Former Vancouver Canucks Fan Favorite Hired for Major New Role by the San Jose Sharks

While teams have their sights set on making additions to their roster in the offseason, especially when the free agent market opens up on July 1st, the summer is also a great time to announce new hires and promotions within their respective organizations.

So far this summer, we've seen a pair of former Vancouver Canucks land jobs in the National Hockey League including Nick Bonino, who was hired as an Assistant Coach for the Pittsburgh Penguins, along with Jeff Tambellini, who the Tampa Bay Lightning hired as their new Assistant General Manager, Director of Hockey Operations.

On Tuesday morning, another former member of the Vancouver Canucks landed a new role with his National Hockey League club after serving as a scout for the last two seasons.

In a press release on their team website, the San Jose Sharks announced a slew of changes within their Hockey Operations department, most notably the hiring of 2025 Hockey Hall of Famer Joe Thornton as a Player Development Coach.

Among the news announced by the Sharks today included the promotion of former Vancouver Canucks forward Thomas Vanek from amateur scout to Hockey Operations Advisor.

Vanek, 41, signed with the Vancouver Canucks as an unrestricted free agent in September 2017 and played quite well during his brief stint in British Columbia.

In 61 games with the Canucks, the Vienna, Austria native tallied 41 points (17 goals, 24 assists), 28 penalty minutes and was a minus-12 and ahead of the trade deadline that season, Vancouver dealt him to the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Following the 2017-18 campaign, Vanek signed with the Detroit Red Wings in what would end up being his final season of professional hockey before hanging up the skates, with 1,029 games of NHL experience under his belt.

Source: San Jose Sharks
San Jose Sharks announce Hockey Operations Staff updates