Take Mike Sullivan and Jon Cooper’s names off of the list of candidates to become the Vancouver Canucks’ next head coach.
Early Friday morning, the New York Rangers announced that they had hired Sullivan — who parted ways with the Pittsburgh Penguins last week — as their next head coach.
Later in the morning, Tampa Bay Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois shared that Jon Cooper would be returning as the Lightning’s head coach next season.
While neither Sullivan nor Cooper may never have been realistic options for a number of reasons — Rutherford shared earlier this week that his good friend Mike Sullivan wanted to stay out East — you can’t blame Canucks fans for dreaming that Vancouver could land one of the few “elite” NHL head coaches.
Prior to his departure from the Penguins, Sullivan was one of the NHL’s longest-tenured head coaches, having been appointed by Rutherford as the Pens’ next coach during the 2015-16 season. He held that position through this season, when the Penguins posted a 34-36-12 record. Sullivan also coached Team USA at the 4 Nations Face-Off.
For Cooper, his title of longest-tenured NHL head coach isn’t going away anytime soon. Cooper has coached the Lightning since 2013, and that’s not going to change anytime soon. The injury-riddled Lightning ran into a buzzsaw in round one of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, falling to the Florida Panthers in five games. The Lightning have been competitive for nearly every season during Cooper’s tenure, and it comes as little surprise that the organization wants him to stick around. Cooper also coached Team Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off, where he appointed Rick Tocchet as one of his assistants.
And so the search for the Canucks’ next head coach continues, with Sullivan and Cooper now off the board.

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