Looks like ex-Canucks Adam Foote will be back coaching next season
Not long after being fired by the Vancouver Canucks, Adam Foote is already back on his feet.
Last week, CHEK’s Rick Dhaliwal reported that the Utah Mammoth were in discussions to bring Adam Foote behind their bench as an assistant coach.
According to Dhaliwal, the Mammoth has closed the deal. However, the team has yet to make an announcement.
The fact that another NHL team has hired Foote is good news for the Canucks. Utah will pick up a portion of his current contract, estimated to be around $1.5 million per season. Vancouver will only have to pay the difference.
If Foote does return behind the bench next year, we could be on the verge of finding out one NHL unsolved mystery: can Foote coach defence?
It was arguably the biggest surprise of Adam Foote’s disastrous one-year tenure. Yes, we’ve heard from both Canucks regimes that the former bench boss was dealt an unfair hand, with the injuries and the Quinn Hughes trade noise.
However, even though he was a rookie head coach, the one thing he was known for as an assistant was coaching up the defence.
Ironically, in Vancouver, that was one of the first things to fail.
Back in 2023-24, the Canucks allowed the 4th-fewest shot attempts at five-on-five. Even during their step-back season in 2024-25, they were still top-10 in terms of shot attempt prevention.
Foote, being in charge of the defence and the penalty kill, got a ton of credit for that success.
But last season, with largely the same core defence as the previous year, the bottom fell out.
The Canucks allowed the fourth-most shot attempts on goal at five-on-five. They also saw a good penalty kill in Foote’s first year as an assistant plummet to the bottom of the NHL last season.
Utah was actually a decent team in terms of shot attempt suppression last season. However, their penalty kill was slightly below average, ranking 19th overall in the NHL.
A spot on Utah’s coaching staff appears to have opened up for Foote, as longtime NHL assistant coach Blaine Forsythe is reportedly not returning to the Mammoth.