President Jim Rutherford says the interview process for the Canucks’ GM job is done

It’s been a long, thorough process.

What started with a long list of roughly 40 names was narrowed down to five in-person interviews as Vancouver Canucks president of hockey operations and general manager Jim Rutherford nears the end of his search for the club’s next general manager.

We’ve been following along closely as Rutherford narrowed his search, and although the identity of the five candidates isn’t known publicly, we do know Sean Burke, Scott Mellanby, and Patrick Allvin — who has long been believed to be the favourite to land the job — were in Vancouver for in-person interviews this past week.

Rutherford told Rick Dhaliwal of Donnie and Dhali – The Team that the club has now finished the interview process and that a decision will be made in the near future, hopefully by next week, according to Rutherford.

Allvin worked with and was promoted by Rutherford went the two were in Pittsburgh.

Mellanby worked within the Canucks organization for three years as a special consultant to general manager Mike Gillis and the hockey operations department. Mellanby then spent two years as an assistant coach with the St. Louis Blues before stepping down following the 2011-12 season.

In 2012, Mellanby was hired by the Montreal Canadiens as director of player personnel and became an assistant GM on July 30, 2014, before stepping down from the position in November of 2021.

Burke is an interesting name to say the least. After an 18 year career as a goaltender in the NHL, Burke transitioned right into organizational roles. In 2007-08, he was hired as the director of player development with the Arizona Coyotes.

He held various roles that included assistant general manager and goaltending coach, but left the club after the 2015-16 season. He joined the Montreal Canadiens as a professional scout out west, but also took on managerial roles with Hockey Canada. He’s served as the general manager of the Spengler Cup and various other international tournaments since then.

In 1997, Burke was charged in Raleigh with beating his wife and spent time in jail as a result of the incident. “We would like to deal with this situation as a family,″ Burke said in a statement issued through the Hurricanes — his club at the time. “My wife and I are taking the necessary steps to deal with this matter, and we would hope that everyone will understand and respect our need for privacy as we go forward with our lives.″

Burke has been highly regarded around the NHL for some time now. In the last number of years, he’s interviewed for GM jobs with the Edmonton Oilers, Seattle Kraken, Arizona Coyotes, and Florida Panthers.

Rutherford did add that he still has to make a final decision, but it will be interesting to see how quickly the Canucks make the announcement now that the interview process is done.