Head coach Rick Tocchet made the executive decision to leave the Vancouver Canucks Tuesday, creating an eighth head coaching opening around the NHL.
Tocchet, 61, wanted change and will get it. He, Mike Sullivan, and Peter Laviolette will be among the hottest names around the league in the coming weeks, but there's no telling where the veteran bench bosses wind up in the end.
The Canucks could land one of the top names around the NHL, or they could go totally off script. They might be forced to go off script, given how things with Tocchet went at the end of the day.
They'll be competing with the Philadelphia Flyers, New York Rangers, Anaheim Ducks, Chicago Blackhawks, Pittsburgh Penguins, Boston Bruins, and Seattle Kraken for a new head coach, and they might be able to beat all these teams out for the top coaches. Let's rank them and discuss.
1. Philadelphia Flyers
2. Anaheim Ducks
3. Boston Bruins
4. Pittsburgh Penguins
5. New York Rangers
6. Vancouver Canucks
7. Seattle Kraken
8. Chicago Blackhawks
The Flyers and the Ducks top this ranking because of expectations and talent. The Flyers are still rebuilding and are willing to be patient with a coach who can help coax the most out of their young offensive talents, headlined by Matvei Michkov. Expectations won't be super high right away.
Anaheim is looking to start contending, but they have a strong base of young players with experience. Cutter Gauthier, Trevor Zegras, Leo Carlsson, Mason McTavish, Pavel Mintyukov, and Olen Zellweger can get any coach excited to come to the rink every day.
The Bruins and Penguins are two teams with aging stars and very little depth, though they sometimes show designs of being able to compete. Buyer beware, though. These teams will be crashing and burning soon.
New York is only getting older and had a disastrous locker room overhaul that saw leaders Jacob Trouba and Barclay Goodrow jettisoned for peanuts. They're a media lightning rod and just watched Kaapo Kakko save his career wearing another team's jersey. The Rangers have talent, but the situation is very rough around the edges with owner James Dolan driving the bus.
This leaves us with the Canucks at the bottom with the likes of the Kraken and Blackhawks, who have young talent and not a whole lot of anything else. Why?
I've said this multiple times, but the Canucks have had no shortage of PR catastrophes this season, between Jim Rutherford and the J.T. Miller thing. Elias Pettersson's albatross contract extension kicks in, with trade protection, on July 1.
Canucks captain Quinn Hughes has one foot in New Jersey ahead of his 2027 contract expiration date, Brock Boeser is virtually guaranteed to be gone, Tom Willander won't sign his contract, and Thatcher Demko is a walking question mark with his injury history.
What coach is going to walk into a ticking time bomb with all of his best players and prospects potentially walking out the door or getting traded?
The Canucks still have some hope for the future, but Tuesday's events and comments are actively taking away from whatever confidence there still was.