It must have crossed his mind by this time.

Given that, we're here to act as angel-on-shoulder to help guide True North chairman and Manitoba Moose governor Mark Chipman in the right direction.

Go ahead and do it. It's time.

Tell the NHL's Vancouver Canucks to walk the plank.

The Moose have a little-known out in their affiliation deal with the Canucks, an arrangement that is scheduled to run one more year.

But based on the events of the most recent three weeks, it's time to send the Canucks overboard.

The termination of Vancouver GM Dave Nonis is the biggest reason. Nonis was an honourable, ethical man who dealt with his AHL affiliate in honourable and ethical ways. There was not always 100 per cent agreement but there was trust and there was never a notion on the Moose side that they'd been stabbed in the back.

At Nonis's dismissal announcement, Francesco Aquilini, one of the Canucks' owners, behaved in erratic ways, appearing meddlesome and less than sincere as he gave vague answers and spouted his mission statement -- borrowed from Spiderman, we find out later.

A week later, at the hiring of new former player agent Mike Gillis as the new GM, suspicious memory lapses and a continuing feeling of disingenuousness lingered. And worse, Gillis, who said he had no preconceived notions about his task at hand, immediately fired a shot over the bow of the Moose organization when he designated player development as one of his biggest worries.

That would have been valid had it been accompanied by one of the most obvious and easy assessments about the Canucks organization -- that Moose coach Scott Arniel, despite suffering all the necessary roster sabotage during the 2007-08, was the most valuable employee of the Vancouver hockey department in 2007-08.

He guided the Moose to a 99-point regular season. Oops, they don't want to hear about 99 points in Vancouver and the club's top brass had no time for its affiliate during the AHL playoffs.

Silence is no way to foster trust.

Neither are some of the other underlying impediments to making this affiliation work.

The example of Vancouver goalie coach Ian Clark sticks out dramatically. Clark said earlier this season that rookie goalie Cory Schneider should develop by playing 60 games and that the Moose should worry less about winning.

It's one thing to buck for Schneider's development. But to tell the Moose to forget about winning, to award undeserved playing time, if ever there was offence taken at Manitoba headquarters, that was it, partially explaining why Clark isn't very welcome in these parts.

Many Vancouver scouts have let the Moose down. It addition to numerous poor picks, they have a malfunctioning concept as to whether a prospect can even be a good AHL player on his road to the NHL.

In the last two decades, the Canucks have never enjoyed a winning affiliate like they have had in Winnipeg. But they have always left the Moose thin in terms of prospects until just this season. It's a good thing Moose GM Craig Heisinger, another under-valued member of the Canucks organization even though he's not on the payroll, knows how to read and find talent. NHL and AHL talent.

We shall miss the likes of stand-up Vancouver hockey people Lorne Henning, Eric Crawford, Lucien Deblois, Stan Smyl and Alain Vigneault. And it's sad, unless Chipman and Heisinger can pull a rabbit out of their hats, that excellent men like Arniel, his assistant Brad Berry and players like Jason Jaffray would be lost in the shuffle.

Chipman, who has built an successful arena by negotiating his way through poison from city hall, the high-tax, cold-water climate created on Broadway, minority naysayers from every walk of life and loud special-interest groups who could stop Mother's Day, probably doesn't need to be told how to run his business.

There are no guarantees the ice is faster on the other side of the centre line.

But continuing on with the Canucks is a slippery slope. It doesn't get better, it gets worse. It has to, if impressions of the NHL team's new leadership regime, the ones absent honour, trust or appreciation, tell you anything.

Based on the reputation Chipman has worked hard to establish in the hockey world, there might well be a lineup to be your partner. (We've heard your old/new friends in Anaheim are looking around.) Somewhere in that group is a better ally, for business and most importantly, for Moose fans.

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca