The Vancouver Canucks resolved the status of general manager Mike Gillis on Monday and moved closer to determining coach Alain Vigneault’s future.
The NHL club, still reeling from an unexpected first-round playoff exit after going to the Stanley Cup final 11 months ago, announced Gillis has agreed to terms on a new contract. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, and Gillis refused to state the contract length during a conference call with reporters.
“There’ve been moments where I reflected and wondered if the amount of energy and the amount of opportunity to be evaluated by everybody was the right thing for me, but I felt that it was,” said Gillis. “I felt that we had unfinished business for sure here, and this team was on the right track.”
Gillis, 53-year-old Kingston, Ont., native, was entering the final year of a five-year deal that he signed when he took over the team in 2008.
“This is a significant announcement for our hockey club,” said chairman Francesco Aquilini, whose family owns the team, in a release. “These past four years have been the most successful in Canucks history. Mike and his management team have done an excellent job to position us for long term success on and off of the ice.
The announcement, which came after Gillis met with Aquilini earlier in the day, erased speculationn about the GM’s future, which had percolated for two weeks after Vancouver’s elimination by the surging Los Angeles Kings in five games.
Now that he has secured a new deal, Gillis will address Vigneault’s status as soon as possible. The GM said it is his decision whether Vigneault remains behind the Canucks bench, and he wants the coach to continue with the club.
