

We need to infuse some young players into the lineup. We’re going to start the process to building the right culture. “But I will tell you we’re going to get better. “I’m not sitting up here saying, ‘Hey, we’re going to go win the Stanley Cup next year,” Green, who is from Castlegar and grew up a Canucks fan, told reporters. They’ll worry about winning in 2019-20, when the franchise turns 50. What the Canucks need to see the next two seasons is player development and some improvement at the NHL level. Into Green’s hands all these young players have been placed, and it is the new coach’s mandate to make them better.

The prospect pool, though still not deep enough and lacking elite players, has been significantly improved the last couple of years.īenning’s best week on the job was before the March 1 trade deadline when he leveraged outgoing veterans Alex Burrows and Jannik Hansen for talented forwards Nikolay Goldobin and Jonathan Dahlen - who immediately became two of the organization’s top five prospects. Green’s team includes only five survivors from Tortorella’s team, and the roster has a pile of players who are 24 years old or younger. And then the Canucks plunged over a cliff.
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Vancouver outplayed the Calgary Flames, but lost that first-round series anyway. Only two years removed at that point from winning the Presidents’ Trophy, Linden and Benning figured they owed those veteran players one more chance, and Desjardins orchestrated a 101-point season and a return to the playoffs. Three years ago, when Linden and general manager Jim Benning succeeded Mike Gillis and hired Desjardins to replace Tortorella, the Canucks roster included nine players who were at least 29 years old, and nine whose contracts included no-trade clauses. Let’s be honest, we’re in a very different spot today than we were three years ago.” “I think Travis’s profile is the right fit for where our organization is today.
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He knows how to set the bar on accountability - what’s expected - and the preparation that’s required. “Travis fits where we are as an organization,” Linden had told reporters at the press conference introducing the Canucks 19th head coach - and only the second one from B.C. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Travis Green, 46, has known only instruction and development as a coach, first with junior players and the Portland Winterhawks, the last four years with entry-level professionals on the Canucks’ Utica Comets farm team. Not just transitioning while trying to win, not just getting younger or adding depth, they are rebuilding and have hired a coach to help complete the project. Jeff Vinnick/Getty ImagesĪnd now Desjardins, fired two weeks ago after the Canucks’ 29th-place finish in the regular season, has been replaced by Travis Green. They had to after more than a decade of superior play in which various managers sacrificed draft picks for temporary playoff help, failed to choose wisely with the picks they kept and left the talent pipeline empty by the time Willie Desjardins replaced Tortorella three years ago. The Canucks, whose messaging has been as mixed up at times as their power play, have finally given up trying to disguise what has been apparent almost since John Tortorella, who is suddenly two head coaches ago for the Canucks, declared on his way out the door in 2014 that the team was stale and needed to be made younger and fresher. Happy with it or not, it is reality, and has been for a while for the National Hockey League team.
