It is much, much too early to judge whether Trevor Linden is going to be the voice of wisdom and consensus that rallies the Vancouver Canucks organization, imbues it with a renewed sense of purpose and vision and re-engages a sour fan base.
He’s a good-looking guy, and wears a suit stylishly, but beyond the outer shell and his godlike reputation from a long, honest career as a player, no one can be sure of the new club president’s qualifications to lead a National Hockey League franchise.
But now, at least, there is something besides platitudes to hang a hat on. He has done the first thing, and done it right.
It was not rocket science, but it was necessary.
He left the slate clean for the man he hires to replace Mike Gillis as general manager.
Firing John Tortorella on Thursday had almost everything to do with bad results and an acknowledgment that the volatile head coach’s hiring was a chemistry experiment gone awry — one that needed to be disconnected quickly before it blew up the entire lab.
But a smaller, yet still important element of it was that bringing in a new GM and then telling him, ‘Oh, by the way, this guy’s your coach,’ is no way to start a relationship between a hockey club’s two major decision-makers.
So while Linden tap-danced around the “next steps” questions, the who, what and when of a new GM and coach, he admitted that clearing the decks was vital.
And if he really does have a good idea who that new manager might be — and the freedom to spend what it takes to get him, and a suitable coach — then he’s going to owe much, from the very outset, to the club’s owners.
Because there was no way to clean the slate without the Aquilini family biting the bullet, admitting responsibility, and saying goodbye to a very big pile of cash.
First came owning up.
Vancouver Canucks’ head coach John Tortorella, centre, poses for photographs with owner Francesco Aquilini, left, and general manager Mike Gillis. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck)
Let’s say, for argument’s sake, that we believe Tortorella was Mike Gillis’s hire, and that the Aquilinis served only in an arm’s-length, consulting capacity.
We might not believe it, but that’s neither here nor there.
So Tortorella was Gillis’s first choice: fine. And the owners approved.
At minimum, they’re on the hook for hiring the guy who made this colossal mistake, if that’s what we decide Tortorella was — and additionally, for putting their stamp on the GM’s choice of coaches.
Moreover, they’re culpable for allowing Gillis — remember, it was all one big consulting family here, owners and GM — to abandon the style of hockey he came in wanting the Canucks to play.
They stood by while the architect of their team gradually changed course after the 2011 Cup final loss to Boston, a philosophical shift that was complete when they, owners and GM, hired a defence-first, shot-blocking fetishist who overplayed his best players, hitched thoroughbreds to the manure spreader, and called the shots while an aging team absolutely tanked in the second half of the season and finished 25th in a 30-team league.
Vancouver Canucks’ general manager Mike Gillis, left, and owner Francesco Aquilini watch players practice. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck)
Are the Aquilinis to blame then? Sure. Equally with Gillis and Tortorella. It’s only fair that they all pay: Tortorella and Gillis with their jobs, the Aquilinis with their wallets.
It’s going to cost them a fortune to pay off both Gillis and Tortorella, each of whom had four years and, reportedly, $8 million left on their contracts when the pink slip arrived.
“From an ownership standpoint, it’s worth talking about,” said Linden, after Tuesday’s news conference, in which there really was nothing substantial to glean other than the departure of Tortorella and his chief lieutenant, Mike Sullivan, and the retention of the other three assistants, Glen Gulutzan, Darryl Williams and Roland Melanson.
“I never once had Francesco say I should do this or do that, for any reason. He’s been fully supportive of anything I decided. This is a hockey decision, and with that came a significant price.
“So it’s hard to question their commitment.”
Trevor Linden poses after being announced as the new President of Hockey Operations for the Vancouver Canucks by team owner Francesco Aquilini. (Photo by Jason Payne/ PNG)
Linden himself couldn’t have been any small expense item. Beyond what they may have to pay the kind of coach Linden says the Canucks need — “A career coach, one who’s been experienced at many levels, a teacher, able to communicate well with his players on many levels, understands that different players needed to be communicated with differently, someone that has a real distinct style of play and believes that their style of play is the way to success” — there is the matter of the GM.
Someone from a good organization who’s had an up-close look at how the business works at all levels.
Someone, moreover, who will like the city and trust the men in charge enough to be willing to work with the Canucks’ deteriorating nucleus and apparent absence of impact players from nearly a generation’s worth of draft picks.
Tortorella’s last news conference here referenced a team that had no push from the bottom. Meaning depth.
Linden said he didn’t agree with everything he heard from conversations with Tortorella, but he didn’t dispute that part.
They didn’t get thin overnight, and they won’t get fat again quickly, either. Or cheaply.
