Moments after Lady Luck once again turned her back on the Vancouver Canucks in Tuesday’s National Hockey League Draft Lottery, President of Hockey Operations Jim Rutherford met the media at Rogers Arena.

While the biggest news was Rutherford announcing his imminent departure from his day-to-day duties at the top of the hockey club’s food chain, as usual, there was no shortage of news items to come from his availability. Here are eight takeaways from Jim Rutherford’s media address late Tuesday afternoon:

Putting a positive spin on dropping in the draft lottery

Even though probability suggested the Canucks would wind up third, the organization had high hopes heading into Tuesday’s dance of the ping pong balls. Rutherford didn’t show any hints of frustration, instead opting to see the positives in a last place finish and the third pick overall. “With the disappointment of all the excitement of picking number one, picking number three is still going to be a great building block for the Vancouver Canucks.”

New GM in place sometime next week

While he wouldn’t put a hard-and-fast timeline on it, Rutherford said that he hoped the Canucks would make their final decision and have their new general manager in place “sometime next week.”

Interviewed a lot of people

Rutherford confirmed the Canucks had interviewed more than 15 candidates. He said he didn’t have an exact number, so he wasn’t sure if it was 17 or maybe 18 – he said he didn’t have his notebook in front of him – but he knew that the hockey club had spoken to more than 15 people interested in the job. “A good cross-section of people in the hockey world,” he said.

The short list is now short

Rutherford confirmed the club has whittled the list of candidates for the GM job to five. He said it’s as extensive a search as he’s ever been a part of. He said the club had gained lots of information and heard plenty of good ideas. He acknowledged it’s going to be a difficult decision from here.

The final structure of new front office still unclear

It was interesting to hear Rutherford suggest the final structure of the new front office the Canucks are assembling wasn’t completely ironed out yet. “We’re still working on that with the people that we have an idea that would be good at it. How exactly that structure is we’ll be able to announce when the GM is announced.” When asked if he was expecting the Canucks would have a president to replace him, he offered: “That has not been decided yet. We’ll have to see how that plays out.”

No answer yet from Patrik Allvin about remaining with the organization

Rutherford said he had spoken to former GM Patrik Allvin on Monday and that no definitive answer had been given about Allvin’s interest in staying with the club in a new capacity. Rutherford went on to give Allvin credit for his draft work in the past and said that the hockey club had reports that Allvin had filed from earlier this season, and those will be considered as the team finalizes its draft list.

Open to trading down in the draft

Rutherford said the idea of trading back in the draft would depend on how creative the new general manager is. He asked rhetorically if the new man in charge would want to “play that game,” where you get an extra pick to move down one or two spots. He underscored the sheer volume of good players at the top of the draft, suggesting that the Canucks could still land a key piece even if they moved back from the third overall selection.

Evander Kane’s future

Not surprisingly, Rutherford deferred a question about any interest the club might have in re-signing veteran Evander Kane to the new general manager. But he then went on to talk about the good vibes all the young players in the room brought to the mix and how there is a good group of veteran players already in the locker room to mentor the young players. He certainly didn’t sound like a guy looking to bring Kane back, but he didn’t come right out and rule it out when given the chance on Tuesday.

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