Why the Canucks chose Adam Foote as team’s coach

The Vancouver Canucks found their new head coach on Wednesday, naming Adam Foote as the 22nd bench boss in franchise history. 

Rising in the ranks, after serving two years as an assistant coach on Rick Tocchet’s staff, Foote will debut as an NHL head coach, with his only other head coaching experience coming with the WHL’s Kelowna Rockets. 

A familiar face to the team and captain Quinn Hughes, Foote will look to lead the Canucks back to the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and move on from some of the dramatic factors that hampered the franchise in 2024-25. 

Sportsnet 650’s Satiar Shah joined Tyler Yaremchuk and Frank Seravalli on Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff Live to break down how the Canucks landed on Foote for the role. 

Yaremchuk: Let’s start with obviously the Adam Foote news named as Rick Tocchet’s replacement behind the bench. What does this front office like about Adam Foote? And what do you think of the hire?

Shah: I think the front office really likes to have the continuity of having Adam Foote back, especially having been with Rick Tocchet, and considering how big a year this is for the Vancouver Canucks. 

We all know the Quinn Hughes thing is looming large over the Canucks and with two years left on his contract, this is a big year, but also it’s a big year for management.

We’re not talking about guys who have long-term contracts. It’s a couple of years left for [many of] these guys, and it’s very much going to be tied to what happens with Quinn Hughes. So we’re talking about a real high stakes season and I think what the Canucks wanted was somebody that they can trust and have familiarity with, not only because it makes it easier for the team to perhaps transition to Foote as the head coach, but also, if you’re going into the foxhole this year, you probably want to have people that you trust. 

The way I view it is that any inexperienced head coach they were going to hire was going to be a risk. You never know how it’s going to work out. Over the years, how many times have we heard of really well accomplished coaches who had a great resume, but became first-time NHL coaches, and it didn’t work out like Willie Desjardins in Vancouver a decade ago? He was very well thought of and had a great resume, and people wonder, why has he never gone to be an NHL head coach? 

I think there’s always a risk when you go with an inexperienced head coach…There weren’t a lot of veteran candidates who really matched what Vancouver was looking for. So they were always going to have to go into the inexperienced head coach market and Foote was the guy they settled on.

You can catch the rest of the Canucks talk and Thursday’s full episode here…