Vancouver Canucks just made a surprise hire nobody saw coming and fans love it
The Vancouver Canucks are hiring agent Daren Hermiston for a development role, according to Rick Dhaliwal, and the timing says everything.
Dhaliwal reported Wednesday that the Kamloops-based agent will take a position along the lines of director of player development and player performance.
He also noted the Canucks have spoken with other agents about additional openings. So this isn't one hire. It's a philosophy shift.
Vancouver finished 32nd overall this season at 25-49-8. Dead last. When you bottom out like that, every department gets looked at, and development is usually first on the list.
Hiring from the agent world is a different play. Agents spend their careers managing young players' growth, their training, their psychology, their off-ice habits. Teams have started poaching that skill set.
It's a bit like a restaurant hiring its toughest food critic to run the kitchen. The guy who spent years pointing out what's wrong now has to cook.
Dhaliwal's wording is worth reading closely, since the role description and the mention of more agent conversations suggest a wider front-office restructuring is underway.
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Vancouver's prospects become the whole story now
Look at who Hermiston would inherit. Zeev Buium put up 26 points on the blue line at age 20. Tom Willander added 21 points at 21.
Those two are the future of this defense. Their development curve over the next two seasons matters more than anything the current roster does.
Because the present is grim. Vancouver allowed 316 goals, nearly four a night, and went 9-27-5 at home. That home record should embarrass everyone in the building.
Elias Pettersson led the team with 51 points. On most contenders, that's a second-line total.
Adam Foote just finished his first season behind the bench, and the roster he ran out clearly wasn't good enough. The fix has to come from within, through the kids.
This is a smart, low-cost bet by Vancouver. Hermiston knows how young players actually develop, not how teams pretend they do.
Whether one hire can change the trajectory of a 58-point team is another matter. The Canucks are betting their next core on it.
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JUNE 4, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Brett Howden | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Mitch Marner | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Mark Jankowski | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jordan Staal | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Logan Stankoven | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Mark Stone | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Ivan Barbashev | - | 1 | 1 | |
| William Carrier | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Shayne Gostisbehere | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Noah Hanifin | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Tomas Hertl | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Eric Robinson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Andrei Svechnikov | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Sebastian Aho | - | - | - | |
| Frederik Andersen | - | - | - | |
| Rasmus Andersson | - | - | - | |
| Jackson Blake | - | - | - | |
| Jalen Chatfield | - | - | - | |
| Dylan Coghlan | - | - | - | |
| Pavel Dorofeyev | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||