Marc Crawford: 'I’ve been in contact with all three teams' with a head coaching vacancy

Current TSN analyst and Zurich Lions head coach Marc Crawford has a lengthy NHL resume having worked for the Colorado Avalanche, Vancouver Canucks, Los Angeles Kings, Dallas Stars during his coaching career. That experience is alluring, apparently, for the various NHL teams that are current searching for a new head coach.

"I’ve been in contact with all three teams (looking for a coach) and have had varying degrees of success," Marc Crawford told Jason Botchford of the Vancouver Province this week, referring to the coaching vacancies in Vancouver, with the Florida Panthers, and the Carolina Hurricanes, respectively.

Added Crawford, who is in Vancouver this week for a golf tournament, "I hope I get a chance to speak with (Canucks president Trevor Linden), but don’t have anything set, yet."

Once considered among the brightest young minds in the coaching profession, Crawford hasn't led an NHL club to the postseason since the first NHL lockout. That's despite coaching five seasons with three different teams between the 2005-06 and 2010-11 seasons.

Crawford is known as a stellar x's-and-o's coach who prefers to have his teams play a run-and-gun style. Considering Crawford's reputation, his commentary on the adjustments to the team's style made by since-fired Canucks coach John Tortorella last season shouldn't come as a surprise:

You can’t make that club a shot-blocking, forechecking team...

You’re looking at (Kevin) Bieksa, (Dan) Hamuis and (Alex) Edler who had a poor, poor year. There’s (Chris) Tanev, who by all reports has really come on by leaps and bounds, and (Jason) Garrison. That’s great.

On the forwards you start with the Sedins, and the change in the way they played to me was really ... I don’t want to dump on anyone, but you can’t change that club.