Canucks Assistant GM Ryan Johnson could be an option for Vancouver's newly-vacant General Manager position.
The Vancouver Canucks are officially in the market for a new General Manager after it was announced that Patrik Allvin had been relieved of his duties on Friday morning. While the search will officially begin on Monday according to Canucks President of Hockey Operations Jim Rutherford, there are still some in-house options that the team could be taking a look at — notably Assistant General Manager and Abbotsford Canucks General Manager Ryan Johnson.
“We have a very good candidate within the organization, Ryan Johnson, who I have a lot of time and a lot of respect for,” Rutherford said during his end-of-season media availability on Friday. “He built a championship team in Abbotsford when people weren’t expecting it, and he’s been a great guy to work with.”
Notably, Johnson’s status with the Canucks became a hot topic in recent weeks after a report circulated that the Canucks had denied the Nashville Predators the opportunity to talk to him about their open GM position. On Friday, Rutherford claimed that this report was false, and that the Canucks will not allow any other teams permission to talk to their current management staff until they have concluded their own search.
“He’s under contract, so he won’t leave. I know some people think we turned down permission to Nashville. They never requested permission from us. Somebody made that story up, but I can definitely tell you, through this process, until we get to the end, if somebody requests permission now, we will not grant them. We will not until our process is over.”
While Johnson appears to be a candidate for the Canucks’ newly-open GM position, Rutherford clarified that the team did not have their sights set on one particular person. Vancouver will not limit themselves to particular individuals or particular experience levels when it comes to this search.
“What I’m saying is experience counts, but you can look at experience in different ways. When I talk about experience, you have a guy that’s been a GM in the NHL for a few years, or a number of years, that’s an experienced guy. But there are guys that haven’t been in the NHL, but they’ve done a lot of things in hockey [and] they still have experience, and that’s what we have to see in these interviews. Who is that guy? Who is that guy that we’re going to feel comfortable can continue to build this team through a rebuild and take it to the steps that need to be taken so that the team can consistently be a winning team?”
Photo Credit: @Canucks - XThe rebuild aspect will be major in Vancouver’s search for a General Manager. As Rutherford noted, the Canucks will prioritize finding the proper person to help spearhead a rebuild and help set them up for future success.
“I’ve done some studies on the teams that did rebuilds, and some of the teams I looked at — Montréal, Chicago, San Jose, Anaheim — three of those teams are already pretty much through the rebuild. Every one of those teams had a year just like the Canucks had this year. Everyone had points in the 50s. So this is not anything different from what rebuilding teams do. Now, the key is, where does it go from here? How quick does it get better and how much better next year and the following year after that? But like I’ve said a few times here, this team is positioned. It’s got the foundation and the structure to do that. And by the way, a lot of that credit goes to Patrik Allvin.”
This criteria still aligns pretty evenly with Johnson, who, as Rutherford mentioned, helped build an Abbotsford team that won the Calder Cup last June. His near-10 years of General Manager experience within the Canucks organization aligns fairly with what Rutherford says Vancouver is looking for — not necessarily NHL experience, but successful experience nonetheless. Johnson has also been present when scouting for Vancouver as of late, though this does not directly indicate that he will be next-in-line.
When discussing what the organization would like in their next GM, Rutherford also noted the importance of being familiar with analytics, which he claims he is a fan of.
“I’ve been around a long time. I’m an old-time hockey guy, and analytics come in, and lots of guys didn’t want to use it, and I did, and I believe in it. We don’t have to have a guy with an analytic background, but it’s very important to have a new GM that’s going to use the analytics, because we have a great analytics department here in the Canucks, and it’s so helpful. It makes decisions and everything so much easier.”
The duration of Vancouver’s search for a GM likely won’t be resolved for a while, though it’s likely they make their decision at least a little while ahead of the 2026 NHL Draft on June 26 and 27.
Make sure you bookmark THN's Vancouver Canucks site and add us to your favourites on Google News for the latest news, exclusive interviews, breakdowns, and so much more. Also, don't forget to leave a comment at the bottom of the page and engage with other passionate fans through our forum. This article originally appeared on The Hockey News.
Latest From THN’s Vancouver Canucks Site:
For action-packed issues, access to the entire magazine archive and a free issue, subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/free. Get the latest news and trending stories by subscribing to our newsletter here. And share your thoughts by commenting below the article on THN.com or creating your own post in our community forum.
The Hockey News