Donnie and Dhali: Elliotte Friedman on The Team with Don Taylor and Rick Dhaliwal on Vancouver Canucks head coach Travis Green, who remains without a contract for next season. What others think of him and about his future with the Canucks organization?
** NHLRumors.com transcription
“You know Don, I think people think he is a good coach. It’s not like the Vancouver Canucks are the only team that have ever tried to hire him. In Anaheim, he came pretty close to getting a job there. I know that his reputation is pretty good. Like I said, I’ve had some coaches reach out to me, and I realize they have a bias here but I don’t think this opinion isn’t shared, I think that everything that happened in the past couple weeks, I think there are people who feel that the Canucks should do the right thing and extend their coaching staff.
I think one of the issues that is going on in the NHL right now is that I think that with the finances of the league tightening because fans aren’t in a lot of the buildings, I think you are going to see teams try to cut back on the costs for coaches and executives.
I do think there’s, I don’t know if cold wars is the right term but I’m going to use it Don because it’s the simplest term. I think there’s are some teams who say this is our chance to draw some of those numbers back and I think that’s kind of what’s going on right now between Travis Green and the Canucks. And there are a few really good coaches out there who don’t have extensions yet for next year. Green is one. Rick Tocchet who I think has done a really good job this year in Arizona is another. And we’re all kind of watching Brind’Amour in Carolina. He’s a guy who I think wants to stay there. I think they want him to stay there but I think the grind is, what’s a number that both sides think is fair?
So there’s a lot going on around the league this year. It’s not just Vancouver in terms of, I think teams are trying to draw a hard line on salaries, but you guys are kind of right in the middle of it.”