David Nonis is prepared for new challenges as takes over as the Vancouver Canucks' general manager.

Nonis takes the Canucks' reins
By John McGourty | NHL.com
Sept. 24, 2004

David Nonis, 37, is beginning his first year as general manager of the Vancouver Canucks, his hometown team. Nonis spent the previous six seasons as the team's senior vice president and director of hockey operations and was the Canucks' chief negotiator of player contracts. Before that, he worked as the NHL's Manager of Hockey Operations.

Nonis earned a masters of business administration degree at the University of Maine, where he was captain of the hockey team. Nonis enjoyed a brief professional hockey career before joining the Canucks' front office the first time in 1991.

You played on the late Shawn Walsh's first University of Maine team. He named you captain your junior and senior years. That's pretty unusual.

"Actually, I was Shawn's first recruit. He had recruited me to go to Michigan State when he was the assistant there. Then, he got the job at Maine. It looked to me that if I went to Michigan State, I'd have to go play somewhere else for a year first. Michigan State had a good team and a lot of players they were committed to. I liked to play a lot. Shawn said come to Maine and play right away. I trusted him and thought he had done a good job as an assistant so he was somebody that I wanted to play for.

"When Shawn took over, he wanted to make it his own team. He added a lot of quality players and as we had turnover in personnel, there were more of his players that he had recruited. By my junior year, our nucleus of players that Shawn brought in had grown up together. It was a little different to be a college captain in my junior year, but it was the circumstances. We went from a non-competitive team my first year to one of the best teams in the country by my junior year. That's a pretty good transformation!

"In my opinion, Shawn was the best college coach that I've seen since I've been around this business. There are a lot of great coaches, like Jerry York at Boston College, that deserve a lot of respect and admiration, but Shawn showed he had the ability to take a program that was going nowhere and turn it into a national champion. He had a great talent for recruiting and his passion for the game was unmatched.

"Shawn influenced me in a lot of ways. I appreciated him more when I wasn't around him anymore. He was a demanding person who had your best interest at heart, but you might not understand that until you were gone. He demanded 100 percent every night and you had better always be ready to play and be in good condition. His strength was to build character in people, and if they had the ability, that would come out on its own. Character building and was something that he was very good at. Character was a priority and his teams benefited from that. Afterward, I think I had a clear picture of what I wanted to do in life and how to get there and a lot of that came from my exposure to athletics, not just the overall college process."

You had a bit of an odyssey after college.

"After Maine, I went to the Canadian National Team camp and then I played in Denmark for a year. My options were to play in the minors for not a whole lot of money or make a decent living in Europe and enjoy myself for a year. So I made more money and had more fun. Then I went back to Maine for my MBA and served as Shawn's graduate assistant. After grad school, I was going to Sweden to play but I got a job offer with the Canucks. I decided to retire because I didn't know if I'd get another chance to work in the NHL. I had planned to play another three of four years, but sometimes you have to look to see what's the best thing to do. Later, I worked for the NHL in its New York offices in the hockey operations department. I worked with Brian Burke on a lot of different things, discipline, officiating, grievances and arbitration. People have been very good to me and helped me along the way in learning the business."

You grew up in Burnaby, British Columbia, home of Joe Sakic. Was he always this good?

"Yes, but you have to remember the last time I saw him as kids, I was a midget and he was in PeeWees. Joe is three years younger. I was closer to Cliff Ronning and Doug Bodger. Cliff and I grew up together, so he was the phenom in my age group. In fact, he was one of the best minor hockey players in the last 50 years in the Vancouver area. After I moved on, my dad used to go watch Joe play quite a lot. Joe is an amazing player and he hasn't slowed down much, either."

The Canucks have been one of the NHL's best teams in recent seasons but haven't had great playoff success. What does the team need to do to get over that hump?

"You hear lots of people talking about 'learning to win.' A lot of great teams went through difficulties before becoming successful. The Detroit Red Wings in the mid-1990s come to mind. They had good teams, but they were losing in the early rounds before they won their two consecutive Stanley Cups in 1997-98. We have a team capable of winning in the postseason. Our players have to do what it takes to win. That's a level you have to reach to be successful. We have improved, but having Todd Bertuzzi out of the lineup in this year's playoffs certainly hurt. His presence would have made a difference. Everyone has to improve in the postseason. Teams that move up have that type of commitment and effort. I wouldn't rule out that we have to make the odd change, but we don't need wholesale change. We might have to add one or two pieces to come up to that level to compete for the Stanley Cup."

Which player do you expect will have a breakout season?

"Bryan Allen made significant improvement the last three years. He's a very hardworking individual. He was a high draft pick and some people expected he'd play right away, but that's not the way it works, especially for a defenseman. He has worked his way up our depth chart. Bryan is very competitive, has a lot of grit and the ability to make a play. Ryan Kessler played well last year as rookie, when he had the opportunity, and we're looking for more of a contribution."

Which prospect most excites you?

"We have a couple. Although goalie Alex Auld has played some NHL games, I still view him as a prospect. I believe he will turn out to be a very good goaltender at the NHL level. Whether he makes that step this year remains to be seen, but he's not far away. Kiril Koltsov has the ability to be an impact player in terms of skill with the puck. We don't have a defenseman who can do the things offensively that he can do. He has to commit to becoming an NHL player away from the rink. On pure ability, he is an excellent prospect. He could be a star or a guy who never plays in the NHL. It depends on his commitment."