Canucks Coffee: The Gillis-fan connection

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After the Sedins’ jersey retirement ceremony, a remarkable moment with Canucks fans took place.

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Published Apr 03, 2026 • 7 minute read

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Vancouver Canucks General Manager Mike Gillis, centre, takes questions from reporters in 2011. Photo by Jonathan Hayward /The Canadian PressArticle content

“This was a good day,” a source said to me, somewhat ambiguously, on Thursday evening.

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Who knows where this potential Toronto Maple Leafs-Mike Gillis courtship ends up, but the idea that there will be yet another former Vancouver Canucks manager to land in the centre of the universe seems more and more possible.

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I’ve found myself thinking a lot about the conversations I’ve had with Gillis over the years. One in particular, the night of the Sedins’ jersey retirement, stands out.

With the game over and my story filed, I shot Gillis a note. Should we meet for a drink to go over a triumphant night, a reunion of sorts, for the greatest hockey team this town has ever seen. They didn’t win the last game of the year, of course, but they were still a majestic group, a team that truly played the game the right way.

Here we were, nearly nine years after the fact, but people had nothing but fond memories. The fans had roared in delight for everyone at centre ice who was part of the ceremony, especially the players in front of them, but also for the managers.

Sure, he replied, come meet me at the bar at the JW Marriott.

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And so not much later, there I was, sitting with him and his wife Diane. Gillis, I knew, had been anxious about how the night might go. Almost as much time had passed since he’d been general manager of the Vancouver Canucks compared with how long he’d been in charge, but there was still a lingering worry that the fan reaction from before he’d left might match what he’d get when he walked out to centre ice to take a spot next to the other senior managers who had run the Canucks over the course of the Sedins’ careers. There was Brian Burke, the man who drafted the Twins and one of Gillis’ greatest rivals, to put it kindly. Probably far too kindly.

There was David Nonis, who had replaced Burke before the 2004-05 lockout in a falling out with Canucks’ ownership’s chief minister to the team, Stanley McCammon. He was also the guy that Gillis had replaced: Francesco Aquilini dumping Nonis at the end of the 2007-08 season and then quickly pivoting to Gillis.

There was Jim Benning, then the active GM, and Trevor Linden, who’d been president as Gillis’ successor and Benning’s boss until 2018.

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Anyway, out he went and the crowd roared. It was a roar of thanks from a crowd that remembered how good things used to be.

And then here we were, after the ceremony, sitting in a bar that was open to the public. It wasn’t long before fans streaming into the building — it’s in the Parq — realized that Gillis was sitting right there.

As we talked about the event and just hockey in general, fans kept coming up to the table, quietly extending their hand to shake Gillis’ and to say variations of “Mike thank you for everything you did for us.”

Gillis was clearly touched. Humbled, even. He’d nod, shake the hand, and simply acknowledge the praise. There’s little doubt he wasn’t expecting this.

“Well this is nice,” I observed to Gillis about all the fan reaction. He was just about speechless. He tried to wave off a grand meaning, but he had so few words about it I knew it meant everything. Fans had taken to booing him in the late stages of his final season, as they fingered him for the team’s struggles in that crazy 2013-14 season.

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As fans kept coming over to the table to share their thanks, I looked over at Diane. The look on her face lit up the table. We didn’t need a tea light anymore; she was more than enough. She was so proud of her husband, of the guy who she knew was sometimes too grumpy. This was the moment that people who try for great things deserve: the unexpected recognition. Trophies are nice, but when you please people, when they acknowledge that pleasure, when they go out of their way to say thanks, that’s the stuff that really matters.

It was a moment of humility, one that was a reminder of the joy that sport can bring, even when it’s what Vancouver sports fan know is the truth about their hockey team: they’re going to come up short.

Close enough may only count in horseshoes, but when it comes to 2011, fans still feel good about it. And here was a chance to thank someone for that pleasure.

Former Vancouver Canucks player Kevin Bieksa coaching Fairmont players at Great Park Ice and Fivepoint Amphitheatre in 2025. Photo by Chris G MediaThe players

It’s funny to think that a group of star players could be the coda to this story, but they are. Later that evening, as the clock approach midnight, there was a sudden ruckus over by the door that led onto Pacific Boulevard: it was the Sedins and their old pals who had joined them at centre ice. Roberto Luongo, Ryan Kesler, Kevin Bieksa, Markus Naslund, Jannik Hansen, Alex Burrows, Alex Edler — they were all there.

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Clearly they were having a good time too.

Once they found the bar, found their next drink, they realized that their old boss was sitting at a table not far away. One by one, they came by to greet Gillis. All lingered for a moment, some lingered longer. (Burke and Marc Crawford had a booth on the far wall and they were visited by the players they’d worked with.)

Markus Naslund sat at the table for a while and talked about what he was doing in life. Bieksa, freshly retired, stopped by too. Gillis shared a few pieces of advice on what Bieksa should consider about his own future.

“Go to New Zealand and learn about how the All Blacks do things. Learn about how strong their culture is. Hockey could learn from that,” he declared. Many ex-players get into the pro scouting game, and Bieksa admitted he’d had a couple offers, but Gillis said he should seek out more than that for himself. He was too smart, too capable to follow a paint-by-numbers hockey path.

In that moment it was clear why these players still have so much time for their old boss. They had always felt how much he wanted them to succeed; like the best bosses, he could see in them what they themselves couldn’t. He could see how great they could be and had good ideas on how they could get there.

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He was plenty gruff with lots of people, was open in how he didn’t have time for people he didn’t much care for. At times this has been a bad look for him and those around him have told him it’s a poor look. It bruised egos. It’s earned him enemies, even. But the fact that so many respect him, that the players recognized the positive impact he made, that’s what matters in the long run.

Former Vancouver Canucks players Henrik Sedin and his twin brother Daniel Sedin, both of Sweden, and their families watch as their numbers are raised to the rafters during a jersey retirement ceremony before an NHL hockey game in Vancouver, on Wednesday February 12, 2020. Photo by THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck /PNGWho else

Gillis’s name is obviously front and centre. But clearly Doug Armstrong is sniffing around the job. So is, I’m told, John Chayka.

There are moving parts elsewhere for Chayka: he’s got a relationship with the owners in New Jersey. Tom Fitzgerald is the boss of the Devils, but I wonder if he might be interested in shift to the open Nashville job. And if he did, that would be an opening for Chayka you can imagine.

Even here, if there’s a full housecleaning in Vancouver, might he slip in? That’s just me speculating, I have no sourcing on that. From what I can gather Jim Rutherford’s position is entirely depending on what he wants; ownership I don’t think is very inclined to get rid of him.

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That said, it’s clear the pressure is on Adam Foote for sure. It’s hard to see no one getting cut after this disaster of a season, even if the task is now to rebuild. A coach like Manny Malhotra, who is clearly a successful teacher, makes sense here.

Firing Foote would make for seven coaches in 14 years, a terrible rate of turnover, but also not that dissimilar from the turnover rate that’s been consistent over the past half-decade in staffing across the Canucks’ organization. People don’t stick around; that’s not a sign of a healthy place to work.

And of course there’s GM Patrik Allvin, who in the end was in charge of building the roster that blew up. He’s not been a bad trader, but he’s not been an outstanding trader either. He’s a good scout, but assembling a roster and keeping it thriving is another thing and he’s struggled at that for two years now.

As we noted in the fall, Ryan Johnson is well-liked internally and has done all the jobs, so is it his turn to give GM a go?

pjohnston@postmedia.com

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Canucks Coffee: The Gillis-fan connection

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