Last week the Vancouver Canucks dramatically altered their management structure by hiring Trevor Linden as president of hockey operations, and deposing general manager Mike Gillis.
More changes are expected in Vancouver, as the organization still needs to hire a replacement general manager. It's also presumed that head coach John Tortorella - who guided the Canucks to their first non-playoff season in six years during his inaugural campaign with the team - will be shown the door.
Late last week Linden implied in an interview that he believed poor coaching had played in a role in the demise of the Canucks as a perpetual contender. On Sunday, during an intermission interview with Sportsnet Pacific host Dan Murphy, Linden praised Tortorella's abilities.
"I have a great deal of respect for John," Linden said. "He's had a great career, won a Stanley Cup, been around a long time, won a lot of games." Continued Linden: "My job is to fully digest everything I can from him and, of course, talk to the players. Those (conversations) aren't fully determining in what we do. I have to gather all the facts and all the data and decide what the best course for this franchise is."
Linden added that it was likely the team would make a decision on Tortorella's future shortly:
I think it's important to make a decision early, because I don't want people sitting in limbo and I don't want the organization like that," he said. "It's important that I take enough time to understand everything and part of that is going to happen throughout this week i have to sit down with John a couple times and sit down with the players."
