The father of former Vancouver Canucks defenceman Chris Tanev, Mike Tanev, joined Donnie & Dhali on Friday morning. They started off talking about the beginning of his son’s career and Vancouver’s involvement.
As an undrafted free agent, Tanev had the choice to sign anywhere he wanted. Despite having multiple offers elsewhere, Tanev ultimately decided to begin his career in Vancouver. Tanev’s dad shared that Chris had offered from nine other NHL teams, but Vancouver was the place he wanted to go.
He started his Canucks tenure during the infamous 2011 Stanley Cup run, filling in for the suspended Aaron Rome. Chris Tanev spent the first 10 years of his career in Vancouver, becoming one of the league’s premier defensive defencemen and well-known shot blocker.
Being one of the only remaining players from the 2011 Stanley Cup run team still with the organization in 2020, it seemed like Tanev was going to be a Vancouver Canuck for life. However, that’s not how this all shook out.
“Everything was good until the last year,” Tanev’s dad said. “Hey, they didn’t offer him a contract.”
That was a tough offseason for the Canucks. They saw Jacob Markstrom, Tyler Toffoli and Chris Tanev all walk in free agency. It has come out that the club was holding out, waiting for Markstrom to make a decision. And, well, they just “ran out of time” to sign Toffoli or Tanev.
But to not even offer Tanev a contract? A beloved veteran in the locker room who wore an ‘A’ on his jersey and was one of the last remaining pieces from an infamous team? Just seems like a slap across the face. But the two sides were close to getting back together.
There were a lot of rumours last season swirling about Tanev returning to Vancouver. It was reported Canucks management tried to add him to the Elias Lindholm trade, but that part of the trade fell through. Tanev would end up getting traded to the Dallas Stars.
Tanev suited up for 19 regular season games in Dallas, logging important defensive minutes (19:13) playing in a shutdown role, adding 36 blocked shots over that time. As the playoffs rolled around and the games got that much more important, Tanev started to play heavier minutes, now averaging 22:18 minutes of ice time, and blocked a whopping 73 shots – the most in the playoffs despite playing three rounds.
Given his playoff success was put on display, playing in the spotlight of the Stanley Cup playoffs, Tanev’s value skyrocketed. He took his talents to free agency, where multiple suitors emerged. However, there were really only three teams in contention for Tanev’s services.
“When Chris went to Dallas, we had a decision to make this summer. There were three teams,” Tanev’s dad shared. “There was Vancouver – obviously, huge interest from Vancouver – Toronto and Dallas. The family thing makes sense. How close was Vancouver? I don’t know. But I can tell you [Vancouver] was one of the three teams that Christopher had to choose from.
“Vancouver was definitely there.”
From just the words of his father, it sounds like Tanev’s return to Vancouver was close to happening. Patrik Allvin and Jim Rutherford nearly brought back one of Quinn Hughes’ favourite defence partners, Chris Tanev.
