The Vancouver Canucks made some noise and turned some heads in their first appearance in the NHL postseason since 2015. With strong performances from so many players across the lineup who were making their postseason debuts, the prevailing narrative is that the future is bright in Vancouver.
Of course, we know that this year marks the first time the Canucks have won a playoff series since they went to the Stanley Cup Final in 2011. That run came after two years of frustrating second-round losses to the Chicago Blackhawks.
The Canucks also had two years of second-round defeats in the early 90s, before they put it together for their run to the Stanley Cup Final in 1994. So the precedent is there.
Other than 1982, when Vancouver parlayed its first playoff series win in franchise history all the way to a trip to the Final, the Canucks have been a team that has needed a little time to learn how to win.
This year's group did show tremendous growth after the restart — and Travis Green's coaching was right up there.
If you had asked me at the beginning of the playoffs who would have gotten farther between Green and the Canucks' 2011 coach, Alain Vigneault, in Philadelphia, I wouldn't have hesitated to give AV the nod.
In the end, it was a draw. Vancouver came in as a seventh seed in the West, while the Flyers were fourth in the east. A Game 7 loss in Round 2 was a solid outcome for the Canucks, but I'd say the Flyers underachieved a bit, relative to their regular-season performance.
Vigneault is a finalist this year for the Jack Adams award — for a record-setting fifth time in his career. His one previous win came in his first season in Vancouver, in 2006-07.
The other finalists are Bruce Cassidy of Boston — acknowledged for keeping the Bruins at the top of the league after reaching Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final last season — and John Tortorella of the Columbus Blue Jackets, who's acknowledged for keeping his team relevant after its roster was gutted last summer.
Of the three, Vigneault was the last coach standing in the playoffs, outlasting Torts by a round and Cassidy by a couple of games. But Vigneault ultimately had no answer for 2019 and 2016 Adams winner Barry Trotz in Game 7 against the New York Islanders — a 4-0 loss that brought back painful memories of the 2011 Stanley Cup Final for me.
Vigneault was just 35 when he got his first NHL head coaching job. At that same age, Green was still playing in the NHL — an oldster who successfully came back after the full-season lockout and played a full 82 games with the Boston Bruins in 2005-06, putting up 22 points and 79 penalty minutes.
Green's coaching journey began in the WHL at age 39, with the Portland Winterhawks. When he moved up to take over the head-coaching position midway through 2012-13, he took Portland all the way to a championship, which led directly to his hiring in Utica the following season.
Since joining the Canucks in 2017, he has had more and more talent to work with every year, and has kept the team steadily improving. A .445 winning percentage in his first season was followed by .494 in 2018-19, and .565 last year, before the season was paused in March.
With no NHL head coaching experience, there were questions when Green was hired, especially when then-president Trevor Linden
told reporters at the time that Green was the only candidate the team considered.
He signed a four-year contract that
CapFriendly reports is worth $1 million a year. Coaching salaries are not always made public, but if you look at the numbers that are available on
CapFriendly, it looks like Green is in line for a significant raise. He might not get all the way to the $5 million range of the old guard like Vigneault, Claude Julien or Joel Quenneville, or even Barry Trotz's $4 million. But if I was Green's agent, I'd consider David Quinn's $2.4 million a season with the New York Rangers my absolute minimum comparable — and probably be looking more closely at Paul Maurice's $3 million with Winnipeg, to start.
As a rule, Canucks ownership hasn't shied away from spending to the salary-cap ceiling on players, but seems to be more frugal with off-ice contracts. The front office around Jim Benning has been pared down in recent years. And just like on the ice, it seems like many younger faces — who are also probably cheaper — have been brought along into more significant roles.
That's how things worked before the pandemic. Now, there's a real cash crunch around the league without gate revenue. With any luck, the Canucks' playoff run at least earned them some additional merchandise revenue, even if fans don't get to go out in public much to rep their new gear.
After three seasons, Green is now the ninth longest-tenured coach in the NHL.
So in terms of cash flow, the Canucks are also fortunate that they've only been paying one coach. Counting Todd Reirden's recent dismissal from Washington, nine coaches have been fired during the 2019-20 season. Most notably, of course, Mike Babcock still has three more years left on the contract he sighed with Toronto that paid him $6.25 million per season.
Bottom line: with one year left on his deal, Green is due for a contract extension, stat. And a nice raise. That'd be the right way to kick off this offseason. It would be nice to have the extension in place well before we get to the draft and free agency.
And by well before — that probably means in the next week or two.
The NHL released a tentative list of critical dates in the Memorandum of Understanding that was ratified in July in order to facilitate the Return to Play.
They've stayed pretty much on track — and are actually a couple of days ahead of schedule, even after the two-day pause during Round 2.
The length of these final two rounds will be determined by the length of the series, of course. The Conference Final has reverted to more traditional scheduling, with no back-to-backs and one day off between all games. It'll be interesting to see if the Stanley Cup Final follows the usual rhythm, with a little more time off between games, or if they stick with the every-other-day plan since no travel is required. I'm sure the league's broadcast partners will get a big say in those decisions.
But for today, the key date on Frank Seravalli's chart is the draft — October 9-10. Four and a half weeks away — on Canadian Thanksgiving weekend. With free agency to follow shortly afterward.
That initial critical-dates calendar was based on the idea of starting training camps for the 2020-21 season in mid-November and beginning the new season on December 1 — aiming to squeeze in a normal 82-game season. With the border still closed, that seems virtually impossible at this point.
Depending on when the Final ends, I wonder if it would make sense to push those dates by a week or two, so it would be like a normal summer schedule. Give everybody a minute to breathe, and allow time for hype and excitement to build around the draft and free agency.
The Canucks currently don't have a pick in the first two rounds of the draft. Before the pause, Jim Benning talked about potentially wanting to recoup one. I wonder if he's still in the market?
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»