The Vancouver Canucks have fired Dave Nonis after three seasons as the team's general manager.
Nonis was promoted to the post in May of 2004, replacing Brian Burke after six seasons as senior vice-president and director of Hockey Operations.
Under Nonis, the Canucks failed to make the playoffs in two of their last three seasons.
The team finished ninth in the Western Conference in 2005-06, three points shy of the final playoff spot. The Canucks enjoyed their best regular season in franchise history in 2006-07, with 105 points to clinch the Northwest Division title.
The Canucks took another step back this season with an 88-point campaign and another year out of the playoffs.
Under Nonis's watch, the Canucks also pulled off one of the biggest and most lopsided deals in NHL history. In June of 2006, he traded veteran forwardTodd Bertuzzi and netminder Alex Auld to the Florida Panthers in exchange for franchise goaltender Roberto Luongo.
He did, however, take his share of criticism for not acquiring more help - namely more scoring - at the February trade deadline, a decision that likely led to the team's struggles down the final stretch.
"If there is a deal that makes sense for our hockey team and will make us better, regardless of who it is, we would do it," Nonis told reporters in February. "But if it's a deal that would decimate our reserve list, take all of our top prospects and require players off our team along with those picks and prospects, I think it's highly unlikely we would do that for any rental player.
"We are not going to gut this draft for players we feel, (a) may not be here long term or; (b) may not help us that much."
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Originally Posted by Carl J. Ironsides
