Bruce Boudreau will return as Vancouver Canucks head coach in 2022-23
‘Gabby’ isn’t going anywhere. On Friday the Vancouver Canucks announced that head coach Bruce Boudreau will return behind their bench for the 2022-23 season.
Boudreau, 67, replaced Travis Green as coach partway through the 2021-22 campaign and led the Canucks to a 32-15-10 record over their final 57 games, including seven straight wins to start his tenure. The Canucks had the 12th-best points percentage in the league over that span but still missed the playoffs by seven points in the Western Conference.
“We are pleased to see Bruce’s commitment to return to the Canucks next season,” said general manager Patrik Allvin in a statement from the team. “He has done a great job since arriving in Vancouver and we are eager to see the team continue to perform under his leadership as they did during the second half of the season.”
Jim Rutherford, the Canucks’ president of hockey operations, had expressed earlier this month that he didn’t feel a 57-game sample size was big enough to justify a long-term extension for Boudreau and that he preferred that Boudreau honor the deal he agreed to, which would include coaching for 2022-23. The Canucks gave Boudreau a June 1 deadline to return for his option year, and he’s officially exercised the option now.
“My desire has always been to come back to coach this team,” Boudreau said in the release. “I love the organization, city, fans and the players. I’m also grateful for the opportunity provided to me by (Rutherford) and Patrik to continue building what we started.”
Boudreau, who won the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year in 2007-08, has led his team to the playoffs in 10 of his 14 seasons. Among coaches with at least 500 games, only Scotty Bowman and Jon Cooper have higher career points percentages than Boudreau’s .635.