When Bruce Boudreau joined Vancouver as their head coach, he brought along Scott Walker as one of his assistants. However, while Boudreau will be sticking around, Walker won’t be as the bench boss indicated on The Bob McCown Podcast that Walker won’t be back and the team has already started to look for a replacement.
This is now the second time that Walker has left Vancouver. He had served in a development role for three seasons before departing to be a special assistant to the GM in Arizona in 2019. However, that role was short-lived and he was back to working with OHL Guelph as their President of Hockey Operations last season.
Boudreau and Walker have some history as Walker finished his career playing for Boudreau while Postmedia’s Patrick Johnston mentions Boudreau nearly hired Walker back in 2016 when he was coaching in Minnesota. The two were also set to coach together internationally for Canada at the Channel One and Spengler Cups but those plans changed when Vancouver came calling. With that working relationship and how well the Canucks performed in the second half of the season, Walker’s departure certainly comes as a bit of a surprise.
There will be plenty of coaches (both head and assistants) changing places in the coming months and Vancouver can now be added to the list of those that will have someone new behind the bench in the fall.
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