Canucks: Jim Rutherford exits as president, succession plan unclear

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Jim Rutherford is not going to be the big boss anymore. This much is clear. The rest of how the Vancouver Canucks’ hockey leadership succession plan is going to play out? That’s less clear.

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The Canucks’ president of hockey operations confirmed Tuesday that following the NHL draft next month, he’s going to step out of the spotlight. He’d suggested last month, after dismissing Patrik Allvin as GM, that his own time in charge was coming to an end.

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He’s on a timeline, but his continuing search doesn’t quite have a timeline, either. He’s down to five candidates, he says, but when one will be hired remains to be seen, he admitted.

After 42 years running a hockey team, in 2026-27 he won’t be; he’ll simply be an adviser and an alternate governor, meaning he might go to an owner’s meeting or two. That’s the last year of his current contract and one wonders if there will be any more.

Even so, it seems he’s not going out without working to get his way: he’s still heading up the search for a new GM.

One of the five he’s identified is Ryan Johnson, who we are pretty certain is also Rutherford’s first pick. This is after interviewing 16 or 17 other people to replace Allvin.

But for whatever reason, ownership seems to have resisted the Johnson suggestion. And so Rutherford’s going through his final weeks as the big boss fighting for his guy while also looking around to see who else is out there.

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It’s been a fruitful, intriguing exercise Rutherford said. He’s heard some good ideas and feedback. But unless something dramatic happens — like say a late-arriving option in the hiring pool — it would seem he’s still got to convince ownership that Pierre Dorion and three other finalists are not better options than Johnson.

Can he manage it? It sure seems like the explosion of opposition to the idea of Dorion as GM was enough to convince ownership that, no, this is not the guy. But it’s still not Johnson it seems.

So if not Johnson, who else? Boston AGM Evan Gold is said to have impressed but he’s never been the main man, so would there need to be some sort of near-presidential type hired alongside him? Someone you could call a vice-president, perhaps?

Is there an experienced old hand out there who would be someone for ownership to look to as a guy they trust, to help soothe their anxieties about another rookie GM? Someone who would lead Rutherford to say he knows he is leaving the scene in good hands?

When Rutherford was hired 4.5 years ago, he moved quickly to figure out who his general manager was going to be. He settled pretty quickly on Allvin, though he claimed he had a five-finalists search then too. The difference then was he was hired by the Aquilinis to fix a team gone badly wayward; a few simple tweaks and presto, it was hoped, the team would be the Stanley Cup contender their roster suggested they might be.

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Within two years, they were tracking well; that 2024 playoff run proved to be a mirage and since then Allvin and Rutherford stumbled badly. They picked the wrong centres. Their superstar defenceman didn’t want to stay. Their star goalie has mostly been injured. They’ve drafted OK but struggled to find true impact players in the annual selection.

And so here we are, four years after Rutherford hired Allvin, still less than a month since Rutherford fired Allvin, pondering how this search plays out. Will ownership accede to Rutherford’s ideas? Or will they go their own way?

What a strange path Rutherford ended up walking in Vancouver. A little bit forwards, but mostly a lot backwards.

Not the legacy you want to leave behind.

pjohnston@postmedia.com

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