Canucks name Green as new head coach, spent last four seasons in AHL with Utica

He replaces Willie Desjardins, who spent the last three seasons in Vancouver.

Desjardins was fired earlier this month less than 24 hours after the Canucks finished the 2016-17 campaign 29th in the overall standings.

Similar to Desjardins when he took the job in June 2014, Green has zero experience as an NHL head coach. Green has also never been an NHL assistant and is Canucks’ fourth head coach since May 2013.

Linden and Benning hinted at the press conference following Desjardins’ dismissal that top-level experience wasn’t a prerequisite for their next hire — comments that seemed to suggest the job was Green’s to lose after he was rumoured to be in the running for a couple of NHL jobs last off-season.

“We want to find the coach that’s the best fit for where we’re at right now as an organization with our young players,” Benning told reporters on April 10.

A 46-year-old from Castlegar, B.C., Green led the Comets to the Calder Cup final in 2015, but lost out in the first round last season before missing the playoffs altogether this spring with a depleted roster as a number of players expected to be in the AHL instead wound up in Vancouver.

The 19th head coach in Canucks’ history, Green scored 193 goals and added 262 assists in 970 games over 14 NHL seasons as a centre with the New York Islanders, Anaheim Ducks, Phoenix Coyotes, Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins.

Selected 23rd overall by the Islanders at the 1989 draft, Green comes to Vancouver with expectations that couldn’t be lower for a team that has missed the post-season three of the last four years.

Desjardins made the playoffs in 2014-15 with 101 points, but was axed after following up a 75-point effort in 2015-16 with a dismal 69-point campaign in 2016-17 as the Canucks pivoted into a full rebuild over the season’s final six weeks.

While Desjardins was initially tasked with trying to guide an aging roster back into contention after Vancouver fell one game short in the 2011 Stanley Cup final, Green should have more leash to develop some of the Canucks’ youth with less emphasis on the standings in the short term.

The Canucks are still led by Henrik and Daniel Sedin, who turn 37 in September, but have a promising core of younger players led by Bo Horvat, Sven Baertschi and Markus Granlund up front, along with Ben Hutton and Troy Stecher on defence.

Brock Boeser also impressed late in the year after joining Vancouver following his college season, while Jake Virtanen, another former first-round pick, spent most of 2016-17 with Green in the AHL working on his game.

Add to that the Canucks’ acquisition of a couple of assets in forwards Jonathan Dahlen and Nikolay Goldobin for veterans Alexandre Burrows and Jannik Hansen prior to the trade deadline, as well as having the second-best odds of winning Saturday’s draft lottery, and Green should have plenty to work with.

Joshua Clipperton, The Canadian Press

by The Canadian Press

Canucks name Green as new head coach, spent last four seasons in AHL with Utica

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