The King is dead, long live the king?
After seven years as a coach in the Vancouver Canucks’ system, Jason King will not be returning as an assistant coach next season. That’s according to a press release from the Canucks on Thursday.
“The organization would like to thank Jason for his hard work and dedication over the years,” reads the press release. “His commitment to the club is greatly appreciated and we wish him and his family all the best and future success.”
King initially joined the organization as an assistant coach under Travis Green with the Utica Comets, then the Canucks’ AHL affiliate. He spent four seasons in Utica, staying with the Comets after Green was promoted to head coach of the Canucks before joining him in Vancouver ahead of the 2020-21 season.
King survived the firing of two head coaches in Vancouver, as he was retained when Green was let go, then again when Bruce Boudreau was fired this past season. He helped provide some continuity for the players in a tumultuous time.
It didn’t hurt that King’s primary responsibility, the power play, was one of the few areas where the Canucks continued to thrive as everything else was dying. Last season, the power play was ninth in the NHL at 23.5%, then was 11th this season at 22.7%.
Those are the 5th and 7th-best power play percentages in franchise history.
There were concerns, however, that the Canucks’ approach on the power play had grown stale. As much as the Canucks were successful on the power play this season, they were also inconsistent and streaky, making it tough to rely on the power play on a game-to-game basis.
King never found a way to free up the team’s top scorer, Elias Pettersson, on the power play this season, as he scored just six power play goals.
Head coach Rick Tocchet frequently expressed his frustrations with the power play after taking over behind the bench this season.
“This power play, it’s very talented, but it looks for pretty stuff,” said Tocchet after one game where the power play struggled. “Sometimes, you play teams that have a good PK, that means you have to work even harder. It might be a low play, take it to the net. It might be one pass, shot, people converge at the net. You can’t look for a pretty play.
“Then, when they get frustrated — for whatever reason, when our power play doesn’t go good, our five-on-five play follows it, which is not a good trend to have.”
As first reported by CanucksArmy’s David Quadrelli, the Canucks will not be replacing King as assistant coach. The Canucks still have Adam Foote, Mike Yeo, and Sergei Gonchar as assistant coaches, as well as goaltending coach Ian Clark and video coach Dylan Crawford.
It seems likely that Gonchar will take over coaching the power play. As an assistant coach with the Pittsburgh Penguins, he had input on the team’s power play and also has extensive experience on the power play from his playing days: his 427 career power play points ranks 10th all time among NHL defencemen.
