The Vancouver Canucks are set to bring in some veteran front office leadership, announcing Jim Rutherford as the new president of hockey operations. Rutherford will also take on the role of interim general manager for the time being, while he leads the search for a new one. Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic notes that it’s a three-year deal for Rutherford in Vancouver. Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini released a statement on the hire:
It is time for a new vision and a new leader who will set a path forward for this team. Jim has tremendous experience building and leading winning organizations and I believe he will help build the Vancouver Canucks into a team that can compete for championships again.
Rutherford, 72, left the Pittsburgh Penguins in January, resigning his position as general manager. In the following months, reports started to surface that the legendary executive wasn’t finished with his front office career and would look for a new opportunity somewhere else at some point. It appears as though the Canucks, who cleared out their coaching staff and hockey operations group this month, is that opportunity.
After firing head coach Travis Green, assistant coach Nolan Baumgartner, general manager Jim Benning, and assistant general manager John Weisbrod, the Canucks have actually won two games in a row. Bruce Boudreau is now behind the bench as head coach, and with Rutherford joining the front office, the team is obviously not going to deal with any inexperience moving forward. It would have been difficult to find a coach-GM/president pair with more experience actually, given how long Rutherford and Boudreau have been around the NHL.
First taking over as GM of an NHL franchise in 1994 with the Hartford Whalers, Rutherford navigated the relocation to Carolina and won a Stanley Cup with the Hurricanes in 2006. He joined the Penguins in 2014 and took home two more championships, before leaving the organization earlier this year. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as a builder in 2020. Known for his blockbuster deals and out-of-nowhere free agent signings, Rutherford is extremely well-respected around the game even if not all of his moves pay off.
In Vancouver, it’s stability and structure that is necessary now, as they transition away from the Benning era. The team has some spectacular talents at the core of the team, but things have not gone well in recent years. In fact, the team has only made the playoffs a single time since 2015-16, reaching the second round in the 2020 bubble postseason. Rutherford will now decide how to shape the roster around Quinn Hughes, Elias Pettersson, and Thatcher Demko, and whether or not they want to strip things down before building it back up.
Darren Dreger of TSN first reported that things were “escalating” between the two sides and a deal was expected.
Noooooooo
Yesssss
Hahaha makes sense, gives the twins time to become the first co-GM in 2-3 years
Still love to know who randomly ****ed him off one random day in Pittsburgh.
Best guy out there. All he does is try to win.
Don’t get too attached to your draft picks…
We haven’t been attached to draft picks because Benning traded away our last two 1sts. In fact, people say Benning was good at drafting…are you serious?
None of our second round picks since 2014 (Demko) not named Hoglander have even played meaningful games
So out of the years 2015,2016,2017,2018,2019,2020 drafts that have played NHL games this is the list of ALL draft picks that Benning selected and have been playing.
Boeser (2015)
Juolevi (2016) – still not playing (nobody is from 2016)
Petterson (2017)
Hughes (2018) – Easy pick, he fell to 7
Podkolzin (2019) – just getting feet wet
Hoglander (2nd rd 2019)
We’re used to draft picks not working out
“The Vancouver Canucks and Jim Rutherford have hired Jim Rutherford to be president and interim general manager, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports.” – SN’s front page right now
Seems like he had an inside track on the job…
This nepotism must end!
Good choice for now! Honestly I’m just happy to get Benning out and have change. We’ll see what he does come deadline time.
So the NHL teaches us that there are approximately 8 people in the known universe able to coach successfully, and maybe 7 people in the known universe who can GM. That’s it, no new talent, no new ideas, no new approaches, just deal with endless retreads until the sun explodes and fiery death engulfs the earth. Life is pain, eat Arby’s.
Didn’t they try a first time GM and coach last hiring, and the hire before?
A horse trader is hired to stand pat???? Does this signal that the Canuks are open to trading off assets???? Hockey trades, yes, let us hope for plain, old-fashioned hockey trades!!! Ones that are good for all that are involved!
BREAKING: Rutherford hires Paul Fenton as GM. You heard it here first.
No chance. The second he gets hired, some old staffer from Minnesota is gonna be reporting him to the new hotline for abuse. No chance Vancouver touches him, and highly unlikely he’s ever a GM again
BREAKING: Rutherford has traded all of Vancouver’s draft picks for the next 15 years for a signed Pavel Bure jersey and the contract of Mike Matheson.
Are we talking the gold-&-orange skate logo jersey? Because if not, then no deal.
Next bring in Sean Burke to be the goalie coach !
Kiss your picks and prospects goodbye
How about that, Rutherford just up the road now from his protege, Ron Francis.
Way to go, Vancouver! Bring in a fresh face and a new approach!
Oh, wait …
They’ve already tried that with Benning and Green. Tell me again how that worked out for Vancouver? I’ll wait.
… because Benning — who’d been an executive with the Bruins for nearly ten years — and Travis Green — who’d been coaching in their system for several years — were “fresh faces?” Surrrrre. If you say so.
@Nha Trang
He was an executive for the Bruins for nearly ten years you say? While he was a scout from 1993-2004 for various teams, he actually didn’t become an AGM until 2006, which was for the Bruins. His 1st GM job was in 2014, which was for the Canucks. So yes, he was a fresh face for Vancouver.
And as for Travis Green, yes, he was coaching in Vancouver’s minor league system since 2013, where he had some success, but the Canucks gig was his first ever head coaching gig in the NHL. He had never coached any NHL team prior to coaching the Canucks. So also yes, he was technically a fresh face for Vancouver.
But I guess since you say otherwise, those facts were wrong, right? How about you actually know what you’re talking about and maybe do some research before spouting nonsense
What you have to understand about Nha Trang is that he has Nha Clue. Just disregard him.