Tocchet wins Jack Adams Award as coach of year

Rick Tocchet won the Jack Adams Award on Wednesday. The award is presented annually to the top coach in the NHL as voted on by the National Broadcasters’ Association.

In his first full season, Tocchet guided the Vancouver Canucks (50-23-9) to first place in the Pacific Division for their first division title since 2013 and an improvement of 12 wins and 26 points from 2022-23. Vancouver was sixth in goals per game (3.40) and tied for fifth with the Boston Bruins in goals allowed per game (2.70), up from 13th in goals per game (3.29) and 25th in goals against per game (3.61) last season. The penalty kill was tied with the St. Louis Blues for 17th (79.1 percent) after it ranked last (71.6 percent) in 2022-23.

“It’s an organizational award,” Tocchet said on ESPN’s “The Point” after being announced as the winner. “I mean, I had a lot of help. My staff was incredible. Obviously, the Aquilini family. (President of hockey operations) Jim [Rutherford] and (general manager) Patrik [Allvin], [the] management team and their staff. Walking into this, I had a lot of help. A lot of buy-in from the players … right from Day One. They believed in the staff, and we believed in them.”

The Canucks were eliminated from the Western Conference Second Round with a 3-2 loss to the Edmonton Oilers in Game 7 at home.

A first-time finalist, Tocchet is the third Canucks coach to win the award and first since Alain Vigneault in 2006-07. Pat Quinn was voted the winner in 1991-92.

Andrew Brunette of the Nashville Predators and Rick Bowness of the Winnipeg Jets were the other finalists. Bruins coach Jim Montgomery won last season.

The Jack Adams Award was the fourth trophy to be handed out during the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Aleksander Barkov of the Florida Panthers won the Frank J. Selke Trophy on May 18. The award is presented annually to the forward who best excels in the defensive aspects of the game as voted on by the Professional Hockey Writers Association. New York Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba won the Mark Messier NHL Leadership Award on May 15, and Connor Ingram, a goalie for the Arizona Coyotes this season, won the Masterton Trophy for perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication May 16.