Rick Tocchet dives into Canucks' mindset, roster decisions heading into new season

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Cooper Godin
October 6, 2024 (8:25)

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Vancouver head coach Rick Tocchet dives into Canucks' mindset and roster decisions heading into new season.

A new season and a fresh start for a Canucks team that saw their 2023-24 season end on a bit of a sour note in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Without their leading scorer in the playoffs at the time, Brock Boeser, the Canucks fell to the Edmonton Oilers in Game 7 of the second round.

Over the course of the summer, Vancouver Canucks General Manager Patrik Allvin made some significant moves to help various aspects of the team including the top-six, forward depth, defensive depth and in between the pipes. From top to bottom, this Canucks roster looks quite well-rounded, but we'll have to wait and see how they gel together once the season opens up next week.

On Saturday, the Canucks held a practice and afterwards, Rick Tocchet spoke with reporters where he spoke about the team's mindset and roster decisions heading into the 2024-25 campaign.

"Yeah, they're hard, really hard. You've got to make some tough decisions. So, when you make these decisions, you can't be afraid of them because some might not look good, you might want to go a different direction sometimes, it's just the nature of the beast. So, Patrik [Allvin] and Jim [Rutherford] are really experienced at this sort of stuff and they know what we're trying to do here, so that's the way you look at it." Tocchet said.

When asked about the team's depth when it comes to their decisions, he added, "Yeah, maybe in the past you've only got one call-up, now you've got three or four guys who are viable to come up if you need those guys for injuries."

It's going to be a busy couple of days for not only the Canucks, but other teams around the National Hockey League, with the opening night roster submission deadline set for 2 pm PT on Monday. Teams will be spending today figuring out their final cuts, with some needing to use the waiver wire in order to send players to the American Hockey League and it'll be interesting to see if Patrik Allvin takes a look at claiming anyone before Monday at 2 pm PT.

The Vancouver Canucks will open up their 2024-25 season on Wednesday night at Rogers Arena as they host the Calgary Flames. Puck drop is set for shortly after 7 pm PT and can be watched on Sportsnet across Canada.