I completely agree with you that his handling in Vancouver was botched. In addition to the ways you mentioned, I thought he was better than players higher than him on the depth chart. In view of the reports (which I never saw attributed to anyone nor confirmed) of Lidster pushing him to play like Pronger, I wondered if they were witholding playing time trying to get him to change his playing style more quickly than he was comfortable with.
On the other hand, he didn't star in the KHL which brings into question whether he'd have reached expectations in North America.
When Tryamkin's signing to return to the KHL was announced the thing he was first quoted as complaining about was his playing time.
Vancouver Canucks lose Nikita Tryamkin to KHL in sudden, stunning blow to promising defence
About a week after Tryamkin signed with Avtomobilist, Green was promoted to the Canucks' head coaching job.