Canucks assistant coach likely following Rick Tocchet out of Vancouver

Reports earlier in the week indicated the Vancouver Canucks were allowing assistant coach Adam Foote to go in addition the departing Rick Tocchet.

Canucks insider Rick Dhaliwal reported Tuesday that Foote's contract with Vancouver had expired, and that he believed Foote was granted permission to speak with other NHL teams.

"Adam Foote's contract is up - I believe he has permission to talk with other teams," Dhaliwal posted to his X account Tuesday afternoon.

These rumours were confirmed Wednesday, as Steve Mountain, the agent representing both Foote and Tocchet, said he's had limited talks with the Canucks regarding Foote's future with the organization.

Making an appearance on Dhaliwal's show, "Donnie and Dhali," Mountain said Wednesday that Foote's future is "to be determined."

"In fairness to the Canucks and to Adam, we haven't spent a great deal of time on Adam, mostly because we needed to get finished with [Rick Tocchet] to figure out what's next. Adam Foote, he's out of contract and there's been some brief conversations with Vancouver and I'm not sure how this will move forward, but Adam, if Vancouver's interested in having him stay on, that's a discussion we'll have."

It is a common practice for an NHL team to allow an incoming head coaching hire to choose his or her coaching staff, so Foote is likely to only stay with the Canucks under other circumstances.

Foote, 53, has spent each of the last three seasons with the Canucks as part of Tocchet's coaching staff, but does not otherwise have any NHL coaching experience. Foote served as a development consultant for the Colorado Avalanche for four seasons and as head coach of the WHL Kelowna Rockets for parts of two seasons.