From TSN’s Bob McKenzie:
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Nothing signed yet, but Willie Desjardins will be in VAN this weekend. Assuming all goes as expected, he'll be introduced as coach next wk.
— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) June 20, 2014
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Which just so happens to coincide with this report from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:
The Penguins did not get their guy.
“The guy I had is going to go in a different direction,” general manager Jim Rutherford said Friday afternoon.
So yes, it sure sounds like Willie Desjardins picked the Vancouver Canucks over the Pittsburgh Penguins. Why? Well, that’s not clear. The Pens have Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, yes. But they’re far from perfect, as evidenced by their recent playoff performances. Also, maybe the Canucks offered more money and term. Maybe Desjardins, a Saskatchewan native, liked the idea of coaching in Western Canada. And maybe he liked the idea of working with Vancouver’s new president of hockey ops, Trevor Linden, a former star with the Medicine Hat Tigers, the WHL team Desjardins coached from 2002-10.
At any rate, Desjardins, a coach who likes to “move the puck and attack,” would seem to be a fit with the Canucks, a team whose new general manager, Jim Benning, has said he wants to “play an up-tempo, fast-skating, skilled game.”
Earlier today, Linden went on the radio in Vancouver and said he’s looking for a coach “who can recapture our people who were so off last year” under John Tortorella.
Meanwhile, Rutherford will “take the weekend to sort some things out.”