The Vancouver Canucks and Ian Clark could be headed in separate directions, according to a report from Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman on the 32 Thoughts Podcast.
“That one’s starting to pick up a little bit of noise. I think that it’s known that Clark may move on with the Canucks’ blessing, I think they’re not going to stand in the way here if an opportunity opens for him. New Jersey already has a goaltending department, but he knows Jacob Markstrom well… I think people who follow that situation much closer than I have, they really felt that it was likely that, after it was decided that Clark couldn’t go on the ice every day this season for his own health because of injuries he suffered, that maybe this marriage wouldn’t continue, and I’m curious to see where it’s going to go.“Even though it looks like the relationship between Clark and the Canucks has kind of turned in a bad direction, he’s a really sharp guy who really knows goaltending and he really played a huge role in Thatcher Demko getting to be who he is and where he is. So I think teams would definitely value that kind of institutional knowledge.”-Elliotte Friedman
The Canucks shifted Clark’s duties around after the longtime goaltending coach informed the club that he wouldn’t be able to go on the ice as much anymore. Marko Torenius — Clark’s protege and AHL Abbotsford’s goaltending coach for the past two seasons — was promoted to the role of NHL goaltending coach while the club shifted Clark into a scouting and development role.
Clark was named director of goaltending three seasons ago, and was responsible for the department as a whole. This included scouting at both the pro and amateur levels, hiring and firing of staff, and more. Essentially, if there was anything to do with goaltending in the Canucks’ organization, Clark had a hand in it.
His new role this year meant that wasn’t the case, and many believe that Clark wanted to keep his title of Director even if he wasn’t on the ice doing day-to-day coaching anymore.
Even before officially getting the title of Director in 2021-22, Clark was largely responsible for choosing who the Canucks targeted on both the pro and amateur side, just like he was in Columbus before joining the Canucks. It was Clark who scouted and then clamoured for the Canucks to draft Arturs Silovs in 2019, for example.
Clark has built a goaltending pipeline of sorts in Vancouver, and it’s no surprise that teams around the league would be interested in bringing him into the fold to just that for their organizations, as well.
Clark was the Canucks’ goaltending coach from 2003-2010, and rejoined the organization in the 2019-20 season after a stint with the Columbus Blue Jackets.
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