Two Coaches, One Vision: A Meeting of Minds Between Rick Tocchet and Curt Malawsky

What happens when you put a Jack Adams Award winner and a Les Bartley Award winner together at a table?

You get a conversation that inspires players, coaches and fans alike.

Vancouver Canucks’ Head Coach Rick Tocchet and Vancouver Warriors’ Head Coach and General Manager Curt Malawsky recently sat down to talk shop, comparing their coaching philosophies, how they’ve evolved in their approach to building winning teams, and yes – they even talked about practice.

Tocchet and Malawsky have similar philosophies which stem from the players they used to be. Both played a hard-nosed, old-school style. Tocchet tops the NHL rankings in Gordie Howe hat tricks throughout his career (18) and Malawsky was a 3.27 point-per-game forward, paying the price for his goals by doing most of his damage from the middle of the floor.

The two opened up about how they’ve evolved as coaches in the types of players they look for and building a winning program.

When they began their coaching careers, both Tocchet and Malawsky gravitated toward players who mirrored their own tough playing styles, confident that this approach would lead to success. Over time, they learned that winning requires adaptability – tailoring their systems to fit their players’ unique strengths rather than chasing a uniform identity across every position.

“I’ve adapted over the years,” said Tocchet. “Yes, you want tough players and guys that are going to play inside, but not everybody’s like you or like myself, and sometimes I’ve got to allow that player to be who he is. I’ve matured in letting a guy be who he is and not like ‘it’s got to be this kind of player all the time’”

“When I first started coaching, you come in and say ‘He’s soft, he can’t play’ and then you’re telling them how you want them to play and it’s not that easy in the NLL. You can’t always pick the guys for your system; you might have to adapt a little bit,” Malawsky said.

Getting the best out of their players is a skill they’ve learned throughout the years. The two coaches have learned it takes time to foster those relationships and help a player to be able to help them take the next step.

“You might not even know your players after six months, it’s going to take some time to know this player and how you coach him,” Tocchet said.

“Some are the whip and some are the sugar,” Malawsky said. “We have to help them succeed, otherwise they don’t succeed, our team doesn’t succeed, so it’s just about understanding how everybody works.”

Tocchet’s tenure in Arizona taught him valuable lessons about building a successful program. Instead of trying to tackle everything at once, he discovered that addressing challenges incrementally yielded more lasting and effective results.

Malawsky wanted to change the culture and made significant roster changes in the offseason before his first year with the Warriors to start to rebuild.

They both agree that having a coaching staff you can trust is key to building a successful team. Tocchet wants to support the development of the players and to do that he wanted people who are good teachers. He wants his players to build relationships with all of the coaching staff, so they have various perspectives and feel supported when they need something.

“For instance, today’s an off day, Daniel’s in today – or Henrik – one of them will come in and he’ll meet with [Aatu] Räty and watch some video. He knows what I want, but he takes the initiative. Yogi, he’ll text the players videos of the power play and individual stuff. It’s 24-7 – it's not just at the rink for two hours a day – then you let them build a relationship.”

Malawsky admits it was initially hard for him to relinquish control of some of the coaching duties, but the process is more effective – and somewhat less stressful – when you have a great coaching staff supporting you.

“Now with our guys, Bob McMahon, he’s been with me in Calgary and now he’s with me here, I can trust him with everything. He’s made me a better person, better father, better coach, and he’s got phenomenal relationships with the players. Then Robby Williams is one of the hardest-working guys that I have out the back end and he’s the same as Yogi when you talk about the video, he’s always on the video. I’ve got a phenomenal goalie coach too, Tyler Richards, and he’s been exceptional with the young guys. Sometimes I can’t look down there, [if] the kid let in five in a row in the drill and I’m like ‘Solve this right now’ I just have to walk out of there and he takes care of it,” Malawsky said.

The tone of the conversation turned slightly more serious when practice came up. Both Tocchet and Malawsky believe in maximizing every minute in practice, ensuring their players understand the high expectations for preparation and effort.

Although life in the NHL is day-to-day, Tocchet likes to be transparent with his team, giving them a multi-day plan of practices with the level of intensity and their days off so they can mentally prepare for what’s coming.

The schedule in the NLL is a week-long build up to the game and the players understand the routine throughout the week so that when the weekend comes, they’re ready for practice and the games.

They talked about dealing with pressure inside the rink or box and outside of it and the importance of leaning on experiences as a players, assistant coaches, veteran players to come together and support each other to be able to “Meet Pressure with Pressure”.

With five Cups between them – three Stanleys for Tocchet and two NLL Cups for Malawsky – the things that make them proud of their teams don’t have to do with stats on a page or in history books, it’s the care they take for others.

Tocchet takes pride in his players taking losses to heart, not just as competitors, but as people that care about the community they play in and not wanting to disappoint the fans.

“We might have a stinker here and there, we lose 6-0 at home or something and people are paying a lot of money, they [the players] actually do feel bad. I know some fans [think] they don’t care, but they care,” Tocchet said.

“When we’ve bounced back after a bad loss, it’s all them. That’s pride, I think that’s them realizing we don’t want to give these bad efforts in front of the fans. They’re trying to get to their game, and they correct their mistakes, so I think that’s what I’m most proud about.”

Malawsky recalled an impromptu post-exhibition game meet and greet with the fans, which is usually reserved for regular-season games. His team cares about growing the game in the Lower Mainland and being role models for young kids.

“We brought all the kids on the floor, there were close to 100 kids, and my guys stayed on the floor – the last thing they want to do in a preseason game is sit on the floor – but they know how important that was and that made me so proud. We signed autographs for half an hour,” Malawsky said.

The conversation between Tocchet and Malawsky showcased the essence of leadership: adaptability, teamwork, and a deep-rooted care for players and fans.

Whether it’s building trust within their coaching staff or building resiliency in their players, they’re creating cultures of pride and accountability.