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Rangers and Canucks on their way to swapping coaches?

New York Rangers v New Jersey Devils - Game Four

in Game Four of the Eastern Conference Final during the 2012 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at the Prudential Center on May 21, 2012 in Newark, New Jersey.

Bruce Bennett

It wouldn’t count as an actual trade, but it sure might feel like it.

With former Vancouver Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault on the verge of inking a deal with the New York Rangers, it’s still possible that John Tortorella lands the vacant coaching position in Vancouver.

The Canucks fired Vigneault after getting swept out of the first round of the 2013 Stanley Cup playoffs. The Rangers fired the often outspoken Tortorella after New York was eliminated in the second round.

Tortorella was in Vancouver this past week for an interview, and remains a contender for the position.

Tortorella is also a polarizing individual in terms of coaching style - on and off the ice - and the prospect that he could be hired in Vancouver appropriately falls along those lines.

Here’s a snippet of what Jason Botchford of The Province newspaper wrote about this still ongoing saga. Read
the full version.

Many have theorized the Tortorella off-ice factor is about the last thing the Canucks need after a season when they jumped lily pads from one crisis to another.

But the one thing Gillis is never going to accomplish with his coaching hire is winning over public opinion.