Vancouver Canucks announce contract extension for GM Mike Gillis -NHL Update
Vancouver Canucks announced that the management has reached a mutual consensus for extending the contract of general manager, Mike Gillis, on Monday, May 7, 2012, despite recent disappointments in the 2012 National Hockey League (NHL) Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Canucks were eliminated from the quarterfinals by Los Angeles Kings in just five games a year after making the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals and losing to Boston Bruins in Game 7, which definitely gave birth to rumours that the team was not going to bring Gillis
back for another season.
"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," Gillis said. "I felt that we had unfinished business for sure here,
and this team was on the right track."
The 2011-2012 NHL regular season was the last on Gillis’ five-year contract that he signed back in 2008. There has been no confirmation as of yet on the length of the newly signed extension between the two stakeholders.
Now that Gillis has been confirmed to remain the team’s general manager, spectators are still awaiting to see what the team is yet to announce for Vancouver Canucks head coach, Alain Vigneault.
There has been an indication from Gillis’ side that Vigneault wants to remain the coach but no official announcement has been made in this regard.
“He’s made every indication that he does want to come back and coach this team,” said Gillis. “We both feel that it’s a very good hockey team and that we have a unique situation that we face, with a good hockey team, in how to get over that last little hurdle
and we’re going to continue to work together to get there."
Vancouver is currently in a longer than usual offseason and there is a lot of moves expected to be made from the Canucks side as they work towards pinpointing the problems faced during this year’s Stanley Cup run.
One of the biggest moves expected by the team is what they are planning to do with veteran goaltender, Roberto Luongo.
Tags: