Bad things happen to good people. And make no mistake, Dave Nonis is a good man. But after four years and three seasons running the Vancouver Canucks, there remained much debate about his abilities as a National Hockey League general manager. And, pretty clearly, the opinion that mattered most—that of Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini—was that Nonis was not the right man for the job, so he was relieved of his duties on April 14.

The harsh reality of professional sports is that winning is the only thing that matters. And for the second time in three years with Nonis at the helm, the Canucks were on the outside looking in when the Stanley Cup playoffs began. When teams aren’t part of the playoff mix, owners aren’t lining their pockets with postseason profits, and the winds of change often blow. And when general managers who weren’t hired by those owners are heading into the final year of their contracts and fail to meet expectations, change is almost a certainty. And that’s why Nonis is out of work today.

Many people felt that the 41-year-old Burnaby native would be given the opportunity to spend a good chunk of Aquilini’s money in the free-agent market this summer to assemble a team that could not only compete but contend. Nonis’s spotty track record in free agency, though, may have been one of the red flags that led ownership to act. Since the lockout, the Canucks have seen little return on investments like Markus Naslund’s hefty deal or the signings of players like Richard Park, Marc Chouinard, Jan Bulis, Tommi Santala, Yannick Tremblay, Byron Ritchie, Brad Isbister, and Curtis Sanford.

To be fair, aside from Naslund, those others were not expected to be game breakers when they arrived here. Yet in today’s NHL, the good teams get ahead by getting solid contributions from players at low price points. Not only did the bulk of the free agents signed by Nonis not contribute, they couldn’t even get in the lineup on a regular basis.

If past performance is the best predictor of future achievements, you can understand why Aquilini was apprehensive about opening his wallet and turning Nonis loose with $15 million to $18 million to spend on this year’s crop of free agents. With teams like Edmonton, Phoenix, Chicago, and even Columbus all threatening to make significant strides in the Western Conference next season, this summer becomes that much more important for the Canucks in their efforts to build a team that can make up ground on the established clubs while holding off the charges of those other teams that just missed the playoffs.

In the eyes of ownership, it is crunch time. And Nonis just got crunched.

Nonis is a smart hockey man who has accomplished a lot at a relatively young age. He’ll no doubt find work in the game again. But there are no guarantees in professional sports, and there’s nothing that says he’ll get another shot at being an NHL general manager. Ask Craig Button, who had his chance in Calgary, or John Ferguson Jr., who was punted by the Maple Leafs: both were young hotshots who worked their way up through the ranks and were given the reins of Canadian NHL teams, possibly too soon.

With a division title and a first-round playoff victory last season, Nonis has a more decorated résumé than those two. And the fact that he pulled off one of the most lopsided trades in recent memory and hired a coach who went on to win the Jack Adams award speaks well of his hockey acumen and should attract some interest from around the league. Still, all of that wasn’t enough to hold on to his job.

For the better part of the past two seasons, Nonis was well aware of the Canucks’ goal-scoring deficiency and did nothing to address it. And when his team spiralled out of control and right out of the playoffs over the final two weeks of the season, Nonis found himself in both the line of fire and, as it turned out, the line to be fired.

The Canucks had injuries and off-ice distractions that certainly affected their performance down the stretch. None of that seemed to matter to ownership. The bottom line is that the Canucks didn’t get the job done on the ice, and in his postseason postmortem, Nonis had already stated that there would be changes. He just didn’t realize at the time that he’d be the biggest one.

Nonis can walk out of G.M. Place with his head held high. The organization he leaves behind is in solid shape, and his successor will inherit substantial building blocks. Nonis acquired Roberto Luongo, brought in Willie Mitchell (his best free-agent signing), and signed players like Daniel and Henrik Sedin, Ryan Kesler, Taylor Pyatt, and Alex Burrows to sensible contracts for the hockey club. Under his watch, Nonis also had reasonable success in the draft, selecting Alex Edler, Luc Bourdon, Mason Raymond, Jannik Hansen, and Mike Brown, all of whom have already played in the league and appear to have futures in the NHL.

Despite all that, the Canucks under Nonis never had the appearance of a legitimate contender. The on-ice leadership wasn’t nearly as strong as it needed to be, and far too often down the stretch this past season the Canucks looked fragile at a time when only the strong teams survive.

The Canucks didn’t. And now their general manager has gone down with the ship. What was going to surely be an eventful off-season for the Vancouver Canucks just got a lot more tumultuous.