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JPat: Disastrous 2025 trade deadline the beginning of the end for Allvin as Canucks GM
Vancouver Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin speaks to media.
Photo credit: Vancouver Canucks
Jeff Paterson
Apr 17, 2026, 12:00 EDTUpdated: Apr 17, 2026, 11:13 EDT
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Two years ago this week, Patrik Allvin was basking in the glow of a 50-win and 109 point season that had his Vancouver Canucks celebrating a Pacific Division title and preparing to open the Stanley Cup Playoffs at Rogers Arena. Today, Allvin is out of work after those same Canucks finished dead last in the National Hockey League following arguably the worst season in franchise history. Life moves quickly in professional sports. 
For Allvin, the downfall appeared to start in the minutes leading up to a disastrous 2025 trade deadline when the Canucks, already slipping from the NHL playoff picture, stood pat and failed to part with pending unrestricted free agents Brock Boeser, Pius Suter, and Derek Forbort. More than that, though, Allvin fumbled and stumbled through an agonizing post-deadline media availability seemingly belittling Boeser by suggesting the loyal and long-serving Canuck had little or no trade value around the NHL.
While Allvin retained his job for another 13 months, it felt like everything he did from that point forward basically dug his grave as the Canucks’ general manager.
Allvin made an ill-advised trade with Edmonton to acquire Evander Kane. Essentially, the Canucks took on the final year of Kane’s contract instead of applying that money in an attempt to keep Pius Suter, who bolted last summer. 
Allvin then seemed to panic to re-sign the same Boeser he couldn’t trade to a lengthy and lucrative contract on July 1st. 
That same day, he also rushed into significant contract extensions for both Conor Garland and Thatcher Demko long before either of them needed a new deal. In the case of Demko, the prudent play surely was to wait to see if the oft-injured goaltender could stay healthy. He could not.
And then as the Canucks opened training camp in September, they did so with a shocking lack of NHL depth at the centre ice position and placed a hope bet that Filip Chytil – he of a long history of head injuries – would somehow defy the odds and be a regular contributor. That lasted six games. And from that point forward, the Canucks began the long march to the bottom of the league standings.
Allvin parted with a draft pick to acquire natural winger Lukas Reichel and for reasons still unclear, the Canucks felt that he could be an adequate stop gap at centre. He was not.
The solution, of course, was to add veteran David Kampf from the scrap heap, and plug him in as the club’s second line centre. Again, a disastrous decision.
And from there, the team found itself in free fall winning two of 23 games at one stretch of the schedule from late December through early March. 
While it’s impossible to fully know how much blame to assign Patrik Allvin when his boss and President of Hockey Operations Jim Rutherford had final say on all hockey decisions, Allvin has to wear his part in the rapid decline of the hockey club. And today, he paid the ultimate price. 
Perhaps he was a sacrificial lamb. An easy scapegoat for the man still employed above him. But after the season that was, change had to happen. The Canucks could not sell the same management group to a fan base growing increasingly frustrated with the on-ice product and a customer base demanding more be done to provide evidence that this is a modern front office prepared to compete in a complex and rapidly changing economic environment. Moving out Patrik Allvin alone doesn’t exactly change many of those questions. 
But just hours after the end of a 25-win and 58 point season change has arrived in the management suite at Rogers Arena. 
And for Patrik Allvin it just feels like there was never really any way he was going to overcome a bungled 2025 trade deadline. After that, it was slippery slide to the bottom and ultimately out the side door.
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