Loui Eriksson’s time with the Vancouver Canucks is remembered for the contract, the struggles, and the frustration. But in a new interview, the former Canuck said the hardest part of that stretch had nothing to do with his own box score.
Speaking to Göteborgs-Posten, the Swedish winger explained why his family left Vancouver for Dallas in the 2019 offseason. The move, he said, came after repeated run-ins with people around the city and a situation that became too much to ignore.
“My kids were obviously wearing my jersey - and people screamed at them,” said Eriksson. “People just couldn’t behave themselves. It was just so damn awful.”
That was the final push for Eriksson and his wife, Micaela, to send their children back to the family’s longtime home in Dallas. The breaking point also included a school issue involving their youngest daughter, who could not get into the school attended by her older sisters because the school believed the family would soon be leaving, possibly because Eriksson might be traded.
“Loui and his wife Micaela made a joint decision,” reported Rylander. “It was better for the family to move back to Dallas. And there, at his former club, the Stars, the organization welcomed them with open arms.”
Eriksson still remained with the Canucks for two more seasons before being traded to the Arizona Coyotes in the deal that brought Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Conor Garland to Vancouver. That trade, like so much else from that era, did not work out for Jim Benning and the Canucks.
Eriksson also said the problems in Vancouver went well beyond criticism from outside the room. In his telling, the organization itself made things harder.
“It feels like I gave it my all to earn a spot in Vancouver,” said Eriksson. “But they wanted to change the very things that had brought me success in the past.
I’ve always played a two-way game; that’s been my strength. My goals came from solid defensive play, strong forechecking, and battling in front of the net.
“I had a great contract - I really did. Naturally, people expected me to deliver, perform, and do my best. But there was too much going on behind the scenes that turned negative and toxic.”
He said that atmosphere extended into daily life around the team. Willie Desjardins coached him in his first season in Vancouver, and Travis Green took over after that, but Eriksson described the entire run as a grind.
“It was an uphill battle the whole time,” said Eriksson. “I always ranked high in all the physical and skating tests, but it was never enough.
They always found reasons to push me hard. When you’re in a negative environment every day, you’re mentally tested, and there were periods when I think I just got through it all on autopilot.”
Eriksson added that while he felt backed by teammates, he believed the wider atmosphere around the club kept people quiet. He pointed to the media pressure and said he was quickly cast as the player to blame.
“The media is powerful in Vancouver, and I was simply singled out as the scapegoat,” he said. “They could find something negative about almost anything.
That’s just how it turned out. I got that label pretty quickly - and I found it hard to shake that reputation.”
For Eriksson, the combination of the contract, the losses, and the lack of support left him feeling like he was fighting on two fronts.
“It was tough, because obviously, you want to perform and do well,” said Eriksson. “Yet it was hard dealing with that feeling - that in every game, you were almost playing against both the opposition and your own club.
That you didn’t have them backing you up. That was really tough.”
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