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Canucks dig into past, again, by hiring Lidster

WillieDesjardins

Stop us if you’ve heard this before, but an ex-Canuck is coming back to Vancouver.

This time, it’s Doug Lidster -- the former defenseman-turned-coach has been hired to work under new bench boss Willie Desjardins next season, the Canucks announced on Monday.

Lidster, 52, has ties not just to the organization but Desjardins as well. They won a Calder Cup together last season in AHL Texas, where Lidster served as Desjardins’ assistant for each of the last two years. Prior to that, Lidster coached the Canadian Women’s team, OHL Saginaw and served as an assistant with WHL Medicine Hat, where he first worked under Desjardins (during the 2002-03 campaign).

In a summer where the Canucks brought back former captain Trevor Linden as president of hockey ops and ex-defenseman Jim Benning as GM, the Lidster hire makes sense. He spent 10 seasons with Vancouver during the 80s and early 90s, actually playing on the same ’89-90 team as both Linden and Benning.

Lidster will now join video coach Darryl Williams, goalie coach Rollie Melanson and fellow assistant Glen Gulutzan on Desjardins’ staff -- the trio were holdovers from the John Tortorella regime.