Hooray! We're keeping the coach to our losing team...

Vigneault signs extension through 2010. They're keeping the coach.

The Vancouver Canucks have announced that head coach Alain Vigneault has been signed to a contract extension that will keep him with the NHL club through the 2009-2010 season.

"This is a significant announcement for our hockey club," new Canucks general manager Mike Gillis said this morning.

"My first priority when taking over the job was to meet with Alain and ensure we shared the same philosophy about building an elite-level team for now and for the future.

Get used to that smiling mug: Alain Vigneault has signed an extension to stay on as head coach of the Canucks through the 2009-10 season.

"Alain has done a very good job in his two years in Vancouver and I am confident that will continue."

Said Vigneault: "This is a team that I believe in and a city that I love living and working in."

Vigneault won the Jack Adams Award as the NHL's top coach after his first season with the Canucks, in 2006-2007. The Canucks missed the NHL playoffs this year.

Both Vigneault and Gillis will address the contract extension later Thursday.

The fate of associate coach Rick Bowness is not known. Assistant coaches Barry Smith and Mike Kelly were fired Wednesday.

Ben Kuzma, The Province

Published: Thursday, May 22, 2008

© The Vancouver Province 2008