Canucks News & Rumours: Coaching Search, Abbotsford in Division Final, World Championship & More

Impressively, Silovs, who had a 1-0 shutout on May 3, 2024, against the Nashville Predators and a 5-0 shutout in the first round against the Tucson Roadrunners, has not allowed a goal in a series-clinching game. That’s beyond clutch. Now the Canucks will face the Pacific Division leaders, the Eagles, in another best-of-five to determine who will be in the Western Conference Final. The fun starts on May 16 as the Canucks will host the first two games before heading to Colorado for hopefully only one game.

Canucks’ Coaching Search

The Canucks’ short list when it comes to head coaching candidates has started to grow with Marco Sturm, Todd Nelson, Luke Richardson, Adam Foote, Mike Vellucci, and Manny Malhotra among the names considered. Here’s a little background on each of them:

Marco Sturm

Sturm’s name is the latest to surface in the Canucks’ coaching search. Briefly a Canuck back in 2011-12 when he played six games for Alain Vigneault’s squad, the former San Jose Sharks and Boston Bruins star has carved out a pretty successful coaching career in the American Hockey League (AHL) over the last few seasons. He has led the Ontario Reign to a 119-80-17 record and was eliminated in the 2025 Calder Cup Playoffs by the San Jose Barracuda in the first round. He doesn’t have any NHL head coaching experience, but he was behind the bench of the Los Angeles Kings for four seasons (2018-19 to 2021-22) as an assistant to Todd McLellan before getting the top job for their AHL team.

Todd Nelson

After finishing his playing career in 2001-02, Nelson dove into the world of coaching with the Grand Rapids Griffins as an assistant in 2002-03. Since then, he has held head coaching positions with the Griffins, Muskegon Fury, Oklahoma City Barons, and, most recently, the Hershey Bears. He has also been an assistant in the NHL with the Atlanta Thrashers and Dallas Stars, and the interim head coach of the Edmonton Oilers in 2014-15, when he took over for Dallas Eakins/Craig McTavish.

But it’s not Nelson’s NHL resume that has him on the radar of general managers, it’s his recent success in the AHL. With a stellar record of 141-53-22 in the regular season and two straight Calder Cups, he has vaulted the Bears to dynasty status as the Tampa Bay Lightning of the AHL. His team is currently tied 2-2 with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms in the Atlantic Division Semifinals as he tries to lead the Bears to their third straight Calder Cup Final.

Luke Richardson

The only name on this list with two full seasons of NHL head coaching experience, Richardson was tapped on the shoulder to lead the Chicago Blackhawks’ rebuild in 2022-23, but was fired midway through the 2024-25 season after a dismal 57-118-15 record. Before that, he was an assistant with the Montreal Canadiens, New York Islanders and Ottawa Senators, and head coach of the Binghamton Senators for four seasons (2012-2016) in the AHL. While his NHL resume looks ugly, that shouldn’t define who he is as a head coach. He did a very good job with a young roster in Chicago and wasn’t given enough time to fully establish his style and culture on the team.

Adam Foote

Promoting Foote from assistant to head coach would provide a seamless transition and might eliminate some growing pains at the beginning of the season. He has developed a great relationship with Quinn Hughes and has worked wonders with this version of the Canucks’ defence – which doesn’t look like it will undergo many changes in the offseason. While he has zero head coaching experience beyond the 2019-20 season in the Western Hockey League, his familiarity with the roster and Vancouver media pressure should bridge that gap.

Mike Vellucci

Floated by Elliotte Friedman on the FAN Hockey Show, Vellucci is very familiar to president Jim Rutherford and general manager Patrik Allvin. He has been the assistant coach in Pittsburgh for the last five seasons, and previously was the head coach of the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins and Charlotte Checkers. Before that, he was the long-time coach of the Plymouth Whalers in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), where he won a championship in 2006-07. He is currently an assistant coach for Team USA at the World Championship, and would follow Rick Tocchet as a Penguins assistant turned Canucks head coach if he was hired.

Manny Malhotra

Finally, we have the guy that most Canucks fans want as the successor to Tocchet, Manny Malhotra. Currently leading the Abbotsford Canucks in the AHL, where he has them in the Pacific Division Final, he, like Foote, would provide the most seamless transition from Tocchet. He has also developed a lot of the young players in the AHL, from Jonathan Lekkerimaki to Elias Pettersson, who could be part of the core next season. Since the Canucks like to have the same style of game from the AHL to the NHL, the growing pains could be lessened as well, although with Malhotra taking over the top job, he might make some tweaks to that system considering he would be the one calling the shots. Regardless, he deserves to be at the top of the list of candidates, based on what he’s done in Abbotsford alone.

World Championship Kicks Off in Sweden & Denmark With 4 Canucks in Action

The World Championship kicked off in Sweden and Denmark on Friday, with Conor Garland, Drew O’Connor, Filip Hronek and Marcus Pettersson in action. All but one of them (O’Connor) got on the scoresheet, too, as Pettersson led the way with two assists in Sweden’s 5-0 win over Slovakia, while Hronek and Garland notched assists in Czechia’s 5-4 win over Switzerland and USA’s 5-0 win over Denmark, respectively. Pettersson is the only player, as of this writing, who has played two games, but he didn’t get any points in Sweden’s 4-2 victory over Austria on Saturday. Both the USA (vs. Hungary) and Czechia (vs. Norway) next play on Sunday.

What’s Next For the Canucks?

The next big event for the Canucks will be the NHL Draft on June 27 and 28 in Los Angeles. After the draft lottery kept them at 15th overall, they will likely be looking at selecting a centre to bolster a pool that really only has one bona fide NHLer in Aatu Raty. After that, it will be free agency and the long offseason where the Canucks have several holes to fill on the roster, especially if Brock Boeser and Pius Suter sign elsewhere.