On July 25, Trevor Linden stepped down from his position as president of hockey operations of the Vancouver Canucks, just one month after the 2018 Entry Draft and several weeks before training camp. It was explained as an ‘amicable split’ by the organization’s president, Francesco Aquilini, in a 12-part post on Twitter.
As more details emerge though, the situation has been muddied. People in the Canucks camp have spoken to the media of intra-office politics, backstabbing and disloyalty. Now the narrative has changed from ‘amicable split’ to ‘he was actually fired’.
It should be no surprise to anyone that the Canucks have been in rebuild mode since they were finalists during the 2010-11 season. Since then, they have only made the playoffs three times and were eliminated in the first round.
The last time they made the playoffs was in 2014-15, the season Linden joined the franchise’s staff. After that year, the Canucks have lost 153 of 246 contests.
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In part of Aquilini’s twitter post on the former player’s departure, he said, “A rebuild is a long, slow, gradual process. Everybody needs to be united behind the same vision and pulling in the same direction.”
So it’s clear Linden and Aquilini’s clashed on how to move forward. Maybe Aquilini wasn’t satisfied with the slow pace of the rebuild even though Linden and his underlings, such as hand-picked general manager, Jim Benning, drafted high-calibre players such as Brock Boeser, Elias Petterrson, Olli Juolevi, Jonathan Dahlen, Kole Lind and this year’s pick Quinn Hughes.
It should be noted the Canucks didn’t spend a lot of money during July’s free agency period as well. They only signed Jay Beagle and Antoine Roussel, both of whom will be in a depth and leadership role now that the long-term serving Sedin twins have left town.
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It’s not insane for owners to want to win now, as opposed to becoming a long-term dynasty. Winning now mean’s more money, more fan support and less stress. It also means bragging rights. Every Canadian team except the Canucks, Ottawa Senators (not including the original team’s 1927 win) and the Winnipeg Jets have won a cup.
Linden and Benning have had their fair share of criticism during their reign of the team, but every team going through a rebuilding phase does. The Maple Leafs, for example, was a bottom dwelling team missing the playoffs for ten years since 2005, including a seven-year-stretch.
Now they are one of the most entertaining and brightest teams in the NHL.
The Canucks rebuild has been fairly similar, locking down young players in the draft and taking their time to grow them. Unfortunately, lacklustre drafting and taking bad contracts from the years prior to the Linden/Benning era have still been letting the Canucks down but the duo was on the right path and anyone replacing Linden will be moving the Canucks forward on the back of what Linden accomplished.
