The Vancouver Canucks fired head coach Adam Foote on Tuesday after just one season behind the bench. TSN’s Darren Dreger was the first to report on Foote’s dismissal.
Assistant coaches Kevin Dean, Brett McLean and Scott Young were also let go.
“We would like to thank Adam, Scott, Kevin, and Brett for all the work they did for us this season,” Canucks GM Ryan Johnson said in the team’s release. “It was a challenging year on several fronts and truthfully, Adam and his staff were dealt a very difficult hand. That said, as we head into a rebuild, our group feels new coaching voices are needed to chart the path forward. Establishing the proper environment and culture is a vital first step in creating a solid and authentic connection throughout the entire organization. At the start of next season, our coaches will need to do a lot of work with our players, to instill in them the traits and habits they will rely on moving forward. The process to bring in a new staff begins immediately.”
Foote, 54, was hired by the Canucks after two and a half seasons as an assistant coach on former coach Rick Tocchet’s staff. Foote’s responsibilities under Tocchet included running the defense and the penalty kill, and he excelled in that capacity. During Foote’s tenure as an assistant, several long-tenured Vancouver defenders, like Tyler Myers, had their best Canucks seasons, while Quinn Hughes leveled up and won the Norris Trophy.
Promoted to the role of head coach ahead of the 2025-26 campaign, Foote struggled massively in the top job. While Foote attempted to project positivity, his daily briefings were often unclear and antagonistic with the local media. On the ice, meanwhile, the team performed unacceptably. The club’s organized, defense-first identity established under Tocchet fell off, and Canucks players far too frequently looked like they had no idea what to do.
Foote’s decision-making was suboptimal from a developmental perspective. Foote overutilized veterans like Evander Kane, Teddy Blueger and Kevin Lankinen, while younger players, the likes of Aatu Räty, Nikita Tolopilo and Ty Mueller, saw relatively scant opportunity, even when it was apparent that the season was lost.
Far more concerning, with the possible exception of winger Liam Öhgren, Vancouver’s best young players — Elias Pettersson (the defender), Tom Willander and Zeev Buium — failed to take a developmental step forward, in terms of their on-ice results, over the course of the season.
Asked in his introductory news conference in early May about Foote’s future, incoming Canucks general manager Ryan Johnson was non-committal, but defended the first-year bench boss.
“To evaluate off of last season, I think is pretty unfair,” Johnson said.
Unfair or not, that evaluation has now occurred. And after just one season, in which the club recorded a dismal 25-49-8 record, one of the worst 82-game seasons in franchise history, the club has decided to move forward without Foote.
