‘A curious 14 months in Vancouver’: Keenan reflects on brief tenure as Canucks coach

There is a chapter in Iron Mike, the memoir of former NHL coach Mike Keenan, that details what is undoubtedly the darkest era of Vancouver Canucks history from the villain’s perspective.

In an interview with Donnie and Dhali this week, Keenan discussed, among other chapters of his book detailing his coaching career, his time in Vancouver.

“Chapter 19: A curious 14 months in Vancouver, 1997 to 1999,” began show host Don Taylor during the interview. “How strange was it to come to Vancouver to coach a team that you’d beaten in a Stanley Cup Final three years earlier?”

A surreal time

Strange and curious are perhaps the lightest words one could use to describe that era of Canucks hockey. The late-1990s Canucks teams were muddled by new ownership, new coaches, new uniforms and a new culture — all of which seemed to have the inverse effect on management’s goal of a return trip to the Stanley Cup Final.

Some pieces of the 1994 team remained — Pavel Bure, Trevor Linden, Kirk McLean, Martin Gélinas and Gino Odjick among them — but an odd mix of characters rounded out the squad. 

Keenan as coach. Mark Messier, the sought-after free agent signing, as captain. They had destroyed Vancouver’s dreams of a Stanley Cup three years before, as their New York Rangers beat the Canucks in seven games to win the cup. They would do it again, this time from within the organization.

Canucks owner second-best to Keenan

Keenan replaced Tom Renney as coach in November 1997. He recalled being tasked with sorting out issues within the team. He flew to Seattle to meet with the Canucks’ owner, John McCaw.

“This is the worst negotiations I’ve ever been in,” McCaw told Keenan. “You’re the coach because Mark Messier wants you as the coach.”

McCaw handed Keenan a blank cheque.

Significant revamp of roster

There was no general manager at the time, so Keenan served as the acting GM for the remainder of the 1997–98 season. He shipped out Linden, McLean, Gélinas and Odjick. He acquired Todd Bertuzzi and Bryan McCabe. His moves were numerous, and often unexplained and controversial.

All of this, Keenan insinuated, was to address the fractured locker room that he was brought in to sort out.

“There was a dichotomy,” Keenan said. “There was a split in the room, the guys that had gone to the finals with Trevor, and then a new supporting cast. So there was a split in the room, which makes it impossible to win at any level, nevermind the NHL. So it had to be rectified.”

Keenan insisted that the series of trades he made as the acting GM worked out well. Brian Burke, who succeeded Keenan as the Canucks GM, would eventually use the McCabe acquisition to compile the second and third overall picks in the 1999 NHL Draft, which turned into the Sedin twins.

Linden eventually came back to Vancouver. Messier returned to New York.

Keenan ended this segment of the interview with a quote that, despite being true, is controversial.

“In the big picture, in the long run, it worked out pretty well for the Vancouver Canucks,” he said.

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