Bruce Boudreau Officially Back as Canucks Coach

Vancouver Canucks Head Coach Bruce Boudreau is back for the 2022-’23 season, the club announced Friday.

Earlier this week, Vancouver Hockey Now agreed not to disclose the last couple of items that would seal the deal, and apparently, those items were expedited.

They were more of a logistical nature and had nothing to do with term or salary.

These were the quotes from the Vancouver Canucks official announcement:

“We are pleased to see Bruce’s commitment to return to the Canucks next season,” said GM Patrik Allvin. “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.”

“My desire has always been to come back to coach this team,” said Boudreau. “I love the organization, city, fans, and the players. I’m also grateful for the opportunity provided to me by Jim and Patrik to continue building what we started.”

The Vancouver Canucks players have showed overwhelming support for ‘Gabby’ as have the fans, most recently based on the response to our story Wednesday that he’d soon be returning. There was an outpouring of admiration for Boudreau from Canucks supporters.

The players were consistent in their messaging as the season wound down …

“Bruce is awesome,” Canucks defenceman Tyler Myers stated in the final postgame player interview of the season. “The thing I think I love most about Bruce is he’s very easy to talk to, just when you’re sitting with him in the dressing room, he’s very approachable and personable and he was awesome when he came in.”

“Bruce is great,” Elias Pettersson said on April 14th before a game against the Coyotes. “He comes with good advice and let’s me play and has a lot of confidence in me. The better I play the more trust he has in me so I’m just trying to keep that belief he has in me.”

From Americans to Swedes to even the team’s one Russian Vasily Podkolzin, who spoke practically no English when the season started, the support for Boudreau appears consistent. The coach talks to the Moscow native every day and has extreme credibility from having worked with another young Russian when he coached the Washington Capitals, some sniper named “Ovie”.

“I remember when I meet with (Alexander) Ovechkin, he tell me Bruce can help me with my career, like a player and like a person too,” Podkolzin said on Thursday morning. “He’s a great coach, I’m happy to work with him and I hope we work with him next season.”

Boudreau consistently asserted his desire to return to Vancouver after going 32-15-and-10 since taking over the team on December 6th.