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Player development is the Sea to Sky Highway. A winning vision is a road on the Prairies that aims straight to the horizon. Desjardins, a coach who grew up in Climax, Sask., and had never missed the playoffs at any level in North America, knows a straight line simplifies everything. And that is the difference for the Canucks this season.

“That’s the biggest thing, the number 1 thing,” Desjardins said on the eve of training camp. “For everybody, not just the players. The road is a clear road.

“The stage our team is in … it’s a touchy subject. Whenever you get into that discussion between development and winning, those are such polarizing subjects for everybody. I think the key to winning is having a vision and having a straight line. Knowing exactly where you want to go, it’s much easier to get there for everybody. It’s when (the line) goes back and forth, that’s where you can lose your way a little bit.”

Desjardins said he thought his players’ passion waned late last season as losses mounted. But after exit interviews with players, he realized it was the vision that had been the problem. Too many players just couldn’t see where the organization was going.

The lineup included two 19-year-olds — neither was ready to play a full season in the NHL — and one of them seemed to lose every key faceoff he was sent out to take. Rookie defenceman Ben Hutton logged top-four minutes, second-year centre Bo Horvat was sacrificed in matchups against the best centres in the NHL, untried goalie Jacob Markstrom played every second game down the stretch, when the defence included a mysterious Russian giant named Nikita Tryamkin, and nine different Canucks played their first NHL games.