Canucks Front Office is Responsible for Team’s Turnaround

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.