After missing out on the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Vancouver Canucks have some pending decisions to make this off-season.
First: the future of bench boss Rick Tocchet.
His full contract is up this season and though the Canucks do have a team option, Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman reported that Vancouver has cooled on the idea of pursuing that option.
"The one thing I do believe is nobody — not Tocchet, not the Canucks — want this to drag into the end of the season, after the end of the season, too long into the summer," Friedman reported on the Saturday Headlines segment of Hockey Night in Canada. "I think you're going to see how this is going to work out come down pretty quickly at the end of the season."
Friedman added that both sides want to be sure of the plan so they're able to continue with their plans in the summer.
Meanwhile, Brock Boeser shared with Sportsnet's Iain MacIntyre this week he felt remaining with the Canucks would be "unlikely at this point."
Friedman explained on Saturday that the big issue with Boeser's contract is term.
"Never say never, but term is the issue with both Boeser and the Canucks have found hard to bridge."
Boeser is in the final season of a three-year, $19.95 million contract that he signed in 2022. Through his nine-year NHL career, he's not signed a contract longer than three years.
