If you’re a Vancouver Canucks fan, this has not been a great year. What started off with many hopes for another great season turned into seemingly one disaster after another and has left many of us looking at the results and asking ourselves “What happened?!?!” The trade of Corey Schneider to New Jersey in the Off season, having Roberto Luongo as the starter but limiting his playing time as he showed a mixture of mental errors and injuries, and ultimately sending him back to the Florida Panthers, the record losing streak after the Sochi Olympics. The hits just kept on coming.
As the season drew to a close, the Canucks have made some major personnel moves, most notably firing GM Mike Gillis and hiring former Canuck Trevor Linden as the Team President. Linden hired a separate General Manager, and hopefully his experience as a successful Canucks player in the 1994 Stanley Cup Finals against the New York Rangers, as well as his strong ties to the Vancouver area, are all signs that the organization is turning a corner. A lot of the fan sentiment is that Gillis should have been fired end of last season instead of former Coach Alain Vignault, now at the helm of the New York Rangers, who incidentally are in the playoffs. Many fans blame Gillis for not keeping Cory Schneider—the ginger haired young goalie whom the Vancouver faithful fell in love with during the 2010-2011 season and who shared starting duties with Roberto Luongo in the 2011-2012 season. The consensus was that because Luongo was getting older, he should mentor Schneider and get him worked up to pro level, and there’d be a beautiful transition with the torch being properly passed. Obviously this did not happen, and Lu’s ego was bruised; a lot of fans still supported Schneider, and in the end, his contract and trade restrictions made it impossible to work things out, so Schneider went to New Jersey and the fans called Gillis the Devil. After all that drama, losing Luongo shortly after the Heritage Classic was too much to bear. Gillis’s firing came just after the Canucks were mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, but in many fans’ minds, he should have been let go earlier.
Many of the Canuckleheads were still griping all the way through last week, just wanting the season to be over in order to put a stop to their pain. As if to punctuate the frustrations of the team and the fans alike this season, Daniel Sedin scored two goals in the final season game only to be taken off the ice in a stretcher after a hit from behind by Calgary C Paul Byron, leading to a slam into the boards and a possible head or spinal cord injury. Thankfully he’s been discharged from hospital and will have a chance to fully rehab in the off-season. Even so, there’s a lot more to rehab with this organization than just their star Left Winger.
Coach John Tortorella recently said in a post-season press conference what many Canucks fans have said this entire season, and many of us wonder if his tenure with Vancouver will be one (season) and done as a result of it. Per the Vancouver Sun on April 14: "I'm not going to sit up here and pretend. You have to understand the team is … getting older. It does need to be revitalized. You have to stop thinking about 2011. That's not an excuse from me; I could get gassed out of here today. It's the truth of what's going on. For us — and I do hope I'm part of it — for us to … get back to being competitive for a long time, you may have to slide sideways and find your way as far as a little bit of a rebuild. You have to. It's just the nature of the game."
Such raw words rang true with most fans, but at the same time there’s the sense that while it may be true, it may be one of those unspoken sins: you don’t say it out loud to the public. Time will tell if Tortorella is still on staff. Many people think Linden needs a fresh start from top to bottom, including the coach. Torts has only been with the organization a year. However, as Tortorella also admitted that he had not been as tough enforcing discipline as he should have been later in the season, since the team had done so well out of the gate, some may say he’s given Linden every reason to let him go. Right now, many odds makers are saying his chances of survival are the same as the Canucks winning the 1st Pick in the NHL Draft lottery—about 17 to one against. However, based on recent polls, about 80% of Canucks fans are in agreement with the Coach, and given Linden’s background, Torts might manage to stay on one more season.
With all that being said, let’s try to look at this analytically rather than emotionally. What are the Canucks strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats?
Strengths:
Several young players with huge upside potential such as current starting Goaltender Eddie Lack; Forwards Zack Kassian, Shawn Matthias, Jordan Shroeder, and Tom Sestito; Defencemen Ryan Stanton, Christopher Tanev and Yannick Weber are all in their early to mid 20s and have shown some great spark despite some of the tough times this season.
A new team president with successful, winning playing experience, a heart for the community and a mind for hockey. Trevor Linden came to Vancouver in 1992 and he never left. He’s one of those folks you never hear anyone say a bad thing about and his being hired to replace Departing President/GM Mike Gillis was considered a brilliant action by owner Francesco Aquellini.
Weaknesses:
Several players in their 30s whose skills seem to be on the decline have huge contracts that will be hard to get out from under the cap. Daniel and Henrik Sedin, as well as linemate Alex Burrows, are 33 years old. Defenceman Kevin Bieksa is 32, blueliner Dan Hamhuis 31. Centre Ryan Kesler turns 30 in August, Winger Chris Higgins is 31 in June and defenceman Jason Garrison 30 next November. All these players are on long-term contracts that include no-trade clauses, as are defenceman Alex Edler, 28, and soon winger Jannik Hansen, 28. Many of these players are beloved to the fans. However, of the men in their 30s, Garrison, Kesler, Higgins, Hamhuis and Garrison have performed up to snuff. The Sedins have been plagued by injuries—especially Captain Henrik Sedin. Burrows & Bieksa’s shooting percentages were way down this year. Many of these older players have multi-year deals for large amounts of money with no-trade clauses or restricted trade clauses on them. While these contracts are a thanks given for the great 2010-2011 season, the reality is the team isn’t playing at that level anymore. The question is how to untangle the team from these contracts is anybody’s best guess.
Opportunities:
Minor League Players with the Utica Comets and other affiliated Minor League teams. This is one area Vancouver can work on—bringing up high performing younger players from their minor league affiliates for game stretches and finding those diamonds in the rough. Several times in the second half of the season this has happened, albeit with mixed results. This could be a major source of young talent to fill in the gaps in next season and hopefully help flesh out strong 3rd and 4th lines as things wear on.
Threats:
The owner’s crazy ego. Canucks Owner Francesco Aquellini was recently called “the worst person in the sports world” by Keith Olberman on ESPN2 because Aquellini sued several Canadian sports writers for defamation due to their saying the owners hired Coach John Tortarella. However, the owner certainly has a say in who hires the coach; it’s not just the GM’s decision. The team does NOT need THAT kind of drama coming out of the owners' box!!!
Owners are responsible for personnel decisions and his calling it defamation is ludicrous. Owners need to take responsibility, say the right things, do charity work and especially put together a winning team for the fans. See how Bob McNair of the NFL Houston Texans has acted—he’s taken responsibility for personnel decisions when hiring and later firing Gary Kubiak. He’s empathized with the fans and when things don’t work, he owns the decision and keeps on trying. That is what kept Reliant Stadium full despite a rough season this past year. Hopefully the Canucks will win the draft lottery and get the equivalent of an NFL first round pick to put the team on the right track for the future. In the meantime, Aquellini needs to borrow a page from Bob McNair on how owners should act.
Wrap-up:
Clearly the Canucks have their work cut out for them in the off-season. Don't be surprised if they take some cap hits when they try to move some of the older players that are underperforming. While perhaps coach John Tortarella should be given one more season to prove his worth, a search for a new coach might commence during the Stanley Cup playoffs over the next two months. The organization has the right president and face of the team, giving them memories to build on. After this past season has mercifully ended, it seems the only way things can go next season is up.