Travis Green's youth development fit Canucks' need in coaching search

The Vancouver Canucks officially introduced Travis Green as their new head coach Wednesday afternoon, handing the man who ran their AHL bench in Utica for the last four seasons a four-year contract.

Wanting to be decisive and quick in the process of replacing Willie Desjardins, the Canucks met with Green over two days following the end of Utica’s season on April 15 and then last Friday a contract was already being hammered out.

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By being decisive and quick, team president Trevor Linden and general manager Jim Benning didn’t go through your typical interview process by speaking with a number of candidates. They were so strongly in favor of promoting Green from their AHL ranks that no one else was interviewed.

“After working with Travis for three years, just witnessing and seeing the program that he built in Utica, we were very focused on Travis. We didn’t interview any other candidates,” Linden said. “We have a lot of faith in Travis and we really think that we’ve got a great young head coach that’s going to be important to the development of this team.”

While Green is a rookie at the NHL coaching level, he’s not coming into this situation, uh, green. He played over 1,000 games in the League and spent time in the Western Hockey League as an assistant and head coach before taking on the Utica gig in 2013.

The Comets made the Calder Cup playoffs twice (including the 2015 Final) in Green’s four years there, but his work with organization’s young players made him a hot commodity in the NHL coaching market. Teams were interested last off-season in hiring him and Linden noted that they had received calls on him again this year.

We’ve seen this move a lot in the NHL over the years in places like Pittsburgh, Tampa and Washington: A team in the Canucks’ situation – ready for some hard times while developing young players – bringing up their AHL head coach to provide some familiarity and (hopefully) continued development.

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Like Mike Babcock said when he took the Toronto Maple Leafs’ job, there’s going to be some pain ahead for the Canucks in the coming years as they develop their young players while enjoying the final years of the Sedins. And while Green’s track record shows he can develop youth, it’s a two-way street, and the organization will have to promote the kids who will be receptive to criticisms and respond to their errors.

“You understand players are going to make mistakes,” Green said, “veteran guys are going to make mistakes. You want to give your players confidence, you want to give them belief and put them back on the ice. But the onus goes on the player as well.

“This is not a league where you just give away things, and give jobs to people. The player still has to earn the job. He has to earn the respect, and that just doesn’t start in the game. That starts in a practice. If a player shows in practice his details are strong, he does the right things the whole practice, you have more trust in him if he makes a mistake in the game out of inexperience, he’s going to be able to go back and lean on details and the structure we’ve installed to get him through the same predicament the next time he faces it.”

Green’s hiring could be a good first step in the turnaround process, but this quote from Linden means even more:

That’s all Canucks fans have wanted to hear, and now Linden and Benning will have to work on filling the prospect cupboard with talent.

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Sean Leahy is the associate editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Sean_Leahy

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