- Adam Foote is joining the Utah Mammoth as an assistant coach
- The former Canucks bench boss landed the job a month after Vancouver fired him
- Read below for Foote’s new role under Andre Tourigny and what it means for Utah
Adam Foote didn’t stay unemployed for long.
The former Vancouver Canucks head coach has signed on as an assistant with the Utah Mammoth, CHEK’s Rick Dhaliwal reported. He’ll work under head coach Andre Tourigny, who got a contract extension from Utah earlier this month.
Vancouver fired Foote last month after one season behind the bench. The Canucks went 25-49-8 and finished dead last, a long way from the playoff push they were hoping for. Quinn Hughes got traded midseason, and the team handed the head job to Manny Malhotra for next year.
This isn’t Foote’s first crack at the role he’s stepping back into. He joined Vancouver midway through 2022-23 as an assistant on Rick Tocchet’s staff, running the defense and penalty kill. Both units got better on his watch. When Tocchet left last offseason, the Canucks bumped Foote up to head coach.
Utah’s hire had been brewing for a few days. Dhaliwal said back on June 15 that the Mammoth wanted to get a deal done:
He inherits a defense that already ranks among the league’s better units. Utah allowed the tenth-fewest goals and fifth-fewest shots this season. The penalty kill is where he can make a dent, since the Mammoth finished a touch below average there.
His arrival costs Blaine Forsythe his spot. Forsythe’s contract expires at the end of the month and won’t be renewed after three years in Utah and 14 before that in Washington.
Foote knows the blue line as well as anyone. He won two Stanley Cups as a defenseman in Colorado and spent nearly two decades shutting down the league’s best. Now he’s back to teaching it, this time in Salt Lake City.
