Vancouver Canucks executive Jim Rutherford faces a high-stakes final management decision. Choosing between two newcomers as GM could determine if Vancouver achieves its elusive Stanley Cup dreams –or if they fail and the rage of Canucks fans rises to a new level.
The NHL’s GM carousel continues to turn, and while the Toronto Maple Leafs moved relatively quickly to hire a replacement for GM Brad Treliving – hiring John Chayka as GM on Monday – the Vancouver Canucks are still in the process of hiring a replacement for GM Patrik Allvin.
The choice for Vancouver’s next GM falls to Jim Rutherford, who, following Tuesday's draft lottery, announced he's stepping down as the Canucks' president of hockey operations before next season.
While you can debate and discuss what the best moves Rutherford has made in his four-and-a-half years on the job, there’s no debating the fact that Rutherford must hit a home run in picking a new GM, which will be his final consequential act in Vancouver.
Rutherford – moving into an advisory role with Vancouver – can’t afford to be wrong in the person he picks as the Canucks’ GM. And a report this week stated that Rutherford has narrowed the field down to two people.
Canucks assistant GM Ryan Johnson and Boston Bruins assistant GM Evan Gold. While it shouldn’t matter whether it’s Gold or Johnson who gets the job, the issue here is Rutherford getting the right person in place to turn things around as quickly as possible.
Because if there’s one thing we see sticking in the craw of Vancouver fans, it’s the sense that so much time has been wasted on blueprints that eventually went awry time and again in B.C.
So the idea that Rutherford can’t afford to go wrong with his pick as GM has less to do with Rutherford’s stint in particular and everything to do with the big picture and trying to steer the Canucks to their first Stanley Cup in franchise history.
Certainly, Rutherford has absolutely nothing to prove to anyone, and that’s why he’s an all-time great in his refreshingly honest dealings with the media. When you’ve won three Cups in your career, you’ve established that you know how to build a winning team.
But the GM business is the epitome of a ‘what-have-you-done-for-me-lately’ business, and all Canucks fans care about right this minute is what Rutherford does with this next monumental decision.
This isn’t to say Canucks fans can’t be reasonable and be somewhat patient with their expectations that the franchise has turned the corner and is building to something that will be legitimately impressive.
Short of a draft miracle – which has been hard to come by for Vancouver in the draft lottery – the Canucks will have to ask for some time to implement a new strategy. And so long as Canucks fans can make out an early impression of what the new management team is trying to do, they may be patient and understanding.
However, if Rutherford chooses the wrong person to be Vancouver’s visionary for the next decade or longer, Canucks fans will be as angry as you’ll ever see a fan base be. And that’s if that person even gets to a decade as GM.
Allvin had only four full years on the job before Rutherford fired him. So if we don’t see some semblance of progress sooner than later from the new GM in Vancouver, we’re going to see rage on a new level in Canucks Land.
Rutherford may be winding down his NHL career, but Gold or Johnson could be about to start up their days running a team. The success they may or may not have as Vancouver’s next GM is going to dictate how pleasant Canucks fans are going to be for the foreseeable future.
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