On April 8, 2014, after missing the playoffs for the first time since
2008, the team fired general manager
Mike Gillis. One day later, ownership hired former Canucks captain
Trevor Linden as team president, to assist in the search for a new general manager. Three weeks after Linden was hired, the Canucks announced that both head coach
John Tortorella and assistant coach
Mike Sullivan, who had only just been hired prior to the start of the
2013–14 season, were fired. Throughout the search for Vancouver's new general manager, it was speculated that Linden's preferred candidate was
Jim Benning, who was serving as an assistant general manager for the
Boston Bruins. On May 21, the Canucks confirmed that Benning had been hired as their new general manager. One of Benning's first changes to the roster was
buying out David Booth, who had one year remaining on his contract. As a result of the buyout, Booth became an unrestricted free agent, and he will receive $1,583,333 per year (over the next two seasons) from the Canucks; Booth's buyout salary will not be applied to Vancouver's salary cap. The next major task for the Canucks was finding a new head coach. Among the candidates Benning interviewed were New York Rangers assistant coach
Scott Arniel, and former Pittsburgh Penguins coach
Dan Bylsma. Additionally,
Texas Stars head coach
Willie Desjardins was also one the coaches Benning was long rumoured to have interest in. However, Benning was not able to interview Desjardins until late June, as Desjardins had just won the
Calder Cup with Texas. On June 23, the Canucks officially introduced Desjardins as the 18th head coach in Canucks history. The next major tasks facing Benning were dealing with the trade request of
Ryan Kesler, and preparing for the
draft on June 27. On draft day, Benning completed a series of trades before the Canucks even made their first pick.
Jason Garrison was traded to the
Tampa Bay Lightning for a 2nd-round draft pick, and then
Ryan Kesler was traded to the
Anaheim Ducks for
Nick Bonino,
Luca Sbisa, the twenty-fourth overall pick, and a 3rd-round draft pick. Benning then flipped Anaheim's 3rd-round pick to the
New York Rangers, in exchange for
Derek Dorsett. On June 28 (the second day of the draft), Benning acquired
Linden Vey from the
Los Angeles Kings, in exchange for Tampa Bay's 2nd-round pick (acquired the day before in the Garrison trade). As a result of trading away
Roberto Luongo in March, the Canucks were left with a goalie tandem of
Eddie Lack and
Jacob Markstrom, who together had combined for 88 games of NHL experience. Thus, Benning's first move on July 1 was to sign free-agent goalie
Ryan Miller to a 3-year, $18 million contract, in order to bring a veteran presence to Vancouver's goaltending position. Benning's next major transaction occurred only one day after acquiring Miller, as he signed former
Phoenix Coyotes winger
Radim Vrbata to a 2-year, $10 million contract. On July 3, Benning signed
restricted free agent Zack Kassian to a 2-year, $3.5 million deal. On July 5, the Canucks re-signed defenceman
Christopher Tanev to a 1-year, $2 million contract, only hours before the deadline to file for
salary arbitration. On July 7, Benning named
Doug Lidster as an assistant coach for the Canucks; Lidster had also recently served as an assistant coach to new Canucks head coach Willie Desjardins on the Texas Stars. ==Regular season==