12:45am: The Canucks have officially announced the change, relieving Green and assistant coach Nolan Baumgartner of their duties. Boudreau has been installed as head coach and he’ll be joined by new assistant coach Scott Walker.
7:10pm: It appears another coaching change is on the horizon in the NHL. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports (Twitter link) that the Canucks are expected to hire Bruce Boudreau as their new head coach which suggests that Travis Green’s time behind Vancouver’s bench is set to come to an end. Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK and The Athletic adds (Twitter link) that no move to replace GM Jim Benning has been made at this time.
This season certainly hasn’t gone as well as Vancouver had hoped. After making a big splash to add defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson and winger Conor Garland from Arizona while shoring up their backup goalie position with the signing of Jaroslav Halak. Benning’s hope was that those additions, coupled with continued development from their young core, would be enough to get them back into playoff contention. Instead, they sit at the bottom of the Pacific Division with 18 points in 22 games, tied with Chicago for the second-fewest points in the Western Conference.
Several key Vancouver forwards have scuffled offensively this season, highlighted by Brock Boeser and Elias Pettersson both sitting at four goals, hardly the ideal output for two of their top forwards. This is where Boudreau’s reported hiring could pay dividends as his teams have typically been higher scoring and his system could jumpstart Vancouver’s attack. At least, that’s what the team is hoping for. Of course, their defense corps still isn’t the strongest even with Ekman-Larsson in the fold and getting more out of that group will also be high on Boudreau’s priority list.
Boudreau is no stranger to being behind an NHL bench as he sits just 16 regular season games shy of 1,000 for his coaching career which includes stints in Washington, Anaheim, and Minnesota, putting him 29th in NHL history in that regard. His .635 points percentage sits seventh all-time among those who have coached at least 200 games. The 66-year-old last coached in the 2019-20 season although he was set to be on Canada’s staff as an assistant coach for some upcoming international tournaments later this month.
Green will become the second coach to be fired this season and third departure overall (the others being Jeremy Colliton and Joel Quenneville who resigned from Florida). He was in his fifth season behind the bench and had a 133-147-34 record along with only one playoff appearance in 2020 where they fell in the second round to Vegas. He signed a two-year contract extension back in May but won’t be making it to the end of that deal. Meanwhile, Sportsnet’s Iain MacIntyre notes (Twitter link) that Boudreau will receive the same term which means he’ll be under contract with the Canucks through 2022-23.
Boudreau will be joined by Scott Walker as an assistant coach, reports TSN’s Darren Dreger (Twitter link). This would be Walker’s second stint with the Canucks having worked with them for three seasons in player development before moving onto Arizona. The veteran of over 800 NHL games as a player is currently the President of Hockey Operations for Guelph of the OHL and was expected to coach alongside Boudreau as an assistant in those upcoming international tournaments for Canada.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Interesting hire, didn’t think Gabby would be headed to Vancouver.
L
W
L as in W?
Hope Gabby has stocked the bucket with a crapload of S#@t-Bums! Gabby, just remember, *you* can’t be traded at the deadline. You’re stuck there for at least a few months, or until you get fed up with Benning’s mess.
Not a fan of BB,but he will lite a fire under the $$$$$$$ asses or they will sit.
@Dave – Let’s hope he doesn’t get undermined. I think he deserves a fair shot. I will miss him on the talk shows, though.
Bruce is a good guy, so I’m glad he’s getting another chance to coach. Canucks should be doing better than they are.
Really wanted him to sign with leafs as an assistant but considering their record I’m okay with the decision. That said I really hope Bruce does well he seems like a genuinely good guy
Bruce is a great guy. He spent two seasons playing for us in Springfield, towards the end of his career, and he’d be the last one off the ice from the pre-game skate. The reason why is that he’d collect about a dozen pucks, arrange them into a “U”, and one by one flip them over the glass and into the happy pack of kids who’d gather by the dasher, hoping for one.
Benning still in charge. Unless team turns it around . He will be fired after season or sooner.
Benning isn’t in charge the owners have been in charge for years bennings a puppet
Pick him over Mike Babcock and Coach Q…??
Neither of those guys are coaching in the NHL again.
I thought he was the best choice among the available candidates…NOT because he’s the best coach, but because the current version of the Canucks has no hope of playing team defense so their best bet is to run and gun and hope for 6-4 wins…and BBQ Bruce is the best at that.
Hopefully, he realizes that playing all 130 pounds of Elias Pettersson in a bottom six role isn’t the way to go and gets him real wingers.
Great choice for this day and age. He won’t raise his voice, push anyone out of their comfort zone or otherwise offend anybody. Unless you’re offended by food shrapnel, he’ll be a tough guy to cancel.