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“Burr was such a vocal guy,” said Horvat. “He talked all the time about what we should do, how to be a good leader and a good teammate and we’re definitely going to miss that. But he’s taught a lot of guys that and I think a lot can step in.”

Hansen’s consistency of effort and ability to get under everybody’s skin isn’t easily replaceable. He was difficult to coach at times — especially in video sessions — because Hansen always had an opinion and he was often right. That spoke to how his confidence on the ice and in the room grew over 10 years in Vancouver. That kind of stuff rubs off.

“That (chirping) is probably the biggest thing I learned from Jannik,” laughed Horvat. “Just learning how to stand your ground and how to win an argument because he’s never wrong and he’s never lost an argument, that’s for sure.

“But he was a good teammate and a good guy to have around and we’ll miss him, too.”

It was almost a year to the day after a game-day skate here when Burrows seem resigned to the fact that the Canucks were going in a younger direction. Even a willingness to serve as a mentor this season seemed to be falling on deaf ears. A buyout was all the buzz.

“Everything happens for a reason, I guess,” Burrows said that sombre morning. “It’s one thing about getting old and having a team that’s rebuilding, retooling, or whatever you want to call it. There are so many worse things in life than being a healthy scratch, or they put a young guy in the lineup ahead of you.

“My wife is healthy and my kids are healthy and it puts things in perspective. I just put it that it’s life and trusted that if I kept doing the right things that I would be OK with it — that I could live with it. That’s how I approached it at the end of the year.”

And that’s how he’ll be fondly remembered by a much younger bunch. A standup guy who stood up for everyone, including himself.

bkuzma@postmedia.com

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