Scott Walker leaves Canucks development team to join Coyotes

It was announced yesterday by the Arizona Coyotes that Scott Walker would be joining the club as a Special Assistant to the GM on a multi-year contract

Walker had been with the Canucks since 2015-16 where he started as a Development Coach and then was moved to the Director of Player Development this past season. Throughout the time, he has still been the owner of the Guelph Storm in the OHL.

In the video leading up to the draft, Walker was a prominent voice in the discussions featured and it was confirmed on Wednesday by Utica Comets GM Ryan Johnson that was part of his repertoire within the organization.

“He was very multi-faceted, he worked with some of our existing prospects and he was a part of the amateur decisions, especially with the higher echelons of players,” Ryan Johnson said to the media at UBC

He clearly provided value to the organization that was just limited to working with the players within the organization and moves into a role that should allow him to work upwards from there.

There was a lot of discussions this season about the development of players within the organization and how they were working with their prospects to become the best player they could. With that in mind, losing Walker is a big hit to a department that many are hoping to see improvements and additions to rather than the latter.

Obviously, the Canucks management group is busy with July 1st coming up but it will be interesting to see what they do to support Ryan Johnson for next season. It’s clear that you need to have players on entry level contracts contributing at the NHL level to be effective, so it shouldn’t be surprising to see teams like the Los Angeles Kings and Toronto Maple Leafs place a focus on player development.

Walker will clearly leave a hole in a management group that already appeared to be needing more bodies.