Kevin Hoffman-USA TODAY Sports
Buffalo Sabres centre Cody Hodgson says his dad never got involved with the Vancouver Canucks and he never complained about his ice time.
“I’ve been hearing all this stuff about my dad being involved with the team and making calls to the team and I wanted to tell everyone that my dad had nothing to do with it,” Hodgson told the Province. “He never called the team… my agent handled the stuff with the team.”
It was Hodgson’s agent, Rich Winter, who fuelled speculation that his dad, Chris, became too involved.
From the Province in February 2012:
"Near the end of a long day on twitter for Ritch Winter, Cody Hodgson’s agent, a Vancouver Canucks fan, @scurrie90, sent him this tweet:“Cody’s Dad made him go through 3 agents til they finally found one that antagonized MG (Mike Gillis) enough that Cody (was) moved.”Winter (@hockeyagentdad) responded with this:“Third time luck they say.”"
It was also believed Hodgson was unhappy playing behind Henrik Sedin and Ryan Kesler, so he made multiple requests for more ice time. He refuted these accusations.
“I never once asked for more ice time when I was in Vancouver, even though the media asked me every day if I thought I should be playing more,” Hodgson said. “I was just happy to be playing in the NHL when I was there at that stage of my career.”
Canucks general manager Mike Gillis said there were a number of issues that led to Hodgson’s trade out of Vancouver in April 2012. His dad and ice time were just two of them.
“There clearly were issues that were ongoing,” Gillis said. “I spent more time on Cody’s issues than every other player combined on our team the last three years.”