After Vancouver Canucks’ president of hockey operations and interim general manager Jim Rutherford reportedly returned home to Carolina for the holidays, the club’s search for their next general manager is beginning to heat up.
Rutherford has been very open about how he wants to fill the GM position in the near future, preferably before making any tweaks to the club’s current roster.
Last week, Rutherford spoke about the club’s trade plans, the idea of shaking things up, and Elias Pettersson’s struggles. You can read that story by clicking here.
Most notably, Rutherford said that any trade the Canucks make will be with an eye on the future.
“We need to get better in certain places so we can grow into a consistent playoff team and grow into a contender,” Rutherford said. “And because of that, with the trades that we make going forward, if we make trades, it’d be for draft picks, it’ll be for younger players, so we can bring this team together hopefully within a year or two, to be that consistent playoff team.”
One thing that’s become increasingly clear as names of potential candidates to fill the role come out is that it likely won’t be a big name who’s hired into the role.
Rutherford clearly wants the Canucks to take a collaborative approach to decision making, but still wants to have the final say on decisions.
Thus, it’s no surprise he wants to go with somebody he knows and trusts, and perhaps explains why the decision to name a GM is taking a little bit longer than some may have expected.
Yesterday, Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli gave the latest on the Canucks’ GM search.
“I believe there are five people on Jim Rutherford’s list for that GM opening. One of them, and I believe the front runner for the job, is Patrick Allvin from the Pittsburgh Penguins. He worked with Jim Rutherford of course in Pittsburgh for a while, developing that rapport and that relationship. I think he’s going to be a candidate that really stands out among the rest.I think Jim Rutherford is anxious and interested to move forward and get someone in this position so he can begin to make tweaks together with that GM… This person is going to have to be someone that the Aquilinis are comfortable with as well. So that process is going to unfold, I believe beginning next week. And I think that we will have a general manager hired for both of these positions in Montreal and Vancouver before the end of the month. I wouldn’t be surprised to see it shape up here in the next couple of weeks.”
Rutherford promoted Allvin to Pittsburgh Penguins Director of Amateur Scouting in 2017.
“We are very fortunate to have Patrik on our staff to make this an easy transition,” Rutherford said at the time. “He is a terrific judge of talent, and he has the leadership qualities to lead our amateur scouting department into the future.”
A native of Sweden, the 47-year-old Allvin joined the Penguins as a European scout in 2006-07, and was promoted to head scout in 2012.
Another name who Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet advised to be on the lookout for during a recent appearance on Donnie and Dhali – The Team is Scott Mellanby.
Friedman did admit, however, that Allvin appears to have the inside track on the job at this point in time.
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.
