Photo credit: Canucks Daily
Ex-Vancouver Canucks Head Coach Rick Tocchet and now the leader of the Philadelphia Flyers, opened up with his honest comments about what went wrong during the 2024-2025 NHL season.
Just a few weeks ago, many were pretty stunned when Rick Tocchet decided to part ways with the Vancouver Canucks after just two seasons, both of which brought him home hardware, one for winning the Jack Adams Award for the Leagues best Coach and for winning the Presidents Trophy.
One thing is for certain is that none of things happened during the 2024-2025 Canucks season as the team delt with constant speculation rumors and most notably, a well publicized rift between teammates J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson.
Although he decided to leave after missing the playoffs, Rick Tocchet could have thrown some players under the bus, or made excuses about what went wrong.
Instead, he took the high road and showcased his skills as a leader and commended everyone on the team, saying he believed it was not due to a lack of from his guys.
There wasn’t much that went right for the Canucks last season, but Tocchet insisted that the team’s effort throughout was commendable. «I really believe that the guys really tried hard to make everything work. I said it before, and I’ll say it again. I don’t think there’s really a bad guy. Are there certain things that we wished we could have realized? Yeah..
One thing he did not beat around the bush with was how the Pettersson/Miller drama affected the team, saying it was clear it was a distraction.
But, what is shocking is that Tocchet himself said he is too blame and took accountability for bot heling the situation, saying he spent too much time focusing on it.
Obviously, the Miller/Pettersson thing was a big story. It affected some of our players, I could tell. Speaking on the rift between Miller and Pettersson, Tocchet emphasized that maybe he’d spent too much time focusing on that rather than some of the other players. «I think I made a little mistake, I spent too much time on it. There were some guys that needed me a little bit and I wasn’t there as much as I usually am for players.»
Even after everything went wrong this past season, Tocchet clearly has a lot of respect for the entire team and organization, and the fact that he took some accountability for playing into the issues speaks volumes on the time of head coach and person he is.
Previously on CanucksDaily
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Ex-Canucks Head Coach Rick Tocchet Drops Bombshell About How He Mismanaged the Pettersson/Miller Drama
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