Canucks vs. Oilers: Rick Tocchet's junior linemate says he saw ...

Wayne Groulx, who was Tocchet's centre with the Sox Greyhounds, added: “You can see the persona of the Canucks right now. They’re obviously playing for themselves, the city and the province, but they’re playing Rick Tocchet hockey, too, for sure."

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Published May 14, 2024  •  Last updated 1 hour ago  •  4 minute read

Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet watches a team practice ahead of Game 1 against the Edmonton Oilers last week. Photo by DARRYL DYCK /THE CANADIAN PRESS

This scouting report on Vancouver Canucks coach Rick Tocchet is brought to you by Wayne Groulx. It’s more than 40 years old, but still fits.

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Tocchet and Groulx were linemates in junior with the Soo Greyhounds, playing under coach Terry Crisp for the team based in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.

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In Tocchet’s final season in the OHL in 1983-84, he amassed 44 goals, 108 points and 209 penalty minutes. He was on the right side. Groulx was his centre and he was the only player on the Greyhounds to outscore him, with 137 points, including 59 goals.

Groulx, 59, went on to play a single game in the NHL with the Quebec Nordiques. He was on the small side for hockey, especially in that era, coming in at 5-foot-9 and 178 pounds. He bounced around the minors and Europe before retiring. He is now a logistics specialist for Lackawanna Products, which lists itself as a “full-service commodities trading company offering customers access to a broad range of agricultural products,” and he’s been with them for 25 years. He is based in Fort Erie, Ont., and he’s cheering on the Canucks from afar in their playoff series, pulling for his old running buddy to get past the Edmonton Oilers.

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“When he first stepped in with the franchise, he just had ‘leader’ written all over him,” Groulx remembers. “That aura around him … I know it made me a better player.

“You can see the persona of the Canucks right now. They’re obviously playing for themselves, the city and the province, but they’re playing Rick Tocchet hockey, too, for sure. There are guys out there who are doing things that they’ve never done before in their careers.”

Speaking to Groulx, you get the feeling that Tocchet came from good stock because many of his tales about the Vancouver coach revolve around Tocchet’s family. Among them is the fact that Tocchet’s parents would meet the team after long road trips and Tocchet’s late mother Norma would make veal sandwiches for all the Greyhounds.

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“It always made me feel good,” Groulx said. “She’d come over and the sandwiches would be in their own bag. Everybody knew they were mine because they had ketchup. Nobody else had the ketchup.

“Mrs. Tocchet took care of me with a little food for the bus.”

Tales about Tocchet from that time are often like that, coming off respectful and old-school. Chris Felix, 59, was a defenceman on those Greyhound teams and believes that Tocchet remains a “meat-and-potatoes kind of guy,” that he’s not all that different than the teenager who showed up for his training camp with the Soo just wanting to grab a spot on the team.

Felix got into 35 games in the NHL with the Washington Capitals. He finished up in minor pro and Europe, and played both with and against Groulx in Europe.

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“I could see Toc wearing the Mark’s Work Wearhouse work clothes as opposed to the Hugo Boss suit,” said Felix, who still lives in Sault Ste. Marie and works in the steel plant there. “He’d be the guy on the job site that everybody likes. He’d be guy that tells everyone, ‘Gimme the shovel. I’ll do the first hole. I’ve got it.’

“He worked for everything he’s got. He’s humble pie. And he’d tell you that nothing was ever handed to him, and he worked every day.”

Groulx maintains that none of the success that the Canucks are having with Tocchet at the controls surprises him either.

“I’m smiling a lot of the time now. I have a 23-year-old son who’s playing at the University of Prince Edward Island and we’re watching the games, and he’s asking a hundred questions about playing with Rick Tocchet,” he said of his son Daylon Groulx, a winger who played in the OHL with the Owen Sound Attack.

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“I did think for many years after he was finishing his playing career that Rick would be a good coach. He commands respect. He had success in Arizona, but you can really see the change in Vancouver from where they were the last couple of years. There’s a difference with the players. It’s the accountability with the players.

“Rick puts it on the line. He treats everybody with respect. I see the Terry Crisp in him. It’s, ‘You’d better be willing to go through the boards for your teammates and this team or you’re not going to be playing.’ It’s as simple as that.

“I want to see these guys win so bad. That’s our old bud.”

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