Former Vancouver Canucks player joins team's head coach shortlist
The Vancouver Canucks are making progress on their search for a head coach.
The club began the search for a new bench boss shortly after Rick Tocchet left. There are lots of potential candidates including Abbotsford Canucks coach Manny Malhotra, last year’s assistant Adam Foote, a swatch of experienced NHL coaches, and many more.
One person the team is reportedly considering is former NHL player Marco Sturm. The Canucks have already interviewed Sturm per insider Irfaan Gaffar.
Sturm played 938 NHL games, including six with the Canucks, over a lengthy career. He finished his playing days in Germany, suiting up for five games with the Cologne Sharks in the 2012-13 season.
It didn’t take long for Sturm to start coaching after his playing days were done. He took over the German national team in 2015 and helped them win the silver medal at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.
Sturm then spent four seasons as an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Kings, mostly under Todd McLellan. He transitioned to head coach of the organization’s AHL team, the Ontario Reign, before the 2022-23 season.
He’s led the Reign to three consecutive playoff appearances and is widely seen as an up-and-coming coach in the hockey world.
Sturm joins a growing shortlist of names that the team is interested in. The Canucks have been performing virtual interviews this week per Sportsnet’s Satiar Shah and will move onto the next stage, which includes in-person interviews, next week.
President of hockey operations Jim Rutherford confirmed Malhotra is also on the shortlist, and Foote has also been linked. The Canucks have also been connected to Pittsburgh Penguins assistant Mike Vellucci by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman and Todd Nelson by CHEK’s Rick Dhaliwal.
Both Vellucci and Nelson are coaches with plenty of experience behind an NHL bench, although they’ve only been assistants and never been given the chance to lead — besides a stretch as interim coach of the Oilers for Nelson.
Luke Richardson, who was fired by the Chicago Blackhawks earlier this year, is also someone that the Canucks seem to be looking at per Dhaliwal.
The Canucks need to get this head coach hire right to get the organization back on track. There are lots of good candidates out there, and more clarity on their top picks should be coming soon as they move through the process.