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Longtime Province columnist Ed Willes set to launch new Canucks book next week

Originally posted on Canucksarmy | By Jeff Paterson | Last updated Sep 11, 2024 5:45 PM ET

A new book on the tumultuous history of the Vancouver Canucks is set to be released next week. “Never Boring’ is the latest offering from longtime Vancouver Province columnist Ed Willes who covered the hockey club for more than 20 years before stepping away from his duties with the newspaper five years ago.

While he’s no longer involved in daily chronicles about the happenings at Rogers Arena, the North Vancouver resident is still an interested observer and has focussed his recent efforts and energy on a broader look at the history of the Canucks.

“The basic structure was decided on long ago and then last year (50 wins and 109 points) kind of threw a wrench in it,” Willes told CanucksArmy with a laugh. “The structure of the book is that each chapter starts with a question ‘What if?’ And it’s kind of a launching point of getting into each era of Canucks history. There have been numerous times when they seemed to be poised and on the brink of something special and not only did things go wrong, they went so irretrievably wrong it set them back another five or six years. When you look at the totality of their story arc, the same themes keep coming up over and over and over again.”

Official launch is next week but author’s copies come early. Always exciting to see the finished product. Thought it was a story which needed to be written in its totality pic.twitter.com/qopMfhkDg8

— Ed Willes (@willesonsports) September 11, 2024

Willes, who has authored several books including one on the 1987 Canada Cup and another on the now defunct Western Hockey Association, thinks hockey fans in Vancouver – and elsewhere – will enjoy hearing first hand accounts from key decisions makers, coaches and players who have all played pivotal roles with the Canucks through the years.

He also spoke to one figure who, as it turns out, didn’t wind up with a stake in the hockey club.

“I counted them up and it’s somewhere in the neighbourhood of 60 interviews,” he said. “All will be revealed, but Kevin Bieksa was gold as you can imagine, all three members of the West Coast Express were really good, too. Marc Crawford, Brian Burke, Dave Nonis, Arthur Griffiths was good. And (prospective owner) Ryan Beedie was good, too, and not in a vitriolic way. He was reflective about the way things played out. Not bitter at all.”

Originally, Willes had intended on having the book published in the wake of the Bruce Boudreau drama. He felt that would be a fitting timeline for a book about the many twists and turns of an organization still in search of its first Stanley Cup.

However, as deadlines passed, suddenly the fortunes of the Canucks changed – and so did the final few chapters of Willes’ book.

“I thought it was going to be published in the fall of 2023, so I really worked hard to get it out and then 2023-24 happened,” he explained. “And let me say, there was a massive amount of rewriting. There was a lot of snark that had to be removed. But I also think it’s a much better book because there was a little too much negativity in it before and the Canucks haven’t been a standing joke all the time. There have been really bright moments and last season was so typical of them. Did anyone in their right mind see that coming? It was amazing what they accomplished. So I had to do massive rewrites on the last three chapters.”

Never Boring: The Up and Down History of the Vancouver Canucks will officially launch next week.

This article first appeared on Canucksarmy and was syndicated with permission.

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