Vancouver Canucks' Conor Garland opens up on how he's earned the trust of head coach Rick Tocchet

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Cooper Godin
October 27, 2024 (1:37 PM)

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Canucks forward Conor Garland has spoken on growing as a player since joining Vancouver back in 2021.

In 2021, the Vancouver Canucks and Arizona Coyotes came together to complete a pretty significant trade that saw the British Columbia-based club add defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson and forward Conor Garland.

Garland is the only piece that remains in Vancouver from that deal and ever since he joined the Canucks that summer, his game has continue to grow and while he's still under contract until after the 2026-27 campaign, he's certainly setting himself up for a big payday.

Recently, Garland spoke with Daniel Wagner of Vancouver Is Awesome and detailed his growth since entering the National Hockey League with Arizona, where he spent a three seasons under Rick Tocchet, to now as a top-six forward with the Vancouver Canucks.

Garland says it's taken a lot of hard work to get to this point and he wanted to earn the trust of Rick Tocchet and worked with him to better his game. He believes once he reunited with Tocchet in Vancouver, the trust was earned quite quickly and that's helped him grow as a player.

"It's hard work," said Garland. "Just hard work. I wanted to earn [Tocchet's] trust and told him I'd work with him as much as I needed - video, going through walkthroughs on the ice, whatever I needed to do to earn his trust."

He added, "It doesn't take, like, a weekend, or a three-game homestand; it takes 40, 50, 60 games. I think after maybe that 49-game season in Arizona, I had his trust, and then I was gone. But I thought I earned it pretty quickly here, and now I think I'm just a different player."

The 28-year-old went on to add that he wants to be a player that the coaching staff can rely on in any situation and when Tocchet needs to make a big decision for the team, he wants to be that guy involved and called upon.

"The coach is trying to make the best decision for the team and you want to be that decision," said Garland. "You want him to say, ''I gotta get him out there for us to win.'' But it's still not where I want to be. I want to keep getting better and better at this."

So far this season, Garland is on a point-per-game pace, registering seven points (three goals, four assists), two penalty minutes and is a plus-one in seven games. With more opportunities this season by being in the top-six and seeing more time on the powerplay, Garland has a good chance of breaking his previous career-high in points of 52, which he set during his first season in Vancouver.