of them gave me ideas, some of them just gave me advice,” Foote said. “It was the longest process but it was so worth it. I think it opened up relationships for me with a lot of new people. I learned a lot.
“And I have to give Rutherford and Allvin a lot of credit. They knew what they were doing. I wanted a guy, they made me work for it. It was all worth it, because I believe we got some unbelievable guys.”
Vancouver Canucks coach Adam Foote, president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford and general manager Patrick Alvin (l-r) in action during a pre season press conference in Vancouver on September 17, 2025.
Foote played 170 playoff games over his NHL career, which ties him with former Boston Bruins stalwart Patrice Bergeron for 59th all time. Foote was part of Stanley Cup wins in Colorado in 1996 and 2001.
His 1,154 regular season games are the seventh best total from the 1989 NHL Draft class. He was the No. 22 overall selection by the Quebec Nordiques, the first pick of the second round and one choice before the New York Islanders took future Canuck coach Travis Green.
Quebec moved to Colorado in 1995-96 and Foote did two tours with the Avalanche, split up by three-year run with the Columbus Blue Jackets after he signed there as a free agent in 2005. Colorado got him back in a February 2008 trade, sending a package that included a 2008 first-round pick that the Philadelphia Flyer eventually used to select future Canuck defenceman Luca Sbisa.