Canucks Army Roundtable: Next in Line

After a far from ideal start to the season, it’s no surprise that the hot seat seems to be getting warmer for Canucks coach Willie Desjardins. Many don’t expect him to last the season, and even if he does he won’t last the off-season for sure. It seems the heir to the coaching gig will be Utica Comets coach Travis Green who was nearly lost in the off-season to a few teams (notably Anaheim) that brought Green in for an interview. However, the Canucks may not want to pry Green for Utica mid-season to steer this ship. Perhaps they’d want to go with an experienced coach instead of a rookie next season, who knows. Doug Jarvis, recent assistant coach acquisition, is rumoured to be considered for the interim spot, despite the fact he has never been a head coach in the NHL. He’s a long-time assistant, though, and he would be fine in the role.

With that in mind, I asked our writers what they would do about the situation. Here’s what they said.

Question: If the Canucks do decide to part ways with Willie Desjardins during the season, who do you think takes over the reigns in the interim for the remainder of the year?

Francesco Aquilini

It will either be Doug Jarvis or Travis Green.

Travis Green would likely only take the job with the security of a three or four-year deal, he wouldn’t accept an interim tag. He’s worked for years with the hopes of landing one of the coveted 30 NHL jobs (soon to be 31), so he likely wouldn’t want to risk tarnishing the respect he has earned by tagging an interim job. If the Canucks want to go down that road, with a multi-year deal, it’s Green.

If they want to make the change, and still leave themselves open for the end of the season – then it’s likely Doug Jarvis. Although even with that change, it wouldn’t provide much tangible improvement thus allowing them to try him out, if it doesn’t work, then they bring in Green during the summer, or one of the other coaches who will be let go at the conclusion of the season.

 (@ 1:47)

John Tortorella

If Bruce Boudreau got a second chance with Anaheim then I think Marc Crawford could as well in Vancouver. The sad thing is that the best coaches here never stopped being great coaches, they just got tuned out for one reason or another by the current group of players.

Alain Vigneault should never have been fired for the same reason Willie Desjardins shouldn’t be canned… yet anyways. 

What does he have to work with that warrants his dismissal? Can this all be blamed on Willie, no. I love Marc Crawford but I can’t see Ottawa letting him walk.

People ask what experience Travis Green has, well what experience did Willie have as head coach in the pros? We’ll never be satisfied even if we got exactly who we wanted.

Show me 2-30 goal scorers and Brock Boeser excelling here and coaching won’t be an issue.

Somebody whose teams play fast. They play an up-tempo, hard-skating type of game, with that relentless attitude we want.

As others have said, Travis Green or Doug Jarvis. As much as I’m not a fan of WD’s deployment (no coach is perfect in this regard), his systems are good. He’s a real good guy. He just doesn’t have good players to make up for his deployment mistakes. A new coach or getting him gone likely won’t do much.

Personally, I don’t see the point in taking Travis Green out of Utica this year. I’d rather have him stay down there, help the struggling Comets develop, and then bring him in in the offseason, where he will be able to draw off those experiences with some of the players that are going to be on the team come next season. Doug Jarvis seems like the right choice, for this year.