Greyhounds alumnus Rick Tocchet wins NHL Coach of the Year
Tags: NHL AwardsOHL NewsRick Tocchet Soo Greyhounds
As the 2024 NHL Awards took place at the Fontainebleau Las Vegas resort on Thursday night, former Soo Greyhounds forward Rick Tocchet was presented the Jack Adams award as the National Hockey League’s Coach of the Year.
In his first full season in Vancouver, Tocchet guided the Canucks (50-23-9) to first place in the Pacific Division for their first division title since 2013 and an improvement of 12 wins and 26 points from 2022-23. Vancouver was sixth in goals per game (3.40) and tied for fifth with the Boston Bruins in goals allowed per game (2.70), up from 13th in goals per game (3.29) and 25th in goals against per game (3.61) last season. The penalty kill was tied with the St. Louis Blues for 17th (79.1 percent) after it ranked last (71.6 percent) in 2022-23. A first-time finalist, Tocchet is the third Canucks coach to win the award and first since Alain Vigneault in 2006-07. Pat Quinn was voted the winner in 1991-92.
Tochett played three seasons in the OHL, tallying 196 points (83-113-196) over 189 games played with the Soo Greyhounds from 1981-84 before being selected in the sixth round of the 1983 NHL Draft by the Philadelphia Flyers. The Scarborough, Ont. native went on to play 18 seasons in the NHL between the Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, Phoenix Coyotes, Washington Capitals, Los Angeles Kings and Boston Bruins from 1984 to 2002.
From there, Tochett began his successful coaching career, spending the last 22 years behind the bench in Colorado, Phoenix, Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh, and Vancouver. Tocchet won back-to-back Stanley Cups with the Penguins in 2016 and 2017.
“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.”
For more information on the 2024 NHL Award winners, click here.
