Now that Travis Green has been installed as the Vancouver Canucks' next head coach, what's the lay of the land around the team?
Well, for one thing, the organization has stopped shying away from using the R-word.
“We are rebuilding this team,” Canuck president Trevor Linden told the assembled media on Wednesday, per
Iain MacIntyre at
The Province.
“I think we have our focus on our young players and we’re excited about that. The journey with these young players will be interesting, not always perfect. So if rebuild is a word that everyone is happy with, then we’re fine with that.”
Green's coaching experience comes from the Portland Winterhawks of the WHL, as well as the Utica Comets. Those development-oriented gigs are a big part of the reason why the organization believes he's the right man for this job at this time.
“He understands young players," explained Linden. "He knows how to manage young players. He knows how to set the bar on accountability — what’s expected — and the preparation that’s required."
Green also acknowledged the team's need to score more goals after finishing 29th in the league offensively for two straight years—with an average of 2.27 goals per game in 2015-16 and 2.17 goals per game last season.
“I think there’s a way you can create offence nowadays with the way the game is played," Green said,
per Jason Botchford of
The Province.
"But that’s definitely an area we’re going to have to improve and we’re going to have to find a way to score more goals. Finding goal-scorers is different than creating offence for me."
When pressed for details, "“Getting your defence involved is something and that’s what a lot of people talk about. It’s also how you drive the net, how you gain access to the net, how you create traffic.
“You can think a lot of things about offence, but you also need to have the right personnel.”
How will that work?
"It’s in your structure,” Green said. “I’m not going to sit and tell you how we’re going to do it, but there are things in the structure of the game. Every team plays a little different.
“Getting your defence involved is something and that’s what a lot of people talk about. It’s also how you drive the net, how you gain access to the net, how you create traffic.
“You can think a lot of things about offence, but you also need to have the right personnel.”
That sets the stage for some potential trades or free-agent signings this summer. The Canucks hold the rights to a slew of restricted free agents but I'd say only Bo Horvat, Erik Gudbranson, Brendan Gaunce and possibly Reid Boucher would fall into the 'must-sign' category.
I assume Green will have some input into whether or not the team presents qualifying offers to the likes of Drew Shore, Joseph Cramarossa, Michael Chaput and Anton Rodin, or if they choose to look at some different options in an effort to find "the right personnel."
Sven Baertschi has real insight into what we can expect from Green:
Dan Murphy dug up this insight while covering the Nashville-St. Louis series for Sportsnet:
Of course, the Canucks' problems run much deeper than scoring goals. Check out this graphical summary of the season:
It is nice to see that the team made a tangible improvement on faceoffs last season—moving from last place in 2015-16, with a 45.4 percent success rate, up to ninth in the league at 51.1. Credit Manny Malhotra for that shift.
But even as a team that tied for 25th with an average of just 7:54 worth of penalty minutes per game, Vancouver still tied for the seventh-highest goals against on the penalty kill. That was due to their third-worst penalty kill, which was successful just 76.7 percent of the time last season.
The next challenge for the Canucks will be instilling a new bench boss on a Utica team that should start to get a little deeper, talent-wise, as Vancouver's prospect pool starts to get deeper.
This decision won't be as cut and dried as the choice to promote Green, reports
Ed Willes at
The Province.
"I said to Trevor, that’s going to be a big, big decision,” Canucks GM Jim Benning told Willes. “For the first time I feel we have depth in our organization. We have real prospects down there we can develop into important pieces up here. We’ve got to make sure we pick the right guy.”
“Is it an up-and-comer?" wondered Linden aloud. "Is it a veteran guy who’s seen the NHL? That’s something we need to figure out, and I don’t think we’re they’re yet.
“He’ll have to have head coaching experience somewhere whether that’s college or junior. Beyond that, we’ll want to hire the best head coach.”
Willes reports that Green's assistant Nolan Baumgartner will also be making the move to the Canucks to help out on the blue line, and Jason King is staying in his assistant's role in Utica. For the moment, the vacancy is wide open.
One other note on Baertschi—sadly, he won't be suiting up for Switzerland at next month's World Championship.
Baertschi says he's not too far off from being able to get back to training. He's looking forward to playing an increased role next season, so hopefully he'll come back at 100 percent.
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