 In the off-season, Messier left the team and returned to the Rangers; during the team's September 2000 training camp, held in Sweden, Naslund was selected to replace Messier as captain, a position he held for seven seasons.As part of the team's stay in Sweden, they played exhibition games against Swedish and Finnish teams as part of the NHL Challenge.Under the leadership of General Manager Brian Burke and Head Coach Marc Crawford, the Canucks once again became a playoff team.