As of Jan. 18, 2024, the Vancouver Canucks sit third in the NHL in points percentage, something that a majority of Canucks fans wouldn’t have even fathomed before the season began. There’s been loads of credit passed around to head coach Rick Tocchet, star players like Elias Pettersson and Thatcher Demko and even depth pieces, too. However, the real stars of the Canucks first half of the season are president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford and general manager (GM) Patrik Allvin.
Allvin and Rutherford both took the Canucks job in January 2022, and since then turned the franchise around, making the Canucks Stanley Cup contenders just two seasons later. Let’s see how they’ve done it.
2023-24 Additions: All Hits, No Misses
Rutherford and Allvin have built one of the most complete rosters in the sport. The Canucks already had high-end talent when they both took over the mess former GM Jim Benning left them, but the team’s defensive unit and bottom-six were bottom-tier. In the summer of 2023, both Rutherford and Allvin changed that.
The additions of Carson Soucy, Ian Cole, Teddy Blueger and Pius Suter via the free agency market have paid dividends to the franchise’s early success this season. Previously under the old regime, too many times Vancouver would give out big, mind-boggling numbers and term to players who frankly did not deserve it (i.e. Tyler Myers, Tucker Poolman, etc.). To the naked eye, none of those four additions are household names. On the contrary, they’re solid depth pieces that know their role and have fit seamlessly around the likes of Quinn Hughes, Pettersson and J.T. Miller.
Related: Canucks’ Burning Questions: Hughes, Pettersson, Trades & More
Both Allvin and Rutherford cooked in the free-agent market, but the trades they made maybe even better than their free-agent acquisitions. Their first real test in Vancouver came when they moved on from captain Bo Horvat in January 2023, sending him to the New York Islanders and ending a long saga that was ultimately clouding the Canucks future at the time. In return, they received a first-round pick (along with Aatu Raty and Anthony Beauvillier), which was flipped to the Detroit Red Wings for Filip Hronek. The move, as they usually do in Vancouver, raised questions about where Allvin and Rutherford thought the Canucks future was headed.
That Hronek trade has ended up being one of the most beneficial trades in recent franchise history. Not only has Hronek himself been superb, but he and Hughes have formed a top-level pairing that’s among the league’s best (14th leaguewide in 5-on-5 expected goals percentage, minimum 400:00 TOI). Even their smaller, quieter trades, like the Sam Lafferty trade (acquired for a 2024 third-round pick) or the Casey DeSmith trade (acquired for Tanner Pearson and a 2025 third-round pick) have worked wonders.
Their early-season addition of Nikita Zadorov for a 2024 fifth-round and 2026 third-round pick has turned out well, too. Zadorov, despite seeing a slight dip in performance the last month, has slotted in well in the bottom four on the blue line, bringing physicality and above-average puck movement to a team that looks primed to compete for the Stanley Cup.
Quieting the Headlines and Working in Silence
No matter how good the Canucks may be in any given year, there will be drama. It’s just the nature of the market. This year, naturally, isn’t any different. Public to the media coach-player drama? Check. Long-standing contract renewal with one of the faces of the franchise? Check. Yet again another crucial trade deadline? You betcha. This is run-of-the-mill type stuff Canucks fans have long been used to dealing with for years. The only difference now is that there’s a front office that’s able to handle it.
Under Benning, situations like these felt never-ending at times. Under Allvin and Rutherford, however, these fiascos have barely reached second base in terms of panic. The ordeal between Tocchet and Andrei Kuzmenko has seemed to quiet down a bit after multiple healthy scratches during the first half of the season. Why? Because Allvin and Rutherford let them handle business and never opened up too much about it to the media. It’s a storyline that could have easily derailed Vancouver’s success, but it didn’t.
The ongoing contract negotiations (or lack thereof) between the Canucks and Pettersson have been quite the headline the past couple of weeks, leaving Canucks fans in limbo of whether or not to believe their beloved Swedish centre is going to sign long-term with the Canucks. However, Allvin has been transparent about the situation, telling Sportsnet in a Q&A, “I have conversations (with his agent) but nothing obviously has changed. We want to keep Petey here. He knows that. At some point it’s going to come down to negotiations and if it’s working or not. We have another year with him as an RFA; we’re not going to lose him this summer. But that being said, I’m trying to plan for our team this year and next year and I want him to be a big part of it.”
Nothing but pure transparency will keep these worries and headlines at a minimum, and so far, both Allvin and Rutherford have done a dandy job at containing them and dealing with one of the biggest hockey hotbeds this league and sport has to offer.
Give Them Their Flowers, But…
There are still 38 games left to be played. A lot can happen between now and then, including an extremely vital and potential franchise-altering trade deadline. Will the Canucks play it safe and keep their farm system intact and aim for future years of playoff contention? Or will they go all-in this season and blow up their already pedestrian farm system for a rental? Only time will tell.
However, when it comes to the first 44 games of the year, Allvin and Rutherford deserve their flowers. It can be a bouquet of the finest roses or the mere dandelion you find on the sidewalk, it doesn’t matter. Vancouver is a notoriously hard place to win, that’s why the Canucks have a whopping zero Stanley Cups in their 54-year history.
But for the first time since 2011, the city of Vancouver has a reason to believe again that just one day, they’ll get to see their beloved hockey team hoist Lord’s Stanley Cup. This team is good. They’re downright dominant at times. It’s a team Canucks fans have yearned for years upon years. But above all else, they have a front office they can put their trust in again. They still have plenty of work to do, but Canucks fans can finally breathe easy and believe that said work will be done.
