Henrik Sedin gets honest about how Vancouver Canucks players should handle media
How quickly things can change.
The vibes from the Vancouver Canucks horrendous season have shifted dramatically over the past couple of weeks since losing the draft lottery.
Jim Rutherford announced that he was stepping down as president, and the Sedins quickly came on board to replace him.
“It happened quickly, that’s for sure,” Henrik Sedin said on the 100% Hockey podcast.
“We didn’t really have any conversation until ownership came to us and told us about the plans with Jim stepping down.”
“They asked about our interest in helping them, and that’s when we started talking, and it uh fairly quickly, we came to an agreement that we wanted to jump on.”
Since they hopped on board, they’ve at the very least boosted morale in the market.
Selecting Ryan Johnson as GM was largely viewed as a positive move, even amidst the Evan Gold drama. They scored more brownie points by confirming that they wouldn’t rush a rebuild, and they quickly made a decision to remove Adam Foote as head coach.
It’s early, but they’ve made the right moves and said the right things.
Another bonus for their tenure so far was advocating for more engagement in the community. The twins and Johnson then backed that up by making a visit to Canucks Place for Kids.
Aside from repairing the relationship within the community, Henrik was also asked by 100% Hockey co-host Landon Ferraro about repairing the relationship with the media.
“I don’t want to talk about the past, but I know from being a player, we’ve always thought that you have to treat media with respect,” Henrik said.
“You have to talk to them. You have to give them what they want because they are a big part of why you’re being paid what you want to get paid.”
Over the past handful of seasons, some Canucks players seemingly haven’t embodied that.
Elias Pettersson, for instance, has been prickly with the media amidst his struggles. While the scrum atmosphere can be a bit more intense than one-on-ones, Pettersson even walked away mid-chat from Postmedia’s Patrick Johnston before the reporter was done asking questions.
The Canucks’ centre has often used the phrase “I don’t want to give you a headline” when talking to media, but Henrik alluded to a different strategy.
“You can shy away and not talk to them, but if you talk to them, you’re honest, and you speak out what you really feel, that sends a message,” Henrik said. “It allows you to say what’s on your mind instead of having media try to frame what you want them to think you’re talking about.”
“That is something we took pride in and something we’ll discuss here for, but it’s going to be a change.”