The Vancouver Canucks are experiencing deja vu all over again, having reconnected with Jason King and hiring him as an assistant coach with the Utica Comets. King joins a staff that already includes Travis Green, Nolan Baumgartner and Rollie Melanson.

Canucks fans are likely to remember King, as his NHL career started when Vancouver selected him 212th overall, in the seventh round of the 2001 Entry Draft. King spent the better part of seven seasons in the Canucks system, accumulating 12 goals and 11 assists in 55 games of NHL action, before leaving Vancouver for Skelleftea AIK in the SHL in 2006. All told, King played 59 games in the NHL.

King retired as a player at the end of the 2012-13 season, as a member of the St. John’s IceCaps. Immediately upon retiring as a player, King joined the IceCaps coaching staff as an assistant and was elevated to the role of Director of Hockey Operations two years later. In his two years as an assistant with the IceCaps, King helped steward the Newfoundland franchise to a Calder Cup appearance and playoff absence the season after.