Vancouver Canucks General Manager Patrik Allvin accentuated the positives he saw from his team in the second half of the season when he addressed the media at Rogers Arena.
As he sat at the podium addressing the media at his end-of-season press conference at Rogers Arena, Vancouver Canucks General Manager Patrick Allvin repeatedly said he saw progress from his hockey club over the final three months of the season. But Allvin was also quick to point out there is plenty of work yet to be done to get his team where he wants it to be.
The undeniable takeaway from the GM's availability on Monday afternoon and that of many of the key players on the team who met the media on Saturday is that there is a synergy in place now throughout the organization that clearly did not exist at this time last season. From management to the coaching staff to those on the roster -- all the way down to the American Hockey League affiliate in Abbotsford -- everyone employed by the Canucks appears to have a defined role and the supports necessary to do the job to the best of their ability.
How that translates on the ice won't be known until next season, but Allvin believes that organizational alignment is a big step toward moving this hockey club back toward the Stanley Cup playoffs.
"It's not fun to sit here again this early," Allvin said in his opening remark. "I'm really excited how we finished up here with the mindset of the players and coaching staff and the communication within the group and the structure and the details we were able to play with. We're on the same page in Vancouver and down in Abbotsford. It's a step forward. The players understand how we have to have the culture and the standard moving forward. The exit meetings here were very positive and I think the players understand what it's going to take to be prepared for training. So it's a big summer for all players."
It's a big off-season for Allvin and his front office staff, too. The general manager admitted that he has holes on his roster to fill and knows that he doesn't have much salary cap flexibility to address them. A central theme of his availability Monday was the rapid development of a number of players in Abbotsford with the suggestion that the Canucks will be banking on improvement from within next season.
Allvin noted the club needs to upgrade its third line centre position. He added he didn't plan to spend much on a back-up goaltender which again points to internal options behind Thatcher Demko. Allvin heaped plenty of praise on Arturs Silovs and said he'd have no objections to the 22-year-old making the jump to the NHL on full-time basis next season rather than spending another year developing in the minors.
And Allvin made it abundantly clear that he has no plans at this point to utilize buyouts to create cap space this summer. That means veteran Oliver Ekman-Larsson who struggled mightily before being shutdown for the season with an ankle injury likely isn't going anywhere.
"My intention is not to use buyouts," Allvin stated. "I've got support from Jim (Rutherford) and the ownership here to put a competitive team in place. My vision is that if you do buyouts now it might affect you down the road. I think this group is just touching the surface of becoming a good team so I don't want to use buyouts if we don't have to. I don't want to use buyouts that are going to affect us in a couple of years when this group is actually, hopefully taking off."
It's clear listening to Allvin that while he was impressed with the performance of Elias Pettersson, Quinn Hughes and -- in the second half of the season -- JT Miller, he believes that trio has even more to give. And all indications Monday were that management recognizes the need to build around the Canucks leadership group and support them with better players.
Exactly how Allvin and his management crew accomplish that will be a fascinating study over the summer months. There is no question the Vancouver Canucks possess elite talent in Pettersson, Hughes, Miller and Demko. And with Andrei Kuzmenko coming off a hugely successful first NHL season and the addition of Filip Hronek on defence, the Canucks have some intriguing complementary pieces, too.
But this season showed that the Canucks roster simply wasn't strong enough. So sure, some key players elevated their games individually and the team as a whole may have taken steps forward under Rick Tocchet in the eyes of the general manager. The question now is how many more steps are required for this team to make a long overdue return to the post-season?