Jim Rutherford gives official update on Rick Tocchet's future.

For the very first time we have an official update on perhaps the most pressing question on the mind of every fan of the Vancouver Canucks. What does the future hold for Canucks head coach Rick Tocchett?

On Monday, Canucks president Jim Rutherford addressed the media following the conclusion of the Canucks season and was very upfront and honest about how the organization is currently approaching this dilemma. The Canucks of course have a team option that they could exercise in order to force Tocchet to remain as head coach for another year, but Rutherford made it abundantly clear that the team had no interest in going down that path.

"We will not exercise the team option for him to stay," admitted Rutherford. "We don't feel its right to have somebody here that may have his mind somewhere else."

Rutherford praised Tocchet for the job he did behind the bench this year, even going so far as to suggest that Tocchet's work was exemplary despite the way the team struggled compared to the previous season.

"We believe that Tocchet and his coaching staff did as good a job coaching this team this year as they did the year before," said Rutherford.

It seems that Rutherford felt the issues on the Canucks roster this year were player-driven rather than anything that came as a result of the coaching staff.

"He was dealt a totally different hand this year... this year we've talked enough about the incident that happened, it affected the chemistry of the room and it affected the play of the team in the first half and forced a trade," admitted Rutherford.

Rutherford seemed genuinely impressed with how Tocchet handled the team through all of that adversity.

"With all that going on, how he handled the situation and how he handled the team was really good," said Rutherford.

The Canucks president was even up front about the current contract talks the team has had with Tocchet.

"As for his contract, we've gone through a process, we've negotiated, and I would suspect sometime this week you'll have a decision," said Tocchet. "We have gone a long ways from where coaches have been compensated with the Canucks for years... forever actually."

It seems the ball is now fully in Tocchet's court, with Rutherford admitting that he hopes Tocchet will return next season with a new deal.

"We're hoping that he takes that contract and stays," admitted Rutherford.

You can hear the Canucks president address the elephant in the room in the short video below: