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VANCOUVER — They say friends know when to say "when," and besides being the general manager of the Vancouver Canucks, Mike Gillis is also Markus Naslund's former agent and his friend.
That Naslund's 12-year relationship with the NHL team had to end this week was evident to all, a divorce where even the kids agree it's for the best. Gillis knew it, Naslund knew it, and the fans knew it. And so, the Canucks' captain, career leading scorer, and arguably the franchise's best player, leaves for the bright lights of Manhattan with an air of inevitability.
"I don't feel comfortable with it because I like Markus so much and I wish it was different," Gillis said yesterday. "It's unfortunate. Markus is a really good friend of mine."
But even their friendship couldn't save this union.
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Gillis came to that conclusion when unrestricted free agent Mats Sundin didn't immediately sign Vancouver's offer of two years and $20-million (all currency U.S.) on Tuesday. Two days later, and minus a linemate who could help him flourish, Naslund, 34, signed a two-year, $8-million deal with the New York Rangers, closing his Canucks career without even being extended a contract offer.
"I didn't want him to be unhappy playing and unless we had players who would complement his style of play, that was always the understanding," Gillis said. "There comes a point in all this stuff where you have to make hard and difficult decisions about the future."
The record will show Naslund's final game as a Canuck was not about him. It was Trevor Linden Night at GM Place. The Canucks icon was feted and returned the fans' love, while Naslund slinked into background without even addressing the community over the public-address system, as he had done in previous years, once famously apologizing for having "choked" down the stretch.
That Naslund could take a backseat or exit stage right without an appropriate send-off would have been unimaginable during the flying heyday of the West Coast Express, hockey's most productive and exciting line during the NHL's dead-puck era.
In January, 2002, Naslund was joined by centre Brendan Morrison and right wing Todd Bertuzzi and had some career years, including the 2002-03 season, where he was chosen the league's best player by his peers. A massive goaltending hole kept those Canucks teams from the biggest of postseason stages, but the high times and exciting memories of the West Coast Express made Naslund more difficult to figure out, and more difficult to accept, in his Canucks' denouement.
He scored 24 and 25 goals in the two years after Bertuzzi was traded to Florida, and by this spring, he was no longer the beloved figure who could do no wrong.
It was like the fans no longer knew him, or didn't want to know this diminished version of their one-time hero. In some quarters, that brought Naslund under intense criticism as his production and passion were questioned during a late-season collapse that kept the Canucks out of the playoffs.
After the last game, Naslund hinted that he may not want to play hockey any more, though he said this week that that sentiment lasted only a few weeks. What became clearer, too, was that he didn't want to play in Vancouver any longer, and when he sold his house earlier this year, the writing wasn't just on the wall, it was spray painted in huge block letters.
Gillis couldn't instantly remake the team into a Cup contender, and Naslund didn't want to endure the transition.
"I wanted to sign with a Cup contender," he said upon being introduced as a Ranger. "I believe that the Rangers are going in the right direction. I'd like to be a part of that, and I'd like to be part of a Stanley Cup champion for sure."
