Former Vancouver Canucks captain Markus Naslund is no longer the general manager of the Swedish Hockey League’s Modo Hockey.
According to a report in Aftonbladet, Naslund resigned after his team was eliminated from playoff contention. They were defeated Linköpings HC in a best-of-three series to determine one of two final spots.
He retired from the NHL in 2009 and played one more season in 2009-10 with Modo. Naslund became the team’s general manager on January 2011.
Aftonbladet wonders if Naslund could rejoin the Canucks in a front office position. Canucks general manager Mike Gillis appeared to indicate interest on the TEAM 1040.
Gillis tells @mattsekeres & @blakeprice1040 he's going to talk to Naslund about joining the Canucks front office.
— Satiar Shah (@SatiarShah) March 14, 2014
It remains to be seen if Naslund will be interested in joining the Canucks and in what role.
The Detroit Red Wings have brought a couple of the players back into the fold. Chris Chelios is a hockey operations advisor and Kris Draper is a special assistant to the general manager. Steve Yzerman was previously Vice-President with the team before joining the Tampa Bay Lighting as its general manager.
Throughout his tenure with the Canucks, Naslund had maintained that he would remain in Sweden following retirement and raise his children there.
There’s a good chance that Naslund takes on a role that will enable to be based in Sweden such as assisting Thomas Gradin with scouting there and in Europe or working as a player development coach.