{"id":9982,"date":"2026-04-19T02:26:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T02:26:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/9982\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T02:26:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T02:26:06","slug":"7-things-we-learned-from-vancouver-canucks-president-jim-rutherfords-end-of-season-press-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/9982\/","title":{"rendered":"7 things we learned from Vancouver Canucks president Jim Rutherford\u2019s end-of-season press conference"},"content":{"rendered":"

Get the best of Vancouver in your inbox, every Tuesday and Thursday.\u00a0Sign up for our free newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After the firing of GM Patrick Allvin, president of hockey operations Rutherford stood in front of the press and delivered a state of the union on the team.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today, the Vancouver Canucks announced that the club has parted ways with general manager Patrik Allvin.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The move comes shortly after the Canucks ended the regular season with the rest record in the league. And while it\u2019s not exactly a surprise\u2014there were rumours this might be coming all through the second half of the season\u2014it is still a big moment for the team that will chart and determine its course forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The person charting that course forward is, of course, president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford. Rutherford and Allvin worked together previously in Pittsburgh, and Rutherford brought Allvin on shortly after he was hired in December 2021. (Yes, it was that long ago.)<\/p>\n

Because of the way the two worked so closely together, it was often hard to tell who was responsible for what. That\u2019s other than the Quinn Hughes trade, as it was revealed that the Canucks told inquiring teams to deal with Rutherford on the matter. Which\u2026 always seemed a bit strange, since Allvin was the de facto GM. (If the Toronto Maple Leafs had told teams asking about trading for a star player to deal with Brendan Shanahan instead of Kyle Dubas, it would have held about six different news cycles.)<\/p>\n

So it was maybe a bit surprising that only one of the men was dismissed. But as Rutherford took the stage in front of media on Friday, some things became more clear. Here are five takeaways from Rutherford\u2019s press conference.\u00a0<\/p>\n

1. The new GM will have more autonomy than Allvin had<\/p>\n

It sure sounds like Rutherford will be more hands-off when it comes to working with the next GM. When he was directly asked how the role would change, Rutherford said that the new person would have total control over all hockey decisions. That\u2019s a departure from where Allvin was at, to say the least.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rutherford did go on to say that he would still play a role in decisions that were outside the scope of what happens on the ice, mentioning working on getting the team\u2019s practice facility built, as well as where training camp would be.\u00a0<\/p>\n

2. Accordingly, Rutherford might not be around for much longer<\/p>\n

With the increased role for the GM, it would make sense if the 77-year-old Rutherford was plotting his retirement. And it seems like it\u2019s on his mind.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Though he signed a three-year contract that still has another year left, it does appear that Rutherford sees the glow of the exit sign.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, my focus is on getting a GM and getting through the draft,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd when I do that, I will think about what makes sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

3. Abbotsford Canucks GM Ryan Johnson may have the inside track on the GM job<\/p>\n

Rutherford spoke highly of Ryan Johnson and the job he\u2019s done as GM of the Abbotsford Canucks, who won a Calder Cup last season. There will be plenty of candidates\u2014and some have mentioned that the Canucks would like someone with experience\u2014but it\u2019s clear they don\u2019t want to lose Johnson in the organization.\u00a0<\/p>\n

4. Other recently rebuilt teams will be the blueprint for the Canucks<\/p>\n

Rutherford specifically pointed out four teams that he has personally studied in their approaches to a rebuild\u2014Montreal, Chicago, San Jose, and Anaheim. \u201cThree of those teams are pretty much through their rebuilds and they all had years like the Canucks had,\u201d said Rutherford, who noted that the key will be how much the team improves year by year. \u201cThe foundation and structure are here. And a lot of that credit goes to Patrik Allvin,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

5. Young players will hopefully have big roles on the Canucks next year<\/p>\n

Jonathan Lekkerim\u00e4ki won\u2019t officially count as a rookie next season, but Rutherford mentioned him, Braeden Cootes, and whomever the Canucks pick at the top of the draft this offseason as part of a young core that the team will lean on to establish an exciting identity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

6. Some of the contracts the Canucks signed were done in desperation to keep Quinn Hughes<\/p>\n

Rutherford wiped away the notion that defenceman Quinn Hughes wanted out because the team wasn\u2019t very good. \u201cI\u2019ve known for some time that Quinn wasn\u2019t staying in Vancouver,\u201d said Rutherford, who added that he knew before the season started.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The president also admitted that the team signed contracts like those given to Conor Garland, Brock Boeser, and Thatcher Demko as a ploy to keep Hughes because those players had good relationships with him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were hoping for a chance down to the end that he would decide to stay here. I don\u2019t think that was ever in the cards,\u201d said Rutherford.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That is\u2026 tough. It\u2019s hard to rationalize signing players for that reason. Yes, they were able to get out of the Garland contract, and Demko\u2019s deal isn\u2019t for too long. But the Boeser contract may hinder them in a few years, even if he\u2019s a decent mentor for the kids. It\u2019s already clear that his game isn\u2019t going to age super well, and he\u2019s not even 30. In any case, it\u2019s not a great reason to sign players to contracts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rutherford also compared the Hughes situation to Matthew Tkachuk\u2019s in Calgary. So yeah, hockey fans in Toronto and Ottawa might be warranted in getting a little nervous about their American captains making moves out of town.\u00a0<\/p>\n

7. The new GM will make the call on head coach Adam Foote<\/p>\n

Rutherford left the decision on head coach Adam Foote to the incoming general manager. It would be easy to deduce, using that information, that Foote is safe for another year. That\u2019s because it doesn\u2019t necessarily behoove a new GM to bring in their person (who they are going to be held accountable for hiring) on a tanking team.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, given some reports that Allvin and Foote clashed over the latter\u2019s hesitancy to play young players, you have to think that that will change, in one way or another, given Rutherford\u2019s insistence that the Canucks will be young and exciting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We would predict that the coach stays on for a year while the GM gladly sees the team fall to the bottom of the standings and does whatever they can to try to ensure young players develop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Get the best of Vancouver in your inbox, every Tuesday and Thursday.\u00a0Sign up for our free newsletter. After…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9983,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[415,17,412,413,418,407,414,420,416,423,226,389,419,422,421,417,95],"class_list":{"0":"post-9982","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-vancouver","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-city","11":"tag-culture","12":"tag-dining","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-events","15":"tag-fashion","16":"tag-film","17":"tag-food","18":"tag-lifestyle","19":"tag-music","20":"tag-nightlife","21":"tag-restaurants","22":"tag-shopping","23":"tag-tv","24":"tag-vancouver"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}