Former Vancouver Canucks head coach Willie Desjardins, Team Canada's head coach for the 2017-2018 season, speaks at a news conference in Calgary, Alta., Tuesday, July 25, 2017.Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press
The painful closing of one door gave Willie Desjardins an opportunity he never thought possible.
Fired last April after three seasons as head coach of the Vancouver Canucks, Desjardins was in talks with a few teams over the summer when a unique offer presented itself —the job of leading Canada's entry of non-NHLers in the men's hockey tournament at the Pyeongchang Olympics.
"It's a chance of a lifetime," Desjardins, who was hired in July, said in a recent interview. "I've been fortunate. I've coached in a lot of different leagues, I've had a chance to coach in the NHL.
"One of the dreams I've always had is coaching at the Olympics."
But like most players on the Canadian team announced last month in response to the NHL's decision to skip the 2018 Games, the native of Climax, Sask., has endured some hockey hardships in recent years.
Set to turn 61 next week, Desjardins guided the Canucks to 101 points in the 2014-15 season, one that ended with a first-round playoff exit.
Then as Vancouver continued to transition from an aging core to younger players — while at the same time trying to stay competitive — the club sank to 28th overall the following year before a 29th-place finish in 2016-17 sealed his fate.
"When you get into hockey you enjoy it," said Desjardins. "It's something you want to do, but it doesn't always go the way you want.
"For whatever reason it just didn't work out (with the Canucks). Saying that, I needed to look and see what else is available out there. I had a couple other choices, but the chance to work with the Olympic team was pretty special."
Before he was hired in Vancouver, Desjardins' long road to the best league in the world included stops in university hockey, the WHL, the AHL, and two years as an NHL assistant.
And prior to all that, he spent five seasons in the 1980s playing and coaching in Asia, a part of the world he's eager to return to with the Olympic program.
"It was a great experience," said Desjardins, who also led Canada to silver at the 2010 world juniors. "It's an interesting culture, lots of things I liked about it, and we had good teams."
Canada heads to Pyeongchang as two-time defending Olympic gold medallists in men's hockey — albeit with NHLers — but will be icing a very different lineup in the search for a three-peat that begins Feb. 15 against Switzerland.
The 25-man roster assembled by general manager Sean Burke has more than 5,500 combined games of past NHL experience, including veteran forwards Chris Kelly, Derek Roy, Rene Bourque, Maxim Lapierre, Mason Raymond and Wojtek Wolski.
The search for talent to represent Canada at the first Olympics without NHLers since 1994 stretched over five tournaments from August to December, with a number of European-based players rotating in and out.
But the squad currently holding a camp in Riga, Latvia, before playing two exhibition games Sunday and Tuesday had never been together prior to this week.
"That's still a little bit of an unknown for us, knowing where we're going to be at," said Desjardins, the AHL's coach of the year in 2012-13. "A lot of the guys have played anywhere from four to seven games."
Desjardins wanted the Canucks to be a fast, structured, four-line team when he was hired. That worked well in his rookie season, but injuries, personnel issues, questionable deployment of players and an unwavering loyalty to his veterans — some would argue to a fault — helped bring about his downfall.
"With anything you do, you have to learn from it," said Desjardins, who had a 109-110-27 record with Vancouver. "It makes you better. I'm a better coach now than when I went in the first year."
After getting let go by the Canucks, Desjardins took the unusual step of holding a press conference. The candid and sometimes emotional exchange with reporters in the same room where he was introduced as the 18th head coach in franchise history three years earlier included thanks yous, reflection and an honest assessment of his performance.
Looking back, Desjardins wouldn't change a thing.
"I have a lot of respect for the league, I have a lot of respect for Vancouver's organization," he explained. "That's the way a person should go out. It didn't work out the way I wanted, but that doesn't mean it has to ruin the whole experience. There were parts of the experience I didn't enjoy.
"I hated losing, but saying that, it was a great opportunity."
Desjardins said he expects his team in Pyeongchang to play the way Canadians often look to attack international tournaments.
"It's an aggressive style, but with good discipline," he said. "I've always liked to play fast, and I think this group's been put together so we can play that way."
The immediate path for Desjardins, who will have his wife and three children with him in South Korea, isn't the one he envisioned even 10 months ago, but in a career that's had a number of twists and turns, he's eager to tackle this next challenge.
"I never thought I'd be with the Olympic team," he said. "I never thought that would happen.
"Whenever you have a chance to represent your country it's something you take a lot of pride in."