vancouver canucks magazine Introduction
The 2013–14 Vancouver Canucks season was the franchise's 44th season in the National Hockey League (NHL). The Canucks missed the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since the 2007–08 season, ending their five-year playoff streak. In addition, the team recorded its worst regular season since the 1999–2000 season. Head coach John Tortorella, who had been hired in the pre-season, was fired.
In addition to hiring Tortorella in the off-season, for financial reasons the decision was made to retain goaltender Roberto Luongo instead of Cory Schneider. As a result, along with a reduced salary cap, the team was unable to pursue top free agents signing a number of restricted and unrestricted free agents instead.
The team had won their division five years in a row previously, and had finished first in the entire league twice in the last three seasons. With the addition of a new head coach, and players such as Brad Richardson, both management and fans were optimistic that the team could be a Stanley Cup contender.
The team was inconsistent, playing well in October and December, but badly in November. In January the team's situation worsened. Tortorella's bombastic approach began to wear on team members, and top performers like Alex Burrows, Daniel Sedin and Henrik Sedin were failing to score goals. Things deteriorated as the year progressed. Goaltender Roberto Luongo became disgruntled with a lack of playing time and forced a trade in March, while the team continued to fall in the standings. General manager Mike Gillis was fired in April. Vancouver ended the season finishing sixth last overall out of thirty teams. This finish allowed the team to select sixth overall at the 2014 Entry Draft, the lowest the Canucks had selected since 1999 when the team selected second and third overall.
Off-season
John Tortorella was hired as Vancouver's new head coach. He was fired after the regular season.
Vancouver's off-season began after they were eliminated in the first round of the 2013 Stanley Cup playoffs by the San Jose Sharks. Two weeks later, on May 22, 2013, the Canucks fired head coach Alain Vigneault, as well as assistant coaches Rick Bowness and Newell Brown.[2] Following Vigneault's departure, general manager Mike Gillis conducted head coach interviews with John Stevens, Glen Gulutzan, Dallas Eakins, Scott Arniel, and John Tortorella.[3][4][5] There was speculation that former New York Rangers head coach John Tortorella would be hired by the Canucks after he was spotted arriving at the Vancouver Airport on June 21.[6] His hiring was confirmed on June 25, when he was formally introduced to Vancouver media.[7] Coincidentally, a few days earlier, the Rangers had hired Vigneault to become Tortorella's successor as head coach of the Rangers.[8] Glen Gulutzan was later hired as an assistant coach, as was Mike Sullivan who had been an assistant under Tortorella with the Rangers.[9]
Another major off-season issue was the goaltending situation. Given that the salary cap for the 2013–14 season would be reduced by $6 million from the 2012–13 season, there was speculation that the Canucks would be unable to hold onto both goaltenders Roberto Luongo and Cory Schneider. Trade rumours centred around the 34-year-old Luongo, despite the fact that his contract carried an annual cap hit of $5.33 million, and was set to expire at the end of the 2021–22 season. In the end, Luongo's contract made him too expensive to trade. Schneider left Vancouver in a deal with the New Jersey Devils, in exchange for their first-round pick in the 2013 NHL Draft which was used to select Bo Horvat.[10]
With a shrinking salary cap the Canucks had limited funds to sign new players.[11] Vancouver could not afford to pursue top end free agents like Jarome Iginla or Nathan Horton.[12] Instead they signed less costly restricted free agents Dale Weise, Jordan Schroeder, Kellan Lain and Christopher Tanev,[13][14] as well as unrestricted free agent players Brad Richardson, Yannick Weber and Mike Santorelli.[15][16] The Canucks also signed unrestricted free agent Andrew Alberts, after his previous contract with the Canucks had expired at the end of the 2012–13 season.[17] Richardson was brought on as center for one of the bottom two lines in a checking role, and to provide the team with another reliable face-off man.[18] Alberts and Weber were competing in the pre-season for the sixth defenceman spot. Weber was also seen as a possible power play contributor as a right-handed defenceman with a hard shot, potentially playing a role similar to that of former Canuck Sami Salo.[19] Santorelli was not expected to make the team initially, but would add depth to the Canucks new American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Utica Comets instead.[20] in awesome condition please buy
