Past 72 hours cast doubt on Rick Tocchet's future in Vancouver.

It sounds like what once was a sure thing isn't so sure anymore.

There have been a great many questions regarding the future of Vancouver Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet after a tumultuous season behind the bench of the Canucks, and it would seem that the answers to those questions are even less clear now than they were before.

Recently, National Hockey League insider Elliotte Friedman was asked to share his thoughts on the Tocchet situation, but the insider admitted that things have changed quite a bit behind the scenes over the last few days.

"Over the last few days I really thought I had a good handle on this one, I agreed with you I thought it was gonna get sorted out really quickly... over the last 24-48-72 hours there's been a lot of conflicting information around there about what the timeline for this will be," admitted Friedman on the 32 Thoughts podcast. 

It sounds like the ball may be in Tocchet's court here, with Friedman revealing that the Canucks are prepared to go further than they have in the past in order to retain Tocchet's services moving forward.

"I believe the Vancouver Canucks have committed that Rick Tocchet will be the highest paid coach in franchise history," revealed Friedman. "I do believe that is going to happen if he stays."

While the Canucks may be prepared to offer Tocchet more than what they have offered to other coaches in the past, it sounds like there may be some competition out there for Tocchet's services.

"I think there is a debate to be had about whether or not it is the true market value for Tocchet, could he do better somewhere else? I think that is a fair question that I can't answer right now."

Friedman's sources are feeding him conflicting information on the process in Vancouver, which may indicate a very fluid situation at this time.

"I've had people who tell me they think Tocchet is gonna stay, I've had people who tell me is it worth him stretching this out a bit to see what else is available, I've had people tell me he's tired of the market and it's just been enough, and I've had other people tell me that Rick Tocchet is not a guy who runs from anything like that."

Friedman admitted he has been caught off guard by all of the noise surrounding this situation.

"I was surprised how much information there seemed to be out there that was kind of conflicting with each other, and it leaves me a bit unsure what to predict."

Interestingly enough, Canucks captain Quinn Hughes could prove to be an important factor in this decision and, according to Friedman, Hughes has already met with Tocchet privately to discuss the season and the team's future.

"The one thing I do believe, and I've been told by multiple people that it is true, is that he went for dinner with Quinn Hughes before the season ended. I had people tell me 'be careful what you say about this' we know how Hughes feels about Tocchet and I think Tocchet feels equally as strongly as Hughes.

"I think that him and Hughes had a conversation about their season and where they are going."

Unfortunately it sounds like fans in Vancouver are going to have to wait and see when it comes to more definitive answers on this matter.

"I'm not 100% ready to call this one way or the other," concluded Friedman.