The overhaul of the Vancouver Canucks continued on Monday, with an announcement about changes to the club's player development department.
According to
the announcement, Daniel and Henrik Sedin are now shifting over, after having spent the last year in more of a management role. The organization has also added former Canuck Mikael Samuelsson and former NHLer Mike Komisarek.
The player development department will continue to be overseen by Cammi Granato and Ryan Johnson, and Chris Higgins remains on board as assistant director of player development.
"We're pleased to have solidified our Player Development department for next season with the additions of Mikael Samuelsson and Mike Komisarek, as well as Daniel and Henrik Sedin," said general manager Patrik Allvin in the press release. "Cammi Granato and Ryan Johnson led an extensive search to find the individuals with the right attributes, winning pedigrees, and who fit the overall strategy of the Vancouver Canucks moving forward."
It has been less than a year since the Sedins were introduced in their management roles on June 22, 2021. At that time, they joked that they wouldn't be getting back on the ice.
"We won't put our skates on," chuckled Henrik. "Haven't skated for three years," Daniel added.
Sounds like that will now change. According to the release, they will be "working daily on and off the ice with young players in Vancouver and Abbotsford."
The twins have a longstanding relationship with Granato, and guested on her podcast back in January, shortly before she was hired by the Canucks.
If I remember correctly, there's a conversation in this podcast about how Henrik's kids played soccer with Cammi's kids, leading to hours of conversation between them as they watched games from the sidelines. I wouldn't be surprised if those soccer games laid the foundation for what we're seeing today.
And certainly, having the Sedins in player development seems like a terrific role for them. Though they had buckets of potential when they were drafted, they had to work like crazy to get to the levels they achieved. They should be able to offer young players in Vancouver and Abbotsford a road map on how to realize their potential, as well as providing real-life inspiration based on how they developed themselves into two of the best players in the National Hockey League during their primes.
As for Samuelsson, the 45-year-old spent the last two-and-a-half seasons as general manager of Sodertalje SK, in Sweden's second-division Allsvenskan. After a tough start this year, he left that position in December. According to
Swedish site HockeySverige.se via Google Translate, he was replaced in an interim role by "club icon" Anders Eldebrink, who played 42 games for the Canucks in the early 80s, in between three different tours of duty with Sodertalje during his playing career.
Samuelsson also spent three seasons as European development coach for the Chicago Blackhawks, from 2017 to 2020. In his playing career, he had 349 points in 699 career NHL games and is a member of the Triple Gold Club. He won the Stanley Cup with the Detroit Red Wings in 2008, Olympic gold for Sweden in Turin in 2006 — with the Sedins — and World Championship gold also in 2006 — without the Sedins.
Komisarek, 40, is a big 6'4" former defenseman from New York, who was drafted seventh overall by the Montreal Canadiens in 2001. He won an NCAA championship with Michigan in 2002, then played 551 career NHL games, putting up 81 points.
After he was bought out of the last season of his five-year contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs during the summer of 2013, Komisarek signed a one-year deal with Jim Rutherford, for $700,000. He finished out his playing career with 32 games with the Carolina Hurricanes.
When his playing days were over, Komisarek returned to Michigan, where he spent two years as a
student assistant coach with the Wolverines while completing his degree in sports management. Then, from 2017 to 2020, he worked as a development coach with the Buffalo Sabres.
Broadly speaking, these moves continue a trend for the new management team — building out what had been a pretty sparse staff under Jim Benning and John Weisbrod. Putting the player development team together now means that everyone should have their boots on the ground for the summer development camp at UBC, which will run from July 10-15. Rutherford has said that he hopes to bring in as many prospects as possible for that event, including unsigned NCAA players and European prospects — and, of course, the next group of draft choices.
One prospect who probably won't be in the mix is Toni Utunen, the Finnish defenseman who was drafted by the Canucks in the fifth round in 2018, and who ended Canada's gold-medal hopes with his game-winning goal at Rogers Arena at the 2019 World Junior Championship.
The Canucks' exclusive rights to sign Utunen expire on June 1.
Now 22, Utunen spent last season with the Pelicans of the Finnish League, where he put up 11 points in 59 games.
Here's Rick Dhaliwal's update on Utunen:
And one final European free agent note: according to Rob Simpson at
Vancouver Hockey Now, Russian free-agent forward Andrei Kuzmenko is now targeting mid-June as the date when he'll decide which NHL team he'll sign with.
That's something else to keep an eye on while preparations for the draft go into high gear.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»