Canucks' Rick Tocchet wins Jack Adams Award as coach of the year - ESPN

NEW YORK — Rick Tocchet was honored as the NHL's coach of the year Wednesday after guiding the Pacific Division champion Vancouver Canucks to their second playoff berth in nine years.

Tocchet appeared on 109 of 114 ballots for the Jack Adams Award submitted by members of the NHL Broadcasters' Association and received 82 first-place votes, the NHL announced. He became the third Canucks coach to win the honor, following Pat Quinn in 1992 and Alain Vigneault in 2007.

Nashville's Andrew Brunette was second. He appeared on 57 ballots, with eight first-place votes. Winnipeg's Rick Bowness finished third. He announced his retirement this month.

«This really is a team award, and I couldn't have done any of this without the support of our staff and complete buy-in from the players,» Tocchet said in a statement. «I am truly honored and humbled by this achievement and look forward to getting back to work this summer as we continue to work on improving our hockey team.»

In his first full season in Vancouver, Tocchet took the regular-season honor two days after the Canucks were eliminated by the Edmonton Oilers in Game 7 of their second-round playoff series.

The 60-year-old Tocchet oversaw a significant turnaround in a Canucks team that finished with a 50-23-9 record — the third-most wins in franchise history — and jumped from finishing 22nd in the overall standings last year to sixth. Vancouver led the NHL with a first-period goal differential of plus-38 and also finished the season going 42-1-4 when leading after two periods, a year after going 21-1-4.

Tocchet had the benefit of getting a head start to begin instilling his system and getting a feel for the Canucks in being hired in January 2023 after Bruce Boudreau was fired with