Canucks Bolster Coaching Staff, Add Pearn

The Vancouver Canucks added another Alberta native to the coaching ranks today with the addition of Perry Pearn to the staff.  Pearn has been an assistant for 19 seasons, having started his NHL coaching career with the original incarnation of the Winnipeg Jets before moving on to the Ottawa Senators, New York Rangers and Montreal Canadiens before spending the last two seasons back in Winnipeg.

Pearn is also a 3 time gold medal winner with the National Junior team, as an assistant in 1990 and 1991, and as head coach in 1993. Pearn joins Glen Gulutzan & Doug Lidster behind the bench with Desjardins as the team prepares for the start of training camp soon.  Before beginning his pro coaching career, Pearn was at the helm of the hockey program at NAIT, where he led them to 6 National Championships.  One of his biggest rivals?  The University of Calgary, led by... you guessed it: Willie Desjardins.  Both men were also coaches of the Medicine Hat Tigers during their careers as well.

While Pearn was fired along with Claude Noel in January over in Winnipeg, the team feels Pearn's knowledge of systems, and more notably his ability to connect with players both old and young in a not so screamy-sweary-spazzy method as we saw last season with He Who Shall Not Be Named are a good fit with the vision GM Jim Benning and President/Overlord Trevor Linden have for the squad moving forward.