Canucks want Bruce Boudreau back next season: report
Bruce there it is, Bruce there he goes, Bruce… please come back?
After weeks of speculation that Vancouver Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin might want a different head coach behind the team’s bench next season, there are now rumblings that the team will push to have Bruce Boudreau return.
Both Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK and Thomas Drance of The Athletic are reporting that the Canucks want Boudreau back.
And why not? The Canucks have a .651 points percentage under Boudreau, as the likeable bench boss has seemingly turned water into wine during his time in Vancouver. And of course he also has the fans in Vancouver chanting his name.
That’s why when Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported three weeks ago that Boudreau might not be back, it caught a lot of people by surprise.
But now? It appears the Canucks want him to return.
“I’m seeing a shift in thinking with the Canucks and Boudreau. The feeling is right now, most likely, he’s going to be back — but not a hundred percent,” Dhaliwal said Thursday on Donnie and Dhali. “The only way, I’ve been told, that this doesn’t happen, is if Bruce doesn’t want it to happen.”
"Generally I am seeing a shift in thinking with the #Canucks and Boudreau.."@DhaliwalSports with the latest he is hearing around Bruce Boudreau and his #Canucks future. https://t.co/h4e2SL3agJ pic.twitter.com/kIF59icV4O
— Donnie & Dhali (@DonnieandDhali) April 21, 2022
The details of Boudreau’s contract aren’t public knowledge, but according to Friedman, both the team and the coach have separate opt-out clauses.
Given Boudreau’s success with the Canucks, he could have options to go elsewhere in the offseason. But he does seem to like it on the west coast.
“So far it’s pretty nice, and it’s pretty easy,” Boudreau said when asked how life in Vancouver is for him in a recent Canucks-produced video. “I’m a Toronto boy and I’ve never lived here, but it’s a hockey-mad city. That’s always positive… I’m not afraid of it. You embrace the pressure rather than sit there and fear it.”
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