After a season of turmoil, Travis Green has been relieved as coach of the Vancouver Canucks, while Jim Benning has been let go as GM.
The ax has finally fallen in Vancouver.
The Vancouver Canucks announced that they have relieved Travis Green of his duties as coach, hiring Bruce Boudreau as their new head coach. Assistant coach Nolan Baumgartner will also be replaced by Scott Walker.
Green had held the position for the past four seasons, having been hired in 2017-18, with the 2021-22 campaign being his fifth behind the Canucks bench.
The team also relieved GM Jim Benning and assistant GM John Weisbrod from their positions.
With these firings, the deck chairs on the Titanic have shifted.
Green's tenure will likely not be looked back upon too kindly by Canucks fans. The British Columbia-native put together a 125-132-32 record in 289 games in Vancouver, making the playoffs just once, never earning over 81 points over a full regular season, and finishing last in the Pacific Divison on two occasions.
Under Green's stewardship, the Canucks accomplished very little. Their lone playoff series victory, occurring in the NHL's 2020 playoff bubble, came thanks to a stretch of otherworldly goaltending by Thatcher Demko, with the Canucks quickly stumbling back into mediocrity, or worse, immediately after it faded.
This should not be put all upon Green's shoulders, though.
The roster he was paid to deploy was constructed by Benning, who struggled to put together a roster that could consistently contend in any meaningful manner While Green did not do himself any favors, the odds were never in his favor. The majority of the team's draft picks taken by Benning and his staff outside of the first round failed to make a sizeable impact at the big-league level, with a few notable first-round busts, as well. And, perhaps most egregiously, Benning plunged the Canucks into a salary cap pit from which they may never escape.
The Canucks made the playoffs twice during Benning's time at the helm. Both appearances featured winning a single round, and are sandwiched in between years of abject failure, with the team finishing seventh (last) in the Pacific Divison three times, sixth once, and fifth another, as well.
It's time for a new era of Canucks hockey in Vancouver.