Green officially in as Canucks coach

Increasing scoring and injecting youth will be among Travis Green’s first priorities as coach of the Vancouver Canucks.

Green was introduced as the 19th head coach in Canucks history Wednesday as he joined team president Trevor Linden and general manager Jim Benning at a press conference at Rogers Arena.

The 46-year-old Castlegar, B.C., native inherits a team that finished 29th out of 30 teams in the NHL last season and was near the bottom in several offensive categories.

“I know we have to create more offence,” Green said. “Our special teams have to get better. I think there’s a way you can create offence nowadays with the way the game is played, but that’s definitely an area where we’ll have to improve.”

Part of that will involve getting young assets involved in Vancouver’s rebuilding process.

The Canucks are still led by Henrik and Daniel Sedin, who turn 37 in September, but have a promising core of younger players led by Bo Horvat, Sven Baertschi and Markus Granlund up front, along with Ben Hutton and Troy Stecher on defence.

Brock Boeser also impressed late in the year after joining Vancouver following his college season, while Jake Virtanen, another former first-round pick, spent most of 2016-17 with Green in the AHL working on his game.

Add to that the Canucks’ acquisition of forwards Jonathan Dahlen and Nikolay Goldobin for veterans Alexandre Burrows and Jannik Hansen prior to the trade deadline, as well as having the second-best odds of winning Saturday’s draft lottery, and Green should have plenty to work with.

“We need to get younger, it’s no secret,” Green said. “We need to infuse more young players into the lineup ... There’s a long list of young guys who are going to try to make spots on the team, and that’s really what you want.”

Green spent the last four seasons coaching the Canucks’ top farm team, the Utica Comets of the American Hockey League.