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Tocchet, in his first full season behind
Vancouver's bench, guided the Canucks to the Pacific Division
title -- their first division crown since 2013. Their 50-23-9
record and 109 points were improvements of 12 wins and 26 points
from the 2022-23 season.
Vancouver's penalty kill was tied with St. Louis for 17th (79.1
percent) this season after ranking last (71.6 percent) in
2022-23. The Canucks also improved in moving from 13th (3.29) to
sixth (3.40) in goals per game, and from 25th (3.61) to tied for
fifth (2.70) in fewest goals allowed.
Andrew Brunette of the Nashville Predators and Rick Bowness of
the Winnipeg Jets were the other finalists. Tocchet received 483
points -- on 82 first-place votes, 23 for second and four for
third -- to outpace Brunette (145; 8-28-21) and Bowness (75;
5-11-17).
"It's an organizational award," Tocchet said on ESPN's "The
Point" after being announced as the winner. "I mean, I had a lot
of help. My staff was incredible. Obviously, the Aquilini
family. (President of hockey operations) Jim (Rutherford) and
(general manager) Patrik (Allvin), (the) management team and
their staff. Walking into this, I had a lot of help. A lot of
buy-in from the players ... right from Day One. They believed in
the staff, and we believed in them."
The Canucks were eliminated in seven games against the Edmonton
Oilers in the second round of the Western Conference playoffs.
Tocchet is 70-35-13 since becoming coach of Vancouver. Overall,
he is 248-235-73 in the regular season while coaching the Tampa
Bay Lightning (2008-10), Arizona Coyotes (2017-21) and Canucks.
Tocchet is the third Canucks coach to win the award, joining
Alain Vigneault (2006-07) and Pat Quinn (1991-92).
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