Trevor Linden likes his hockey team and his job, although he could use some thermal underwear.

Out of the game for six years before Vancouver Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini hired him last April to be the team’s president of hockey operations, Linden spent the week leading up to the National Hockey League all-star break scouting junior players in Ontario and Quebec. It was cold and the hockey was great. Linden liked it.

He has a lot to like these days as the Canucks, under new coach Willie Desjardins and general manager Jim Benning, appear to have recovered from their worst season since the 1990s. With management preparing for the Canucks’ mid-season scouting meetings next week, Linden took few minutes to tell The Vancouver Sun about Chicoutimi, Que., his mom Edna’s clothing advice and his views on the Canucks, five weeks before the NHL trading deadline.

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Q: Where did you go on your scouting mission?

A: We started in Sault Ste. Marie and Sarnia, then went to Peterborough, Sherbrooke, Shawinigan, Chicoutimi, then back to Sherbrooke. It was really good on a couple of levels: being able to connect with our guys and spending time with our scouts was real valuable and, also, we’ve seen some of the top players on our list before heading into our amateur scouting meetings next week.

Did you dress warmly?

It was minus-26 in Chicoutimi and the wind was blowing hard from the north. Edna told me to bring my long johns and I should have listened to her. It was amazingly cold. Like, I had a big overcoat on, plus a sweater and shirt underneath, and the wind was still literally going right through me. It was incredible. But you know what? I hadn’t been to Chicoutimi since the Memorial Cup in 1988 when I was on the ice.

Aren’t kids from Medicine Hat supposed to be impervious to cold? Didn’t you spend hours on an outdoor rink while your dad, Lane, sat in his truck with the heater running?

Except back then, I didn’t know any better. I didn’t notice how cold it was.

Sounds like you enjoyed the scouting trip despite the weather.

We’ve done some things about how we’re approaching (the draft) and given our guys real, clear direction and support. I’ve really enjoyed it. I’ve sat in on a lot of scouting calls and I’ve seen a lot of games out west, but you hear guys talk about certain players (in Ontario and Quebec) and then when go see them yourself, it’s really interesting. I really enjoy the process. I’m looking forward to our meetings next week.

Amateur scouting and NHL performance are obviously linked, but we’ve seen how Canuck managers made things difficult on the scouts by trading away many draft picks when the team was a Stanley Cup contender for several years. Will this team be active at the trading deadline in March?

It’s the old saying: We’re going to do everything we can to get better, but we’re not going to sacrifice the future of this club to do that. This group has played really well. We’ve beaten the top teams. You head into the playoffs and you rely on your group and the system and structure. I’m comfortable with that. We’re not going to sacrifice our young players and prospects and draft picks.

But you have traded some picks, too, giving up a second-rounder for Linden Vey and a third-rounder for Derek Dorsett at the draft last June, then surrendering another third-rounder to acquire prospect Andrey Pedan from the New York Islanders in November. And Dorsett could leave as an unrestricted free agent this summer.

It was a situation where we felt we had to make our group competitive this year and get back into the playoffs, and Derek was a big part of it — and will be a big part of it. We’d like to have him back. Hopefully we can do that. Derek’s play on the ice and character and leadership off the ice … talk about bringing young players into your organization, he’s the kind of guy you want your young players to be sitting beside on the bench.

There were rumblings this week that the Canucks are among the bidders for power centre Ryan O’Reilly from the Colorado Avalanche, who were interested in defenceman Alex Edler in return.

Alex is a foundational player for us. He’s a 25-minute, all-situation defenceman that every team is looking for. We haven’t had any trade discussion involving Alex. He’s going to be a cornerstone for our organization moving forward. Alex is having a real good season. He’s a big, strong, physical guy who can match up against anybody’s top line. He’s good in his own end, he’s a good puck-mover, has a big shot. That’s the type of guy you look for. Having him bounce back has been critical to our success this year.

Edler isn’t the only Canuck bouncing back after struggling last year under John Tortorella. Daniel and Henrik Sedin are having solid years, but can you really get three more productive seasons after this one from the twins, who are 34 years old?

These guys are consummate professionals who work extremely hard off the ice. We need to make sure we manage them the proper way. I think Willie has done a good job of that. We need to keep them fresh and manage them not only this year but in future years.

Can you get younger scorers to take some of the pressure off them?

The best way to get younger is within (by drafting and developing players). We want to make this group as successful as we can and we’re doing everything we can to do that, but we also have our eye on the future. We want to get younger and support our core guys by giving them players who can learn under them and become players for our future.

In that respect, working 19-year-old Bo Horvat into the lineup this season was critically important. Can you do the same next season with Jake Virtanen?

Physically, like we talked about with Bo, Jake is probably strong enough and big enough to play. But Jake’s got to have a good summer (training) and then we’ll see where he’s at. It sure would be nice to see some of our young players take big steps and really push for spots next year. I think we’re close to that.

After working his way back last fall from shoulder surgery, Virtanen wants to use his strong world junior tournament with Team Canada to launch a huge second half in the Western Hockey League. Is it outrageous to think we might even see Virtanen in Vancouver this season after the Calgary Hitmen finish playing?

I don’t think it’s outrageous, but it’s probably unlikely. We’ll see how things go. From week to week and month to month, things change. We don’t know where we’ll be at the end of the year.

At 26-16-3, the Canucks are better than most critics thought they’d be. Are they where you thought they’d be?

I thought we could be in this position in the summer. I felt pretty confident we’d get some bounce back from a lot of the guys who had off-seasons last year, and I think we have. And we’ve had good contributions from the guys we added. Ryan Miller has come in and played extremely well in a difficult place. Radim Vrbata — going to the all-star game — obviously has been a big producer for us on the offensive side. Derek Dorsett has brought exactly what we hoped he’d bring: enthusiasm and grit every single night. I thought we would be where we are.

What is the No. 1 thing you hear from fans around Vancouver?

I hear it all. There’s lots of feedback, whether you want it or not. But generally it’s been very positive. I think people have enjoyed seeing the changes we made and people have had fun coming to Rogers Arena again, and we’ve got to continue that. Generally, people are excited.

And yet, there are unsold seats at Rogers Arena for the first time in more than a decade. Roberto Luongo’s return to Vancouver a couple of weeks ago wasn’t sold out. Even the Chicago Blackhawks, back in November, didn’t quite sell out.

Obviously, there was a lot of fallout from last season. There were a lot of unhappy people. We worked real hard in the summer connecting with our season-ticket members and connecting with our corporate partners to see what we could do to make their experience at Rogers Arena better. A lot of that has to do with what happens on the ice, and we feel we’re living up to that part of it, having a good year so far. It’s our job to win people back and that’s what we’re going to do. We’ve got a lot of work to do. We knew that coming in. It’s not a one-year fix or six-month turnaround. It’s going to take some time and we know we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us.

We’ll let you get back to it then.

imacintyre@vancouversun.com

Twitter.com/imacvansun