The Vancouver Canucks and pending free agent head coach Rick Tocchet are expected to come to an agreement regarding their future with each other in the coming weeks.
According to NHL insider Elliotte Friedman, neither the Canucks nor Tocchet want the contract situation to drag out and spill into the offseason.
On the latest "Saturday Headlines" segment for Sportsnet, Friedman stated he believes both sides want to come to a mutual understanding to find an agreement, one way or another.
"Tocchet's full contract is up. There is a team option for next year. Vancouver indicated they would, maybe, hold him to the team option. If he was going to coach next year, it would be in Vancouver. . . It seems the Canucks have cooled off on that one a little bit," explained Friedman.
"The one thing I do believe is nobody - not Tocchet, not the Canucks - want this to drag into the season, after the end of the season too long into the summer. I think you're going to see how this is going to work out come down pretty quickly at the end of the season.
"I think both sides want to make sure everybody knows where they're going, what's happening, so that they can get on with the rest of their plans in the summer."
Tocchet, 61, has already been linked to the Philadelphia Flyers' head coaching vacancy with former Canucks head coach John Tortorella getting fired back on March 27.
As a former Flyer, it is believed Tocchet would have some degree of interest in the job if approached, but it has also been reported that neither the Canucks nor Tocchet are happy with the early chatter out there.
The silver lining for them is, with playoffs now out of the picture, this situation can be sorted out sooner rather than later, as Friedman alluded to in his segment for Sportsnet.