28-year-old Vincent Desharnais has only been a member of one organization in his career: the Edmonton Oilers. Now, he’ll be on the other side of the growing rivalry between the Canucks and Oilers. But hey, at least it wasn’t the Calgary Flames.

Last week, the towering blueliner, who signed a two-year $2 million AAV contract with the Canucks in free agency, joined The Jason Gregor Show to talk about his time in Edmonton, and looked ahead to Vancouver.

“It took a little bit to get used to,” Desharnais said of being a Canuck now. “I messed up a few times during some interviews saying Edmonton instead of Vancouver, but no, it’s going to be good. I actually skated for the first time last week and put on the gear for the first time, different shades of blue. I’m excited for sure. It’s going to be fun.”

A seventh round pick of the Oilers in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft, Desharnais didn’t make his NHL debut until the 2022-23 season, when he appeared in 36 games. Desharnais talked about wearing a different shade of blue when the Canucks and Oilers next face off, and joked that if he were going to sign with a rival team, at least he didn’t choose the Flames — the actual biggest rival the Oilers have.

“I mean, I said it during the season, I said it after the season, I want to stay in Edmonton. I’ve been part of the of the Oilers for eight years. I’ve been bleeding orange ever since I got drafted. But it’s also a business, and it’s probably the aspect I like the least about hockey is the business aspect because it just takes away all the emotions and it’s just numbers. And it’s not real life, in my opinion, but that’s the business I’m in, so I just had to deal with it.

“And obviously, you think about it, you’re like, ‘Okay, well, if I go to the Canucks, I will be playing them [the Oilers] quite a bit, but then after you think about it, you’re like, ‘well, it could have been worse, it could have been Calgary’. Vancouver is not as bad as Calgary, so we’ll take it,” joked Desharnais. “But obviously, it’s going to be weird to play against the boys next season. I went to Connor’s wedding two weeks ago, and, you know, seeing all the boys, it was so cool to see how happy they were for me, how excited they were. But it was also very sad that it was kind of like the last time that we would spend together and not hit each other and try to slap each other.

“I was very thankful for my time in Edmonton. I’m going to miss it so much. I’m gonna miss the boys mostly, and miss the fans too. I mean, I posted on Instagram to thank Oil Country, and I got probably over 600 messages and comments on it, and they were all positive. And, you know, sometimes we always say, ‘oh social media is so negative, everyone is negative.’ But I want to thank the fans because it was so heartwarming. It was a tough decision for me, but seeing how happy everyone was for me, it was really nice. It’s made me feel a little bit better about it, because it was not a situation that I liked, it’s not nice to change like that. But seeing how the fans reacted and how my old teammates reacted to it is very heartwarming and made me feel a little bit more comfortable in my decision.”

Another thing that made Desharnais comfortable with his decision to sign in Vancouver was the phone call that he received from Adam Foote and Rick Tocchet, which ultimately convinced him to sign in Vancouver.

“The GM, Tocc, and Adam Foote called me before I signed. When they made me an offer on July 1, they wanted to talk to me as well, so I had a great conversation then. And then last week, we had another great conversation. And like you said, I don’t know him [Tocchet] that well yet, but just from talking to him, 20-30, minutes both times, he just seems like an easy guy to talk to. He seems like a fair guy where he’s intense, he’s gonna ask for a lot, he’s gonna demand a lot from you, but if you give it to him he’s gonna reward you for doing what he asked for. And working with Adam Foote, I’m very excited. I’ve heard nothing but positive things about how detailed he is as a D coach, and how he uses video quite a bit or players, for D-Men to get better.

“I think the coaching staff was a great fit for me, and being able to talk to them before really made it easier for me to pick the Canucks. Actually, a thing I was thinking about, too, when I signed was the whole season. every time we would play Vancouver, the guys [Oilers teammates would say] ‘agh, not Vancouver again, they’re so intense, they’re so hard to play against, they’re always in your face.’ And in playoffs, we saw it. [They were] probably the team that gave us the biggest challenge of the first three series. So I mean, for me to go play for for a team like that kind of matches my style of play, my mentality. They’re very hard to play against defensively. They’re mean, they’re physical. So I’m excited to just get going with them, get to know the players and get to know the coaching staff as well.”

You can listen to the full interview with Desharnais by clicking here.