Jim Rutherford met with the media to discuss the Vancouver Canucks‘ path forward after the club fired GM Patrik Allvin on Friday morning.

Rutherford dove into a number of topics, but one big one was the Canucks’ search for a new general manager, which Rutherford said will commence on Monday with a round of Zoom calls. Rutherford did say that the Canucks feel they have a great candidate in Ryan Johnson, and dismissed claims that the Canucks blocked the Nashville Predators from interviewing Johnson for a job. Rutherford did admit, however, that the club would not grant permission for any other NHL team to interview Johnson until after their own process of filling the GM position has been completed. He also added that despite thinking highly of Johnson, he would interview multiple candidates for the role, making the Canucks’ search for a new GM as thorough as possible.

Whereas Rutherford took on more of a mentorship role for Allvin — who was a first-time GM at the time of his hiring — Rutherford suggested that the Canucks’ new GM would be given more autonomy than Allvin had during his four years as Canucks GM. Rutherford even said that the incoming GM would be given the opportunity to evaluate Adam Foote and his coaching staff, and make changes behind the Canucks’ bench if that’s what they deem necessary.

“He [the new GM] may like the current coach,” Rutherford said. “And I think, respectfully, we should give our coach that chance. We can talk about different things about what happened with the team, but as long as I’ve been in this game, this coach has been dealt the hardest hand to deal with, and this was a very difficult year. So that’s why I want to be respectful and give both the new GM and the coach the chance to see what they think of each other.”

Another interesting nugget from today was how Rutherford answered a question about his own future in Vancouver.

“When I came here, I’ve been here four full seasons now,” Rutherford said. “And when I made the commitment to come here, it was, I believe I told Francesco, two years, I’ll come here and see if I can help. And I’ve been here four years.

“I’ve got to tell you, like anybody else thinking about this team this year, I had a lot of thoughts about my future, about my future. But right now, my focus is on getting a GM and getting through the draft. And when I do that, I will think a lot more seriously about what makes sense. So I’m at least at that stage that I’m thinking about it.”