The Canucks wanted a coach for Abbotsford. He picked Colorado instead

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If you were wondering why the Vancouver Canucks’ slow process in building their coaching staff was about money, we can now say it was all about money.

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That much is clear after Jussi Ahokas turned down an offer to coach the Canucks’ AHL squad, instead taking up with the Colorado Avalanche. The Denvers announced Friday that Ahokas, formerly the coach of the OHL’s Kitchener Rangers, has been hired as their new AHL bench boss.

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That came a day after CHEK-TV’s Rick Dhaliwal revealed that Ahokas hadn’t just interviewed for the Canucks’ job. The Finn in fact had turned it down. And yes, it was about money.

Word is it was substantially less than what he was already making in the OHL.

When I put this to a junior hockey source who is well-connected to the OHL, they were not surprised. The word is getting around more generally: There are more lucrative places to work in hockey right now than the Canucks.

“Yeah, I’ve heard a lot of Canucks’ new hires are very low, even compared to OHL. And in Canadian (dollars),” was the reply.

The cost-cutting shouldn’t be a surprise. Part of how the senior team’s rebuild was sold to ownership was it would be a way to reduce expenditures — although whether management imagined that would be going cheap on the coaching staff budget isn’t known.

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League sources have told Postmedia that Canucks ownership have said they would like to reduce player payroll by up to $20 million, and it bears noting that they are already down $12 million from the end of last season.

And when you’re in a rebuild, that does actually make sense. As we pointed out earlier this week, rebuilding teams need to hold the line against rushing ahead, overspending on players that they don’t need yet. That is something Steve Yzerman didn’t do, and something Jim Benning didn’t do either.

But you shouldn’t be reluctant to spend on player development. This is a crucial time for the organization. If you are focusing on young players, don’t you want to invest heavily in the people who are guiding them toward the future?

Alex Edler was officially hired this week as a development coach. There is every reason to think a player who is as self-aware of his own development story should be a good coach, but Edler also has zero experience. Wouldn’t it make sense to hire him as part of a package of guys in a build-out of the development staff?

And it’s hard to miss that while the promotions of the Sedins to co-presidents is a lovely move for a team that badly needs a fresh look in hockey leadership, the moves took away two faces who had been widely praised by the organization’s young players for their ability to connect and guide them toward the NHL dream.

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That’s absolutely an area you should be working hard to invest in. And it’s not like there aren’t lots of local options around — say like Cole Todd of ELD Hockey. Guys who are finding success working with young prospects. What about someone like Derek Popke of Vancouver Hockey School, who knows Edler well? Popke has even worked with the Canucks before, especially in the pre-COVID days when he’d help Edler and others assemble groups of players for pre-training camp skates.

And of course there’s the key figures in Abbotsford, who now won’t be a quality rising star like Ahokas. The Canucks may yet find someone solid, but they may have to pay more than they want to.

At such a crucial time in this team’s trajectory, it’s strange to hear that cost is a concern.

pjohnston@postmedia.com

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