Rick Tocchet won't return as Canucks coach. He becomes a top candidate for vacancies around the NHL

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Rick Tocchet is not returning as coach of the Vancouver Canucks, the team announced Tuesday, plunging them into another search and making him a top candidate for several vacancies around the NHL.

Tocchet's departure comes after 2 1/2 seasons in Vancouver since replacing Bruce Boudreau in January 2023. He won the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year in 2024 for guiding the Canucks to a 50-win season and first place in the Pacific Division.

Vancouver dealt with locker room drama between J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson for several months, did not have injured captain Quinn Hughes at times and missed the playoffs. Miller was traded to the New York Rangers at the end of January, and Tocchet was critical of Pettersson in his season-ending news conference.

Tocchet did not have a contract moving forward and decided not to sign another with the Canucks.

“Family is a priority, and with my contract lapsing, this becomes the opportune time," Tocchet said. “While I don’t know where I’m headed, or exactly how this will play out for me over the near term, I feel like this is the right time for me to explore other opportunities in and around hockey.”

Tocchet won the Stanley Cup as an assistant with Pittsburgh in 2016 and '17 and played more than a decade with Philadelphia. The Penguins and Flyers have coach openings, along with Chicago, Boston, Anaheim, Seattle and the New York Rangers.

Given his resume, Tocchet joins Cup champions Mike Sullivan, Joel Quenneville and Peter Laviolette as a few of the top options available to fill those jobs.

Canucks president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford called Tocchet's departure “very disappointing news.”

“But we respect Rick’s decision to move to a new chapter in his hockey career,” Rutherford said. “We did everything in our power to keep him, but at the end of the day Rick felt he needed a change. He is a good friend, a good coach, and we can’t thank him enough for all he did for our organization.”

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Vancouver Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet speaks during the NHL hockey team's end of season news conference, in Vancouver, B.C., Friday, April 18, 2025. (Darryl Dyck /The Canadian Press via AP)

Vancouver Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet speaks during the NHL hockey team's end of season news conference, in Vancouver, B.C., Friday, April 18, 2025. (Darryl Dyck /The Canadian Press via AP)

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump on Sunday fired off another warning to the government of Cuba as the close ally of Venezuela braces for potential widespread unrest after Nicolás Maduro was deposed as Venezuela's leader.

Cuba, a major beneficiary of Venezuelan oil, has now been cut off from those shipments as U.S. forces continue to seize tankers in an effort to control the production, refining and global distribution of the country's oil products.

Trump said on social media that Cuba long lived off Venezuelan oil and money and had offered security in return, “BUT NOT ANYMORE!”

“THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA - ZERO!” Trump said in the post as he spent the weekend at his home in southern Florida. “I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.” He did not explain what kind of deal.

The Cuban government said 32 of its military personnel were killed during the American operation last weekend that captured Maduro. The personnel from Cuba’s two main security agencies were in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, as part of an agreement between Cuba and Venezuela.

“Venezuela doesn’t need protection anymore from the thugs and extortionists who held them hostage for so many years,” Trump said Sunday. “Venezuela now has the United States of America, the most powerful military in the World (by far!), to protect them, and protect them we will.”

Trump also responded to another account’s social media post predicting that his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, will be president of Cuba: “Sounds good to me!” Trump said.

Trump and top administration officials have taken an increasingly aggressive tone toward Cuba, which had been kept economically afloat by Venezuela. Long before Maduro's capture, severe blackouts were sidelining life in Cuba, where people endured long lines at gas stations and supermarkets amid the island’s worst economic crisis in decades.

Trump has said previously that the Cuban economy, battered by years of a U.S. embargo, would slide further with the ouster of Maduro.

“It’s going down,” Trump said of Cuba. “It’s going down for the count.”

A person watches the oil tanker Ocean Mariner, Monrovia, arrive to the bay in Havana, Cuba, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

President Donald Trump attends a meeting with oil executives in the East Room of the White House, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)