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Pierre Dorion would be a disastrous hire for the Canucks’ GM job: Canucks Conversation
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Photo credit: © Marc DesRosiers-Imagn Images
Clarke Corsan
May 5, 2026, 11:15 EDTUpdated: May 5, 2026, 11:07 EDT
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On Monday’s episode of Canucks Conversation, David Quadrelli and Harman Dayal discussed why Pierre Dorion would be an awful hire for the Vancouver Canucks’ vacant general manager position.
The conversation comes after reports that Dorion was in Vancouver and interviewed for the role, which has raised eyebrows given his track record with the Ottawa Senators.
Quads started by emphasizing that not all interviews should be viewed equally, especially at this stage of the process.
“What matters here is who gets in-person interviews; who is the owner flying out on his dime to come take an interview in Vancouver?” Quads said. “Those are the candidates you’re serious about. The important verbiage here is; did the Canucks fly out Dorion for this interview or was he just in town and got himself an interview? That matters to me,” he said. “I’m hoping in Dorion’s case- he’s not a serious contender. I think he’d be an awful choice for the Canucks.”
Harm echoed some of that concern, pointing to the lack of follow-up reporting after the interview took place.
“It worries me that Monday morning has come and gone and nobody reported that he’s out of the running,” Harm said. “If that was the case, I would’ve expected it come out Sunday night he was interviewed in person, then by Monday you hear that he’s not really a serious contender… we know how much executives like to campaign and get their name out there — that’s not just a conspiracy theory, that sort of thing happens in the sport — but the fact it hasn’t been outright refuted yet, the fact that nobody has poured cold water on it, it worries me a bit.”
Beyond the optics of the interview itself, the guys focused on Dorion’s body of work in Ottawa.
“We’re not going to know all the ins-and-outs of what everybody has done in an NHL front office; it’s impossible to know,” Quads said. “However, we are able to look at what a past GM has done and say, that was not a good tenure. When he took over in 2016, it was very Jim Benning-esque and you’ll hear a lot of those comparisons.”
Harm took that comparison a step further, breaking down both the positives and the major concerns.
“Let’s call a spade a spade; he’s a slightly polished version of Jim Benning,” Harm said. “When you look at the things Dorion did well they line up with what Benning did; nail some of the first-round picks – not all of them.”
Harm pointed to Dorion’s 2020 draft as a clear high point.
“His best work was that 2020 draft where they had the third and fifth overall pick,” Harm said. “He nailed both those selections with Stützle  and Sanderson — there’s your first line centre and number one defenceman.”
But those successes are outweighed by poor asset management.
“When you go through his asset management it’s nothing short of disastrous,” Harm said. “He traded away a 22-year-old Mika Zibanejad and a second-rounder for Derick Brassard… once Zibanejad got to New York, he was a 1C for a decade, and those are the hardest to acquire.”
“He also basically did the reverse of the Erik Karlsson trade — his one good move that landed them Stützle — when he traded for Matt Duchene,” added Quads.
“He traded Mark Stone for Erik Brannstrom and a second round pick,” said Harman. “I get it, Mark Stone wasn’t going to re-sign there and it was a trade you had to make, but if you know a player isn’t going to re-sign, why wait till he’s a deadline rental? And even with that context in mind, Brannstrom ended up being a bust and just a second round pick for an elite first line winger, that’s criminal.”
That pattern of mismanaging assets became a recurring theme throughout Dorion’s tenure.
“The worst part of Dorion’s tenure in Ottawa was that he’d take a couple of these big swings for players they weren’t able to re-sign and then were forced to trade those guys for pennies on the dollar,” Harm said. “Which completely wrecked their pool of picks and assets.”
For Quads, that history runs directly counter to what the Canucks should be prioritizing in their next hire.
“His track record suggests he’s the furthest thing from what this organization should be looking for in their next GM,” Quads said. “A guy who took shortcuts, whiffed on his big swings. It would be a disastrous hire and there’s no way to put a positive spin on that.”
You can watch the full segment below!

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