New Canucks coach Adam Foote hopes shutdown past can help spark scoring

Vancouver Canucks new head coach Adam Foote and general manager Patrik Allvin, back left, arrive for a news conference after Foote was promoted from assistant coach by the NHL hockey team, in Vancouver on Thursday, May 15, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

VANCOUVER — New Canucks head coach Adam Foote says lessons from his years as a hard-nosed NHL defenceman can help the team sharpen its offensive game.

During his 19 NHL seasons with the Quebec Nordiques, Colorado Avalanche and Columbus Blue Jackets, Foote studied the opposition’s top offensive players as part of his own training to figure out what they did best.

“You study the game, you use the people around you to help you understand what offence is going at you,” Foote told a news conference at Rogers Arena Thursday. “I knew what I was uncomfortable defending. I knew what works, what put me or my partner or our goaltender in a tough spot.

“I’m very fortunate that I had to play against those top players and shut them down. It was a fun job. We’ve got lots of ideas on how to make (our) offence better.”

The Canucks elevated Foote from assistant coach Wednesday to replace Rick Tocchet, who parted ways with the team last month.

Foote is the 22nd head coach in Canuck history and the fourth since December 2021. He joined Vancouver in January 2023 as an assistant when Tocchet was hired as head coach.

Vancouver struggled to a 38-30-14 record last season and missed the playoffs a year after advancing to the second round of the post-season and taking the Edmonton Oilers to seven games.

Vancouver was 24th in league scoring this season with 236 goals after being tied for seventh the year before with 279 goals.

Foote said he’s focused on building on the Canucks strengths and not dwelling on the issues that plagued the team last season.

“We’re going to turn the page,” said the 53-year-old Toronto native. “I have ideas, and we’re going to get a game plan going here and move on.

“We want to win hockey games. We want to be a team that can compete every night. We’re going to be hard to play against, and we want to win. That’s what we’re going to focus on and try to do every single night.”

General manager Patrick Allvin said Foote’s past as a player and the relationships he’s built with the team made him the right choice.

“I felt really comfortable that Adam was the right choice to lead this franchise moving forward,” said Allvin. “His pedigree as a player speaks for itself.

“The way he has worked with the players here over the last years was something we felt we would continue to embrace here.”

It is believed the Canucks interviewed several candidates for the coaching job and narrowed the list down to Foote and former Canucks centre Manny Malhotra, who is the head coach of the team’s American Hockey League affiliate, the Abbotsford Canucks.

An advantage for Foote is it’s believed he was the preferred candidate of Canucks captain Quinn Hughes, last year’s Norris Trophy winner as the league’s top defenceman.

“We have a great relationship,” said Foote.

Allvin said Hughes was not involved in the process of hiring Foote.

“It’s not about one player, it’s about the team here,” he said.

One of the players Foote will need more production from next year is centre Elias Pettersson, who struggled through an injury-filled season. A 34-goal scorer last year, he had just 15 in 64 games this year.

Pettersson was also involved in a reported dressing room rift with forward J.T. Miller, which resulted in Miller being traded to the New York Rangers.

Foote believes Pettersson will rebound.

“I really think he knows what he has to do and he’s going to dial in,” said Foote.

“We’re going to make sure that he understands that we’re there for him and we’ll do whatever it takes.”

Selected 22nd overall by Quebec in the 1989 draft, Foote played 1,154 regular-season NHL games, collecting 66 goals and 242 assists. He helped Colorado win Stanley Cups in 1996 and 2001.

He also helped Canada win a gold medal at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.

His son, Cal Foote, is one of five former members of Canada’s world junior hockey team currently on trial for sexual assault in London, Ont.

Adam Foote said he couldn’t comment on the trial.

“I’m there for my family, as we all would be, and we’ll get through this,” he said.

“It had nothing to do with my decision to take this on. I love coaching and I love the opportunity.”

Tocchet, last season’s Jack Adams Award winner as the NHL’s top coach, announced April 29 he wouldn’t return to Vancouver for 2025-26. He was hired Wednesday as head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers.

One of the question marks with Foote is his lack of experience.

He moved into coaching in 2011-12 as a development consultant and defensive coach and was Canada’s director of player development at the 2017 Spengler Cup, where the country captured gold.

He spent just over a year as head coach of the WHL Kelowna Rockets, where he guided the team to a 48-49-4 record before being fired in Feb. 2020.

Foote said his time in Kelowna was a “great experience.”

“Things didn’t work the way I would have liked to work,” he said. “I grew a lot from that. I’m not sure I would be sitting here today without that experience and learning from it.”

This report by Jim Morris, The Canadian Press, was first published May 15, 2025.