Canucks reportedly dismiss franchise legend after 38 years
Whoa! Where's loyalty these days!?!?
Have the Vancouver Canucks walked away from franchise legend Thomas Gradin?
Gradin has been involved with the team since 1978, holding a variety of roles along the way. Of course, Gradin spent 8 seasons with the team from 1978 until 1986, but has spent the past 30 years as the team's primary European scout. He has helped the team uncover much of its European stars with a heavy focus on Swedish players like Henrik and Daniel Sedin, Matthias Ohlund, and Elias Pettersson.
Now, Noah Strang of Daily Hive is reporting that the Canucks have removed Gradin from their staff without public comment.
From Strang's most recent article:
The Canucks have removed all mentions of Gradin from the staff section on their website. He used to be on the top row of the amateur scout’s section, between Ron Delorme and Martin Bakula, but he is now gone.
Using the internet archive Wayback Machine we can see that Gradin was listed on the team’s website as an amateur scout as recently as April 4. He was removed at some point since then.
Reddit user u/Taygr made the discovery a few days ago, and nothing has changed on the website since.
Daily Hive has requested comment from the Canucks and will update this story if one is provided.- Noah Strang
The club recently waved goodbye to fellow franchise legend Stan Smyl this past October, who had served the team in a CRAZY amount of roles since his NHL career ended in 1991. Now, it appears that Gradin may have suffered the same fate. Stay tuned for an official comment from the team on Gradin's status.
Read below for our earlier Cancuks report on newly acquired forward Jake DeBrusk.
Brand new Vancouver Canucks forward Jake DeBrusk was on the popular Cam & Strick Podcast yesterday when he revealed that he twice requested a trade from the Boston Bruins before hitting free agency.
From yesterday's episode:
Ultimately the Bruins obviously never traded DeBrusk, but he's got the fresh start he wanted thanks to a 7 year contract signed with the Canucks in free agency.
Read below for our earlier report on DeBrusk's signing in Vancouver, published by Hockey Feed staff writer Michael Whitaker on July 2nd, 2024.
The Jake DeBrusk era with the Boston Bruins came to a close yesterday afternoon at the start of the NHL free agency period, as he agreed to a seven year, $38.5 million deal with the Vancouver Canucks that will see him get paid an AAV of $5.5 million a season.
It finally brought to an end the speculation of where he could continue his career, something that he admitted during last season that was on his mind. Leaving Boston wasn't an easy decision, but he credits the "aggressive" approach of the Canucks that made his choice easier.
“It’s been a crazy process, obviously, free agency and going through it for the first time,” DeBrusk explained of his decision. “But in saying that, in terms of obviously being in Vancouver, they were very aggressive. I knew I had a really good feeling about them. We were talking and things of that nature and things were looking like they were going to hopefully go in the right direction.
“It’s funny, I woke up pretty early today and felt like a pretty normal day and then as soon as I kind of got the confirmation that I was coming here, I’ve been overwhelmed throughout the whole day. It’s been really exciting and it’s something I just can’t wait to get to the city and I can’t wait to get started. I feel very lucky and honored to become a Vancouver Canuck.”
Meanwhile, Bruins general manager Don Sweeney had the following message for his now-former player.
“I wish Jake well,” Sweeney said. “Obviously, was a tremendous Bruin. Great opportunity for him in Vancouver as well as Danton and Derek. Somebody tweeted out maybe we should have just made a trade, it would have been easier.”
In 2023-24, DeBrusk scored 19 goals with 21 assists in 80 games played, while also contributing five goals and six assists in 13 postseason games.
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